When, how and what to feed peppers for a large harvest


Urea is the main supplier of nitrogen

There are fertilizers that are popular with all gardeners. Urea can be considered such a fertilizer. The second name for urea is Urea, it is always present on the packaging of the product. The fertilizer is produced in the form of small white granules that contain a high percentage of nitrogen - 46%. Fertilizer is made from inorganic raw materials.

Fertilizer granules do not smell and quickly dissolve in water of any temperature. Liquid fertilizer solutions prepared according to the instructions can be used for root watering and foliar feeding. The fertilizer solution does not cause burns when it comes into contact with the leaves.

The restoration of nitrogen levels in pepper tissues with foliar feeding occurs within 48 hours. Before using fertilizer, find out about its features:

  • an increased concentration of urea in the soil slows down seed germination;
  • if the rules for adding urea to the soil are not followed, ammonia is formed, which can have a negative effect on tender shoots;
  • The product must be stored in an airtight container; upon contact with atmospheric oxygen, the concentration of nitrogen in the granules noticeably decreases.

Advice!
To prevent ammonium carbonate from slowing down seed germination, add urea to the soil along with potassium fertilizer. It makes no sense to use this type of nitrogen fertilizer in the fall; ammonium will be destroyed over the winter. To achieve the effect, you need to add urea immediately before planting pepper seedlings in a permanent place. Experienced gardeners apply fertilizer to the crop a week before planting, maintaining a planting depth of 8 cm.

Not all soils have the same beneficial properties. The product is more beneficial on soddy-podzolic soils with an acidic reaction. With regular watering, the fertilizer works well on gray soils. It makes sense to apply fertilizer granules on well-irrigated lands.

Mechanism of action of urea:

  • affects the rate of cell division, stimulates their growth;
  • increases the nitrogen content in the soil;
  • facilitates the absorption of nitrogen by weak plants;
  • negatively affects harmful insects.

Attention! Urea increases the acidity of the soil, so chalk is added to the soil before it is added. The deoxidizer helps restore normal acidity levels.

Mixing fertilizer with chalk or lime is not recommended. The table below shows the acceptable standards.

Properties of urea

The main source of nitrogen for peppers is urea. Its composition includes up to 46% of this element. Urea is produced in the form of white granules, highly soluble in water.

When using urea, soil oxidation occurs. However, this process is not as pronounced as when using ammonium nitrate and other substances. Therefore, urea is more preferable when caring for peppers. This applies to both watering the soil and spraying plants.

Advice! Urea works best in moist soil.

The substance does not lose its properties on any type of soil. Once in moist soil, the joint is strengthened and less susceptible to leaching. Fertilizer is sprinkled with soil to avoid nitrogen loss.

Under the influence of bacteria present in the soil, urea is converted into ammonium carbonate in a few days. This substance decomposes quickly in air. The transition process is quite slow, so the peppers have enough time to become saturated with nitrogen.

Important! Urea is stored in a dry place where exposure to moisture is excluded.

Do peppers need nitrogen?

Signs of Deficiency

You cannot do without urea when growing crops on sandy loam or loam, and other soils with low nitrogen content. Signs of a lack of an important nutrient can be seen with the naked eye. They can be listed:

  • the stems are thin and develop slowly;
  • the color of the aerial parts is pale green;
  • few inflorescences.

At any phase of development, signs of nitrogen starvation may appear, most often they occur immediately after transplantation into the soil. Urea is not the only fertilizer for peppers; ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate can be used to eliminate nitrogen deficiency.

Nitrogen deficiency in peppers can occur due to low calcium levels. Symptoms and methods for eliminating them are given in the table.

About the dangers of an overdose of nitrogen for peppers

The use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers (mineral, organic) without a specific system often leads to dire consequences. Overfed peppers become fatty and produce a large number of shoots. It’s easy to find out about overfeeding:

  • leaves are too large;
  • intense bright green color of shoots, petioles and leaves;
  • There are chlorotic spots along the perimeter of the leaves and along the veins.

