How to properly plant peppers in a polycarbonate greenhouse: nuances of planting and care

General recommendations

To grow a plant in an indoor garden you need:

• Prepare the soil, fertilize, apply phosphorus fertilizer. Then humus in proportions of 10 liters. solution per 1 sq.m.

Manure cannot be used! In pepper it causes a decrease in yield.

• Before planting small seedlings, warm up the greenhouse and the ground using natural heat and heaters.
• Seedlings survive better if the seeds are grown in glasses with peat.
• Peppers in a greenhouse require care. It is important to follow the recommendations for watering, feeding, and seating chart.

Planting peppers in a greenhouse has advantages: the thick walls of an artificial greenhouse protect the seedlings from wind, frost, and excess moisture. Double material scatters light, in this case the sun does not burn the leaves, but evenly illuminates the room.

Greenhouse and soil preparation

Growing sweet peppers in a greenhouse requires annual treatment of the structure and soil. It is imperative to remove and destroy all plant debris in the fall - spores of pathogenic organisms and larvae of pests often overwinter under them.

The greenhouse is processed:

• copper or iron sulfate;
• bleach;
• potassium permanganate;
• pine infusion (pour 0.5 buckets of needles with water and cook for 20 minutes);
• gray;
• chlorine-free bleaches (perborates).

But first, the greenhouse is ventilated, frozen, the frame is cleaned and repaired, and the transparent coating is washed. Only when all parts are in order, disinfection begins.

The solution cannot be saved - it must get into every crack; the health of all the plants that are going to be planted in the greenhouse depends on the quality of the treatment.

Maintenance activities should be completed approximately 1-1.5 months before the expected start of operation, or carried out in the fall.

The air temperature when treating the structure with all preparations, except iron sulfate, must be at least 5° C.

Sulfur fumigation completes the cleaning of the greenhouse before planting peppers and other crops. It is carried out in a respirator, the room is closed for at least 24 hours, and then ventilated for at least 2 days.

Peppers must be grown in a greenhouse in the same place every year. You can only change the beds with tomatoes, but nothing good will come of it - both crops belong to the nightshade family, and they have the same diseases. The substrate will also have to be disinfected or changed annually.

To disinfect the soil you can use:

• boiling water;
• copper-containing preparations;
• 1% potassium permanganate solution;
• 3% – nitrafen;
• 2% - carbation.

But it is best to use trichodermin, and then populate the substrate with beneficial microorganisms, for example, shed:

• Fitosporin;
• Baikal;
• Um-drugs.

Step-by-step instructions for preparing the soil:

1. At the end of the season, remove plant debris.
2. Dig up the soil, add humus and phosphorus fertilizers.
3. In spring, the soil needs to be saturated with moisture. If the region is ecologically clean and there is a lot of snow at the end of winter, you can fill the beds with it. Or later turn on the water briefly and thoroughly pour the substrate.
4. With the onset of heat, treat the soil with trichodermin or another preparation.
5. After a few days, pour in Fitosporin.
6. You can apply starting fertilizers to the entire surface of the bed when digging the soil in the spring, or to each hole for planted seedlings.

Varieties

The following types of overseas vegetables are prepared for greenhouse growing conditions:

Choosing a pepper variety for a greenhouse

Before planting peppers, you should choose the right variety. They can be early ripening or with a long ripening period, thin-walled or thick-walled. For fresh consumption, it is better to choose thick-walled varieties of pepper, such as “California Miracle” (400-500g, wall thickness 12mm), “Gift of Moldova”, “Eskimo F1 sweet” (8mm thickness), “Atlant” (low-growing variety), “ Yova" (high-yielding up to 15 kg per 1 m²) and others.

Suitable varieties for early harvest are “Ermak” (it also gives a second harvest), “Medal”, “Quinta F1”, “Fest F1 sweet” and many others. There are mid-early, mid-late and late varieties, the choice is always up to the gardener.

Hybrid pepper seeds are sold as processed preparations; they are usually colored green or another color, so they do not require preliminary preparation.

Temperature

A polycarbonate greenhouse installed in the yard provides the conditions for this due to good light transmission and heat retention inside.

To get a good harvest, you need to maintain the following temperature conditions:

• The temperature for pepper seedlings is not lower than +22°C inside the greenhouse and +14°C on the ground.
• For rapid growth, a temperature of 27-28°C is required.
• Reducing the temperature to the minimum (14-16°C) will not cause the death of seedlings, but will lead to wilting and cessation of growth.

Choosing a growing site

Bell pepper is considered an unpretentious plant, but requires attention. This is especially true when choosing a landing site. The area where the vegetable will be planted must be lit and warm (does not like drafts). You should not transplant seedlings near buildings and fences (they create shade).

There are a number of rules for good fetal development:

• The soil in the garden should be light and rich in vitamins. Therefore, when digging up a garden, you should add sawdust, sand and compost.
• Do not plant peppers in places where groundwater is close. Excess soil moisture leads to rotting of the root system and leaching of minerals.
• The acidity of the earth should not exceed 6-6.6 pH. Too low or high indicators affect further growth and taste.
• You should not transplant vegetables into beds where certain crops grew (tomato, peas, eggplant and tobacco). These species absorb large amounts of vitamins during development. Therefore, these areas are left untouched for more than 3 years.
• The best predecessors. These are cucumbers, onions, cabbage and perennial herbs.

Soil preparation

Planting pepper seedlings in a polycarbonate greenhouse requires soil preparation. The soil is refined in advance, first in the fall, then in the spring. For this:

• They dig it up, saturating it with fertilizers.

Follow the organic dose: 5 kg per 1 sq.m.

• In April-May, the site is dug up a second time and fertilizers are applied.

Add phosphorus and potassium: 40-50 g per 1 sq.m. Or humus.

• Before planting seedlings, the ground is loosened, holes are dug, and filled with water.

Warm up the beds to a minimum temperature of 15-18 °C. Better up to 23-25°C.

Do not forget to ventilate the greenhouse and periodically loosen the soil until the plants take root. This saturates the soil with oxygen and increases disease resistance.

Planting process

Two weeks before planting peppers, gardeners advise starting to harden off seedlings. To do this, take the seedlings outside first only on a sunny warm day, and in the last couple of days they leave them overnight.

Two days before planting, the plants are watered with a solution of potassium fertilizers and sprayed with Bordeaux mixture (a mixture of slaked lime and copper sulfate), which helps protect the seedlings from fungal and bacterial diseases. The mixture is prepared at the rate of 50 g per 10 liters of water.

It is better to plant seedlings in individual peat cups - there will be no problems when planting in a greenhouse - the roots are not injured during transplantation.

In cases where peppers grow in a common container, holes are prepared in the garden bed for each bush to the same depth as in pots. Water the seedlings before transplanting, allowing time to soak in. They are taken out with a spoon, without pulling by the stem, but by prying from below, in order to injure the roots and stem as little as possible.

When many extra branches form on the stems below, they are carefully cut off or torn off so that they do not take nutrients for themselves.

Important! When planting seedlings in the ground, you should not bury the root collar of the plant.

Disembarkation scheme

To know exactly at what distance you can plant peppers in a greenhouse, you need to follow the bush planting pattern. Gardeners use different methods:

Rassadny

It is considered the most popular and convenient. The distance between rows is 70-60 cm, between seedlings - from 30 to 40 cm. The taller the plant, the more space it needs. As a result, it turns out that for 1 sq.m. will accommodate from 3 to 5 bushes.

The hole is dug deep so that seedlings with a lump of earth can fit into it.

Before planting, pour 1 liter of water into the hole, wait for absorption and place the finished bush in the hole. You can put a piece of peat or humus inside the hole.

Seedless

Seeds are planted in the ground. They first develop a root system. The seeds are pre-soaked in water with fertilizers. Ash, peat, and nitrogen are added to the hole. Maintain sowing density (6 cm by 6 cm) and depth (no more than 1 cm). Shoots will appear in 14 -16 days.

For the seedless method, prepare the soil in advance, in October. Warm the soil to 22 °C.

Bush

This is a method of planting two bushes in one hole. Not suitable for greenhouses and cold climates. Plants become infected with fungi from each other and produce a reduced yield.