Problems are not limited to external signs. What’s worse is that rapid growth exhausts the plant and weakens its immunity. Any fluctuations in daily temperature that are harmful to pepper can provoke disease.

Advice! Increase watering if peppers show signs of excess nitrogen. Feed with any fertilizer containing phosphorus.

Urea when growing pepper seedlings

There are many practice-tested recipes for feeding pepper seedlings. All of them are effective, but gardeners prefer feeding peppers with urea if the leaves of the seedlings turn pale and the stems weaken. Prepare a solution with a low nitrogen concentration for treating seedlings leaf by leaf. Add a teaspoon of urea to a bucket of water.

Other spraying recipes can help weakened seedlings:

If you want strong seedlings, start feeding the pepper with fertilizers after 2 leaves appear. This is if you grow seedlings without picking. In the second case, fertilizers are used for the first time 10 days after picking.

Here is the fertilizer recipe for the first feeding of seedlings:

  • pour a liter of water into the container;
  • add 0.5 teaspoon of urea granules;
  • pour in 2.5 ml of sodium humate.

When 2 weeks have passed, use another recipe; the fertilizer is prepared in the following sequence:

  • Pour a liter of water into the container;
  • add 0.5 teaspoon of urea;
  • Instead of sodium humate, add a teaspoon of potassium monophosphate.

By the time the seedlings are transplanted into the soil, you will have strong seedlings with seven or even 12 bright green, shiny leaves. This is if you were not lazy and looked after the pepper seedlings with due attention.

How to feed peppers during flowering in an open garden

The second time, so that flowering is consistent and a lot of ovary is formed, the plants are watered with a solution of:

  • bird droppings – 250 g;
  • manure – 500 g;
  • superphosphate – 1 tbsp. l;
  • with water – 5 l.
  • superphosphate – 1 tsp;
  • potassium nitrate – 1 tsp;
  • urea – 2 tsp;
  • for 10 liters of water.

To obtain a complete and safe fertilizing with droppings and manure, all components are mixed and infused for 5 days. If immediately after flowering the plants are fed with a 0.2% solution of calcium nitrate, there will be more ovaries and less blossom end rot. Treating the pepper with a boric acid solution (10 grams per 5 liters of water) at the same time will improve the quality of future fruits.

Fertilizing peppers in open ground

Having transplanted the seedlings into the beds, they wait 10 days until they take root in the new place, and at this time they plan a scheme for future fertilizing.

If you want your peppers to develop well, alternate fertilizers. You can use the following diagram as a basis:

  1. Feed with urea for the first time when the plants begin to grow after transplanting.
  2. Use urea a second time when most of the fruit is formed.
  3. Fertilize with superphosphate when the fruits begin to form.
  4. Use calcium nitrate to prevent blossom end rot in fruits.

Many gardeners prefer to use organic matter to replenish nitrogen in the soil. If there is fresh manure at the dacha, then the first fertilizing with urea can be replaced with cow manure infused for 5 days. Concentrated manure is diluted with 10 parts of water, the resulting slurry, and each plant is watered. Spend 1 liter of fertilizer per hole.

Fertilizing rules

  • Peppers must be watered before any feeding. Otherwise, root burns may occur.
  • You can feed only in the morning or evening hours. Or during the day in cloudy weather.
  • We carry out spraying only in dry and windless weather. We also make sure that no rain is expected after spraying.
  • Peppers should not be fed too often. Feeding every 10 to 14 days will be optimal. By the way
    , if you want to feed more often, then you need to reduce the concentration of fertilizers.
  • Fresh manure should not be used for feeding. There may be burns to the root system.
  • We use fertilizers with nitrogen only at the beginning of the season; later on, little nitrogen is needed.

Good luck to you!