Planting scheme

The harvest largely depends not only on the time of planting, but also on the correct formation of the ridge.

Distance when planting seedlings

Even at the stage of choosing a pepper variety, it is worth taking into account the area and height of the greenhouse, and the method of cultivation. It is worth growing low-growing varieties in a low greenhouse, and frost-resistant varieties in open ground.

Rules for forming a ridge:

• tall varieties are placed at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other;
• low-growing varieties - 25-30 cm;
• the distance between the rows is 70-80 cm so that there is room for crown formation.

Bush formation

It is worth forming a bush in tall varieties. In short-growing plants, excess, rotting or diseased shoots are simply removed.

Follow these guidelines:

• They begin to form a bush from a height of 25-30 cm, a lower plant may die or stop developing;
• the very first bud is removed, then the plant will begin to actively grow new shoots;
• the stem is formed into several shoots, choosing strong and disease-free shoots, the rest are pinched or the tops are cut off;
• if the remaining shoots again form forks, then the same actions are repeated: stronger shoots are selected, the tops of the rest are pinched, the first buds are removed;
• everything that grows inside the bush is pruned, because they thicken the bush, not allowing it to bear fruit well;
• no more than 20 fruits are left on the bush;
• carefully monitor the appearance of rotten, light shoots, which are immediately removed so that diseases do not arise;
• when the peppers are fully grown, the buds are blooming, the fruits are forming, it is recommended to remove the main top, then the fruits will be larger and richer in taste;
• when the stem reaches a height of half a meter, the plant is tied to wooden mini-trellises;
• if the plant is tall and the height of the greenhouse allows, the stem is tied with a rope to the ceiling of the greenhouse.

Important ! At the beginning of planting, the plant will wither, drop branches and leaves, but with proper care, after a couple of days it will perk up, raise its leaves to the sun and begin to turn green with a vengeance.

How to form a bush

Pepper in a greenhouse requires care and proper formation of the bush. This will allow you to achieve a rich harvest. Competent stepsoning occurs according to the following rules:

• Agricultural work is carried out only on bushes that have grown to 25 cm.
• The crown flower (the first one) must be ruthlessly removed. This will help the vegetable develop other shoots.
• Create the skeletal base of the bush.
• To do this, powerful shoots are collected, the rest are pinched and trimmed.
• Skeletal shoots develop and a primrose appears on them. Repeat the pinching procedure again.
• Process the remaining branches using the same method.
• Remove flowers inside the bush. They interfere and reduce productivity.

This method of formation is suitable for tall plants. On low-growing plants, only sluggish, weak shoots and diseased parts need to be removed.

Look at the tips on how to properly plant peppers from Nikolai Petrovich Fursov, candidate of agricultural sciences. Please note that he advises leaving no more than 12-15 fruits on each pepper bush.

Soil preparation

Once you have chosen a location, you can begin preparing the bed for the peppers in the greenhouse. The soil needs to be dug up as well as possible, using a full shovel, and all clods must be broken, as well as parts and roots of weeds must be removed.

Photo: Preparing beds

Be sure to evaluate the soil for acidity. Considering that pepper does not like acidic soils, you need to be careful. Acidic soils must be brought back to normal condition, for which it is necessary to add either wood ash in an amount of approximately 500 g per square meter, or dolomite flour at 150 g per square meter.

In addition to the fact that wood ash and dolomite flour are able to neutralize the acidity of the soil, thereby creating optimal conditions for pepper growth and development, they are also a fertilizer.

Speaking of fertilizers, if the soil in the beds in your greenhouse is depleted, then you definitely need to add organic matter and mineral fertilizers. It is advisable to do this at least a week before planting the seedlings in a permanent place, and even better two weeks.