We use urea when growing peppers in a greenhouse

The soil in the greenhouse is used intensively; the replenishment of nutrients in it must be carried out systematically. First of all, prepare the soil in the greenhouse. Apply some of the fertilizers containing potassium and phosphorus to the soil in the fall, and in the spring add urea to the planting holes.

Your peppers in the garden have begun to bear fruit, which means that liquid fertilizer containing all the microelements necessary for the formation of large fruits will come in handy. We prepare it, strictly observing the proposed proportions:

  • take a 10 liter bucket of warm water;
  • add 2 tablespoons of superphosphate granules;
  • add 1 tablespoon of potassium chloride crystals;
  • finish cooking with 2 tablespoons of urea granules.

Stir the liquid fertilizer until all components are completely dissolved; a small sediment may be present at the bottom of the bucket.

You can use a good recipe from infusions of mullein and chicken manure, prepared in different barrels. Urea is the main component of the recipe. Here are its proportions:

  • take a bucket of water;
  • pour in a liter of concentrated mullein;
  • add a glass of concentrated infusion of chicken manure;
  • add a tablespoon of urea.

Between nitrogen fertilizing, peppers can be fed with ash. Use it dry. Sift from combustion residues and scatter around the bushes. About a glass of natural fertilizer is used per square meter of ridge. Ash contains many useful substances, one of them is potassium. It is this that stimulates the formation of ovaries and enhances flowering.

Fertigation is a convenient technology for feeding peppers in a greenhouse

Fertigation is a type of fertilization in which fertilizer in liquid form is added to irrigation water. The technology appeared in the 70s of the last century; now it is used on an industrial scale, in vegetable gardens and greenhouses. This method of fertilizing gained particular popularity after the advent of drip irrigation equipment on sale.

Urea in the required ratio is dissolved in water and a fertilizer solution is added during watering. Automatic watering systems make it possible to regularly fertilize peppers when the owner is absent from the dacha. This significantly eases the burden of seasonal work and, thanks to nitrogen, guarantees good growth of green mass, size and number of pepper fruits.

Benefits of drip irrigation and fertigation:

  • Optimal soil moisture (80-90%) and the required concentration of nitrogen and other macro- and microelements in the soil are maintained.
  • It is easy to regulate the required volume of watering at different stages of pepper cultivation (pre-planting, planting, vegetative).
  • Saving water by supplying liquid fertilizer dosed to each pepper bush.

Reference! To get 15 kg of peppers per square meter in a greenhouse, you need to spend about 1000 l/sq.m. on watering per season. m.

What fertilizers can you feed peppers with?

You can feed peppers growing in the garden with both mineral fertilizers (fat) and organic matter. At the stage of active growth of the crop, it is recommended to use bait in the form of hydrates.

Mineral

To ensure the active growth of cultivated plants, including sweet bell peppers, summer residents use mineral nutrients.

The first feeding is carried out to provide the vegetable with potassium and nitrogen. It is preferable to use a purchased drug like Kemira-Lux or Kristalon, strictly following the instructions for use attached to it.

You can make a comprehensive mineral supplement with your own hands by mixing the following components yourself:

  • superphosphate – 3 tbsp;
  • potassium sulfate – 3 tsp;
  • ammonium nitrate – 2 tsp;
  • water – 10 l.

This mix is ​​also applicable for the second complementary feeding, but the content of components in the solution will need to be doubled.

When fruits begin to set on the bushes and during their ripening period, the vegetable is fed with potassium. Its source will be potassium monophosphate, which also contains the phosphorus necessary for pepper.

Organic

More affordable means of providing the planting with all the useful components it needs are organic fertilizers. Moreover, they are natural. Among the most popular baits of this variety is mullein.

It is obtained by dissolving manure in water in a ratio of 1:4. Poultry droppings are no less popular. It is used to nourish peppers, having previously dissolved it in water (1:10).

Experienced summer residents use a more complex composition to feed vegetables. It is made from the following components:

  • manure – 1 kg;
  • chicken droppings – ½ kg;
  • water – 10 l.