Photo: Application of organic fertilizers

Watering

To achieve maximum yield, you need to know how to properly water peppers in a greenhouse. Follow these guidelines:

1. Watering the planted bushes is done at the root.
2. Do not use rain irrigation. This leads to sterilization of the seedlings.
3. During flowering, do not allow the soil to dry out. The buds will wither, the fruits will be thin and small in size.
4. Prefer drip irrigation.
5. For one bush, increase the amount of water from 1 to 2 liters as it grows.
6. Do not water with cold water. It needs to be heated to a temperature comfortable for the plant, 22-24°C.
7. Carry out the work in the morning.
8. On cool days, water the pepper 2 times a week, on hot days 3-4 times.
9. You can add mineral fertilizer to the water 1-2 times a month. This will increase the plant's immunity and productivity.

Automatic irrigation system for polycarbonate greenhouse

Planting pepper seedlings in open ground or greenhouse

Planting scheme

The planting pattern is determined by the vigor of the plant's growth. Leave 70-90 cm between rows. Between bushes:

• High - 40-45 cm.

Interesting! Tall varieties are often grown in a greenhouse.

• Medium height - 30-35 cm.
• Low - 20-25 cm.

You can also use a checkerboard arrangement of plants in the garden bed, in 2 rows with a distance of 40-60 cm.

Advice! A more accurate diagram can be found on the seed package.

Step-by-step instruction

It is better to plant peppers on a cloudy day or in the evening, closer to sunset.

Advice! In order not to damage the roots of the seedlings, the seedlings are watered abundantly 1-1.5 hours before the procedure, so that later the plants can be easily removed along with a lump of earth. If the seedlings are in peat cups, then they are planted with them.

Step-by-step instructions on how to properly plant pepper seedlings:

• Dig holes.
• Fertilizers are added to each hole - humus or compost, 5-6 g of superphosphate (1 teaspoon), which are mixed with the soil so as not to burn the roots of the plants.

• For disinfection, add 1-2 tablets of Glyocladin to the well. It can be buried 1-2 cm near the plant, retreating 4-5 cm.
• Watered.
• The seedlings, together with a lump of earth, are transferred into the holes (they are buried in the same way as in seedling containers).

Important! You cannot deepen the root collar (the place where the upper lateral root comes off), otherwise the plant will get sick, for example, with blackleg.

• If the seedlings are very elongated, they can be buried in the holes up to the cotyledons.

• The seedlings are sprinkled with loose soil and compacted.
• Water 2-3 liters of water into each hole.
• When the ground settles, sprinkle the plants with soil to the desired level.
• You can mulch the pepper with hay or straw.
• In open ground, you can install a greenhouse on arcs until the weather becomes stable.

Top dressing

Many gardeners wonder what to feed peppers after planting in a greenhouse and during the period of active growth of the bush. There are several stages of introducing fertilizers:

1. 3-4 weeks after planting the seedlings in the greenhouse. Superphosphate 5 grams mixed with water 10 liters and urea 10 grams is suitable. Pour 1 liter of solution under each bush.
2. During the flowering period. Use a mixture of superphosphate (9-10 grams), potassium sulfate - 3 grams, water - 10 liters. Fertilize each bush with 1 liter of solution.
3. Harvesting. Mix phosphorus 1 tsp. and potassium 1 tsp. with 10 liras of water. 1 liter of solution is poured under each root.

Feeding requires a competent approach. Do not use chicken manure or cattle manure. They can burn the root system, disrupt metabolism, which will lead to a decrease in yield and leaf growth.

When to plant pepper seedlings in open ground and a greenhouse: optimal timing

Planting pepper seedlings can be done only after stable positive temperatures have been established and when the risk of a return of spring frosts has passed.

Important! If planted early, the seedlings may become overcooled and stop growing, which can lead to the death of the plants, or in the future they will be very sick and cannot be expected to produce a rich harvest.

Note! Peppers tolerate temperature drops only up to +5 degrees.

The soil should also warm up to +10-15 degrees per 1/2 shovel bayonet (10-15 cm). A thermometer is lowered to this depth to find out the temperature of the soil. The average daily temperature should remain within +15 degrees and above.

Important! If planted late, the yield will decrease as a result of a shorter growing period with sharp increases in temperature.

If pepper seedlings are planned to be planted in an arc greenhouse under a film, the procedure can be carried out 5-7 days earlier. Plants are transplanted into a greenhouse 10-14 days earlier than into open ground. There the soil warms up much faster.

You also need to focus on the climatic features of the region of residence and the weather conditions of this season:

• South of Russia - April 15-30.
• Middle zone (Moscow region) - May 15-30. To the greenhouse - May 1-10.
• North-West (in the Leningrad region) - June 1-10.
• Ural, Siberia – May 20 – June 10.

Proper care

Caring for greenhouse peppers is easy if you know the rules and features of care.

• Place the seedlings comfortably. Closely planted seedlings will not give a good harvest due to lack of space for the fruits and root system.
• Plant the seedlings together with peat from a cup.
• Loosen the soil 2-3 cm deep more often. Pepper loves oxygen and fresh air.
• The soil should be moist.
• Maintain a microclimate in the greenhouse of 22°C during the flowering period, 25-27°C during fruit ripening.
• Provide seedlings with plenty of light.
• Do not plant peppers in cold soil. He will die.
• Periodically inspect the leaves for beetles and parasites.
• Use fertilizer in moderation, observing proportions.
• Form the bushes in the morning so that the skeleton has time to recover.
• Tie up the bushes before the fruits begin to appear.
• Remove all limp, diseased leaves and fruits from the bush.
• Remove ripe peppercorns in a timely manner so as not to weigh down the stem.

Caring for peppers in a greenhouse

If the pepper is left without attention, or if care is taken occasionally, it will not be possible to grow marketable fruits. From planting to harvest, the crop needs constant care from the gardener. It is non-compliance with growing technology, and not low-quality seeds, that often becomes the reason why peppers do not correspond to the varietal description.

The culture needs no more than 8 hours of daylight per day. You can protect the planting with special shading nets, whitewashing the roof and side windows on the sunny side.

Watering

When grown in greenhouses and hothouses, crops require regular, even watering. Even short-term drying out of the soil is unacceptable, but constant soaking will lead to rot of the roots and stems.

The agricultural technology for growing peppers involves bottom watering; water should not fall on the leaves and ovaries during care. If the greenhouse does not have drip irrigation, you can build it from cut plastic bottles.

To retain moisture, the soil is mulched when growing crops. You can use straw, black agrofibre or lutrasteel. Small wood chips or sawdust are also suitable, but they must be completely rotted - too much heat is generated when wood rots.

Peppers should be watered with warm water at a temperature of at least 20° C in the early morning or afternoon. If drops of water remain on the leaves under the sun, they will turn into lenses, as a result - a burn, a wound surface that can easily become infected. And heated moisture in the root area will not benefit the plant.

Feeding

The care package for growing peppers must include fertilizing. Starter fertilizer is applied during planting - per 1 square meter. m need 30-40 g of superphosphate and potassium sulfate, 20 g of ammonium nitrate.

In the vegetative phase of development, the crop especially needs nitrates. Nitrogen is used to build up green mass, which will have to feed a large number of ovaries.

When the generative stage of development begins, emphasis is placed on potash fertilizers that do not contain chlorine. The crop needs phosphorus, but in small quantities; it is also impossible to completely abandon nitrogen; you should simply reduce its doses to a minimum.

Peppers need calcium at all stages of cultivation, but especially during fruiting. It should be given 2-3 days before potassium supplements, in an easily digestible form.

Lack of calcium in varieties and hybrids with long fruits leads to blossom end rot.

Plants absorb microelements better in chelated form, with foliar feeding. You can also use easily soluble complex fertilizers for spraying, preferably special ones for nightshade crops.

To get a good harvest, peppers are fed every 2 weeks when growing. The first time after transplantation - after about 10 days, when the root takes root, a new leaf will appear.

Formation of bushes

The complex of care when growing peppers in greenhouses must include the formation of a bush. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to get a decent harvest.

Before transplanting into the ground with pepper, no manipulations are carried out other than removing the bud that appears in the first fork. Even cutting off the crown of overgrown seedlings is strictly not recommended.

Formation of thick-walled Dutch hybrids:

1. All leaves and stepsons below the first fork are removed.
2. The bush is tied to the upper support.
3. Pepper is led into 2-3 trunks. The remaining stepsons pinch, leaving the bud that appears at the base, 2-3 leaves above it.
4. 1.5 months before the end of the growing season, all shoots become blind.