The components are mixed and left to infuse for 1 week in a warm place. The resulting feeding substance is used for irrigation, observing the consumption rate of 1 liter per 1 m² of planting.

Wood ash is also used to saturate cultivated vegetation with nutritional components. Ash infusion is especially good for foliar feeding.

Thanks to organic feeding, the growth of seedlings accelerates, green mass increases, and roots develop.

Recipes for foliar feeding with urea

Foliar feeding of peppers based on urea helps to increase productivity. Each vegetable crop has the most favorable phases for their implementation. But not all gardeners do foliar feeding as planned; a significant part use it only as an emergency aid to compensate for nitrogen deficiency.

Reference! Planned foliar feeding increases the yield of peppers by 20%.

We can list a number of factors that force gardeners to resort to foliar feeding of pepper with urea:

  • soil waterlogged due to prolonged rains;
  • acidic soil, pepper has impaired nitrogen nutrition;
  • extreme soil temperature (high, low), impairing the functioning of the root system.

Advantages of foliar feeding: rapid absorption of nitrogen, normalization of nitrogen balance, growth of leaves, increase in fruit size, and urea will be a good assistant in this.

Large-volume garden sprayers make the labor-intensive process easier. With their help you can quickly and easily process large pepper plantations. When using simple sprayers, the work of spraying leaves takes a lot of effort and time.

The first complete nitrogen fertilization on the leaf is carried out 2 weeks after transplanting pepper seedlings into the soil. It is at this time, when the phase of active growth of the vegetative mass begins, that peppers require nitrogen.

Preference should be given to urea, or more precisely, to its 2% aqueous solution. What is needed is a solution with a low nitrogen concentration. To obtain it, dissolve 20 g of fertilizer in a bucket of water. The solution is poured into the sprayer tank and the pepper plantings are treated in the evening.

The effect will only be achieved if the leaves are processed correctly. To do this, adhere to the following rules while working:

  • Spray the pepper leaves evenly and alternately on both sides. Start from the bottom tier of leaves and gradually move the sprayer to the top of the pepper.
  • Plan work for the morning - before 11:00, or for the evening - later than 17:00.
  • Do not process peppers if the air temperature is above +22 °C.
  • Do not treat leaves before or during rain.

Folk remedies for fertilizer

If it is not possible to purchase ready-made fertilizers, then at home, on the site, you can feed seedlings or adult bushes using improvised means. By mixing individual products and infusing solutions, you can qualitatively fertilize vegetables. You can water the soil with your own prepared mixtures and spray the foliage. Learn about popular methods for creating natural nutritional blends for bell and hot peppers.

Nettle infusion

Often, gardeners resort to preparing a nutritional composition based on young nettles, the stems of which have not formed seed material. For starter culture, use healthy, undamaged plants. The fertilizer is prepared as follows:

  1. Take a 10-liter bucket, which is more than half filled with nettle greens.
  2. Press the plants into containers, fill with water, add 40 g of yeast (this will help speed up the fermentation process). Mix everything thoroughly.
  3. Place several stones on the compressed mass, which will serve as an imitation of a press.
  4. After 2 weeks, stir the starter. Subsequently, stir the mixture every 3 days.
  5. The readiness of the starter is indicated by the nettles falling to the bottom of the container. As a rule, fertilizer can be applied after 18 days.

Nourish the roots and foliage of peppers with nettle infusion every 10 days: adhere to this recommendation regardless of the schedule for applying other compounds. A nutritious starter made from nettle will help in the development of plants and the formation of fleshy, juicy fruits. The composition is suitable for both sweet and hot peppers. You can prepare a nutritious mixture based on nettles with bread and dandelions. The starter is made not only according to the indicated method, but also through methane fermentation, when the container with the mixture is hermetically covered with polyethylene and left for 2 weeks.