Low bell peppers are not formed at all. Caring for tall and medium-sized bushes involves removing shoots and leaves below the first fork that grow inward or thicken the crown of the stepsons. Only for growing especially large fruits, Bulgarian varieties are formed in the same way as Dutch hybrids.

Compatibility with other crops

Gardeners often ask the question: “Is it possible to plant several crops in one greenhouse? For example, tomatoes and peppers, cucumbers and bell peppers?” These crops are heat-loving, but their compatibility also depends on other growing conditions.

• Do not plant bell peppers in the greenhouse with hot chilies at the same time. The seedlings are pollinated.
• Planting cucumbers and peppers in the same greenhouse is not the best option for experienced gardeners. Cucumbers do not require ventilation, but peppers love fresh air. Cucumbers require heat, while peppers require moderate, constant temperatures.
• Tomatoes and peppers don't get along well together. They need different conditions in the greenhouse. Sweet vegetables need moisture, and tomatoes die from water.

Thus, it is better to plant crops in different parts of a large greenhouse or arrange an individual greenhouse for each.

Preparing the bed: what fertilizers do peppers need when planting in a greenhouse?

1. In the spring, it is appropriate to use humus or compost from organic matter in an amount of 2-3 kg per square meter of bed; from mineral fertilizers, it is advisable to use a complex fertilizer, the most universal is nitroammophoska.
2. If you have 12-14 days before planting seedlings, then you can apply this fertilizer in dry form in an amount of about 2 teaspoons per square meter of bed, if time is short, then it is better to dissolve the fertilizer in water, in fact, in any volume, the main thing is so that the volume of solution is sufficient to treat the specified area.
3. If necessary, the soil in the greenhouse can be disinfected; to do this, you need to dissolve 1 g of potassium permanganate in a bucket of water, heat the water to 85-90 degrees, pour it into a watering can and pour well on the area where you plan to grow peppers, then cover this area with plastic wrap for a day , the soil will be disinfected and warmed up well.
4. By the way, you can warm up the soil by watering it with hot water, without potassium permanganate, if its disinfection is not required. Hot water should not be boiling water, the water temperature should be within 90 degrees, then you can preserve some of the beneficial bacteria. After watering with hot water, also cover the soil with film. This will increase its temperature by 2-3 degrees for sure.

Photo: Soil disinfection

Distance between peppers when planting in a greenhouse

When the soil in the greenhouse is completely ready for planting peppers, you need to mark out the beds. The beds for peppers should not be made too wide; a width of 80 cm is sufficient, so the plants will be easy and simple to care for. Leave 30-40 cm of free soil between the rows so that the plants do not shade or oppress each other.

Scheme of planting peppers in a greenhouse

When planting varieties in several rows, try to plant low-growing varieties along the edge of the bed, and tall ones in the center, so that tall varieties do not shade low-growing cultivars. If there are also medium-growing ones, then plant low-growing ones at the edge, then medium-growing ones, and then tall ones.

The distance between plants should also vary based on the strength of their growth, so tall varieties should be planted at a distance of about 35 cm from each other, medium-growing ones - 40 cm, low-growing ones 25-30 cm.

Photo: Planting peppers

When can you plant peppers in a greenhouse?

Pepper seedlings can be planted when optimal conditions for the growth and development of these plants have been formed in the greenhouse. So, the temperature in the greenhouse should not fall below 10 degrees Celsius at night, and the soil should be heated at a depth of 10 cm to 18 degrees. Typically, in an unheated greenhouse, such conditions are created in April-May.

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More on the topic

How to create a favorable climate for growing vegetables in a greenhouse

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Diseases

A thorough analysis of the greenhouse microclimate and an external inspection will help you find out why peppers grow poorly in a greenhouse and why they turn yellow. Most often, fungi and infections affect plants that are in a poorly ventilated area or flooded with water.

The main diseases of peppers are:

• Mosaic. Leaves lose transpiration and yields decrease.
• White rot. Plaque forms on the root part, the death of seedlings occurs in 3-4 days. The reason is high humidity, rare ventilation of the greenhouse.
• Late blight. Holes appear on the leaves, dark purple spots on the fruits and crown. The culprit is considered to be a cold snap at night and excess moisture.
• Black spot. The leaves and peppercorns become covered with tubercles, which turn black, causing the death of the plant.