Fertilizing peppers with yeast

At different stages of culture development, it is customary to use yeast. They promote the growth of seedlings, give foliage a healthy color, protect against pests and diseases, and help in the formation of large fruits. The classic recipe uses 200 g of yeast, 5 liters of water. The mixture is prepared and used as follows:

  1. Mash 200 g of yeast with 1 tbsp. l. Sahara.
  2. Mix the dry mass with 5 liters of water, leave for 2 hours in a warm place.
  3. Take 1 part of the solution, add 10 parts of water. Pour the mixture over seedlings or adult peppers: for 1 young plant take 0.5 liters of liquid, for an adult bush - 1 liter of solution.

If you have chicken droppings or ash, then use a popular recipe. The nutritional mixture is prepared and applied as follows:

  1. Mix 2 tbsp. bird droppings with 2 tbsp. wood ash, 1/3 tbsp. sugar, 100 g yeast.
  2. Leave the mixture to sit for 2 hours.
  3. Mix the composition with 10-12 liters of warm water, use as directed.

Wood ash and ash infusion

This component protects against pests and diseases, improves the taste of vegetables, and replenishes the lack of potassium in plants. Add ash to the holes when planting seedlings, scatter it on the ground during the growing season of plants. Remember that almost the entire periodic table is present in ash, which is why it is so useful for vegetables. Use the additive in dry form and prepare nutrient solutions from it. The following ground dressing options are popular:

  1. Sprinkle dry ash on the areas where plant roots are located.
  2. Prepare the ash infusion: mix 500 g of ash with 10 liters of water, leave to infuse for 3-5 days (stir the liquid periodically during preparation).
  3. Make a starter for better formation of ovaries from 1 kg of nettle, 1 kg of mullein, 1 tbsp. wood ash. Leave the mixture for a week. Dilute 1 liter of infusion in 1 liter of water. Water each flowering bush with this infusion.

Proper preparation of compost

If you grow peppers in your beds, then you need good compost. It is no secret that crops grow better on loose soil that allows both water and air to pass through well. You can improve the soil structure with rotted sawdust or compost.

You can prepare it yourself. Fresh sawdust cannot be added to the soil; it makes the soil unsuitable for growing any plants. Make the right sawdust, use the following recipe for this:

  • lay sawdust in layers;
  • Water each layer of sawdust with a urea solution (dissolve 200 g of fertilizer in a bucket of water);
  • wet the layers well;
  • cover the pile with cellophane;
  • shovel sawdust once every 2 weeks.

We saw that the color of the sawdust became almost black, which means they are ready for use. Adding such sawdust enriched with nitrogen fertilizer will not only improve the structure of the soil, but will also replenish the nitrogen concentration in it.

A constant level of soil moisture is an important condition for a good pepper harvest. Sawdust mulch will help retain moisture in the soil. It is good to soak the sawdust with a fertilizer solution containing nitrogen; urea is suitable for this. You need to pour 60 g into a bucket of water.

Microorganisms that process sawdust will use the nitrogen contained in the soil, depleting it. And if you water the sawdust with nitrogen fertilizer (urea), the balance will not be upset. The sawdust will rot, the moisture will not evaporate, and the peppers will not get sick.

Timing: when to feed

The first thing you need to pay attention to is the timing of planting. Regardless of the type of pepper, it is grown only through seedlings.

Pepper seedlings are planted in open ground at the end of May . The age of seedlings is at least 45 days, preferably 50-60 days from the date of sowing. No fertilizers or stimulants can replace the required amount of light and heat. Thread seedlings do not take root well in open plantings, even with maximum care and nutrition.

Within 10 days, the pepper plot is prepared for planting seedlings. The beds are dug up and gentle organic matter or mineral mixtures are added to the soil.

After transplantation (after 10-15 days), if necessary, the rooted bushes are fed with nitrogen, potassium and magnesium fertilizers.

During flowering and fruit set, complex fertilizers (potassium, calcium, nitrogen) are used.

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