They fight infections by sprinkling the damaged areas with charcoal or chalk. It is important to establish an irrigation regime and constantly maintain a comfortable atmosphere inside the greenhouse. Immediately remove diseased bushes away from healthy ones, and don’t hesitate to throw them away. This will help keep yields high.

Growing seedlings

The most important stage is the proper cultivation of pepper seedlings. Both the yield and the quality of the grown fruits directly depend on how well the sprouts are accepted and how the plant develops. After all, no one wants to receive small, inconspicuous peppers that have been “beaten” by any diseases or suffered from soil starvation.

Selection of soil and container

Without good soil there will be no good harvest. Therefore, you need to choose and prepare the soil with full responsibility, and then the planted seedlings will fully grow and develop.

What you need to know about the soil for sweet pepper seedlings:

1. The soil substrate must be loose and fertile. Poor soils, as well as clayey, dense, poorly breathable and impermeable soils, are not suitable for pepper. The seedlings will quickly wither and the roots will rot.
2. It is necessary to pay attention not only to the consistency of the soil, but also to possible inclusions. The soil should not contain visible plant debris in the form of parts of roots and seeds of other plants, or larvae of insect pests. Another thing is that the soil should not contain other harmful inclusions that are indistinguishable to the naked eye - fungi, bacteria, etc.
3. Peppers are southern plants and love warmth. But they cannot live without moisture. Therefore, the soil should be moderately moist.

The easiest way is to purchase the required substrate at a specialized retail outlet. But if you wish, you can “make” it yourself. To do this you need to acquire:

• humus (peat);
• river sand;
• garden (turf) soil.

Vegetable growers recommend supplementing this mixture with wood ash (1 cup), superphosphates (30-40 g), potassium sulfate and urea (15 g each) per bucket (10 l). If the mixture was purchased ready-made, just add a little wood ash. Everything else is already there.

Of course, all components must be disinfected; to do this, the soil is heated in a water bath, and then slightly dried. When making your own soil for seedlings, you need to mix the ingredients, then sift them on a fine sieve so that the soil is enriched with oxygen. When the prepared soil dries out and is moderately moist, you can sow the seeds.

The containers used are:

• peat pots and tablets;
• organic cups;
• small plastic dishes (from yogurt, etc.);
• special cassettes and boxes with cells.

The inorganic container must be disinfected before filling with soil using a disinfectant solution, after which it is washed.

The main determining factor in choosing dishes for seedlings is the need for picking. For peppers, this procedure is not mandatory; moreover, experienced vegetable growers strongly do not recommend disturbing the root system of seedlings and devoting a whole liter of soil (or at least 0.5 liters) to each plant. At the same time, 3 seeds are planted in each container at a distance of 2 cm. In any case, it will be better if the seedlings grow in individual containers so that the roots are not damaged during transplantation.

Seed preparation

If homemade sweet pepper seeds are used for planting, it is better to disinfect them using a solution of potassium permanganate (2%). In order for the seeds to be healthy and germinate faster, they are treated with special solutions. Zircon and Energen have proven themselves to be the best.

Pepper seeds purchased in bags do not need to be disinfected. And if they are gelled or panned, i.e. already placed in a nutritious and protective shell ahead of time, no processing is needed for them.

By the way, the seeds of this nightshade crop lose their viability quite quickly. Therefore, there is no need to buy them in excess. And if you have already bought it, it is better to check it for germination in advance.

The hardening process takes a little more than a day. First, the seeds are soaked in moderately hot (about 50°C) water for 15 minutes, after which the gauze in which the seeds are located is wrung out and placed together with the planting material in the freezer of the refrigerator for a day.

Another option for hardening is to keep the seeds on gauze in a plate with warm water during the day for a week, and place them in the refrigerator at night.

Sowing

The soil or peat container for sweet pepper seedlings should be slightly moistened and compacted. The best way to moisturize is to spray the soil. You need to make a hole in the middle, the depth of which will allow you to place the sprout with the root system there.

It is important to remember that shortening the central root and any damage to it is unacceptable for sweet peppers. When a pepper sprout sinks into a hole in the soil substrate, it is necessary to ensure that the central root is not deformed, and the height of the cotyledon leaves above the ground should be 1-2 cm. After planting, the soil around the sprout is carefully squeezed and watered with settled water at room temperature. You can add biostimulants (for example, HB-101) to water for irrigation.

Seedling care

Drying out the soil is unacceptable, even for a short period. It is necessary to water the seedlings in the morning, abundantly, but make sure that there is no waterlogging. If you accidentally pour too much water into a container with seedlings, you need to immediately drain the excess moisture and dry the soil. An over-moistened substrate will cause the roots to rot.

At first, the sprouts are watered once every 2-3 days, and when real leaves appear (2-3), the seedlings need daily watering. At the same time (or 14 days after germination) make the first fertilizing with the following solution (based on a 10-liter bucket of water):

• ammonium nitrate (10 g);
• potassium sulfate (15 g);
• superphosphate (25 g).

The same solution is used for the second feeding 2 weeks before planting in the greenhouse. It should be remembered that after fertilizing is done, the seedlings must be watered, and if the nutrient solution gets on the leaves, they must be washed.

Sowing pepper seeds for seedlings: video

Answers to frequently asked questions

How to grow pepper seedlings so that there is no stress on the plants during transplantation?

The ideal option is to sow seeds immediately in a heated greenhouse. In this case, you can get down to business from February 20 to March 10.

What is the cheapest way to disinfect the soil in a greenhouse before planting peppers?

In order to avoid the development of fungus, you can spill the soil with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Chemical fungicides should be used for extensive lesions.

What to do with last year's seeds, can they be planted?

You can, but then you need to let the seeds germinate and soak them in a growth stimulator.

How to plant

Peppers are planted in a greenhouse in the evening or in cloudy weather. If the operation is forced to be carried out on a sunny day, the bushes after planting are shaded with white non-woven material.

The planting scheme depends on the size of adult varietal plants. Low-growing varieties are placed at a distance of 30 cm in a row and 50 cm between rows. Tall ones are planted every 40 cm in a row, row spacing is 60-80 cm.

What to put in the hole:

Add 1 tbsp to each well. l. complex mineral fertilizer for vegetables.

Peppers are transplanted using the transshipment method, carefully removing the seedling from the pot without destroying the earthen ball. Do not water the soil before planting. It is more convenient to replant in loose and moderately moist soil.

Do not bury the pepper stem into the soil! This can lead to rotting of the stem.

There is no need to deepen pepper seedlings, so planting holes were dug according to the size of the earthen ball. The interval between holes was maintained at 40 cm. 15 peppers were placed on a ridge measuring 0.6 * 6 m.

Protecting pepper seedlings from frost

How to protect planted seedlings from frost? I usually install arcs and cover the seedlings with spunbond or lutrasil - a lightweight covering material. By the way, you don’t have to install arcs, because the material is light enough, it won’t break the plants, and besides, the seedlings are in a greenhouse, which means there won’t be any wind here.

In this way, we will protect our seedlings not only from frost, but also from short-term cold snaps. And we already know that pepper does not feel very comfortable at air temperatures below +10°C.

Preparing seedlings

The day before transplanting the seedlings into the ground, it is necessary to water the container generously. This will make it easier to remove the pepper without damaging the root and stem. In order for the plant to be hardened to temperature changes, several steps should be followed:

1. Move the seedlings to a windowsill or balcony with open windows (initially for 30 minutes, increasing the time daily by 2-3 hours). In cold weather, leave the plant in the fresh air for no more than 15 minutes, do not expose the pepper to direct sunlight (dehydration of the foliage occurs).
2. Every 5-7 days, spray the plant with a fungicidal solution, for example, Fitosporin, which prevents diseases. Be sure to follow the dosages indicated in the instructions for use.

How to plant pepper seedlings correctly

We water each hole with water and potassium permanganate and begin planting.

Plants grown in 500 gram seedling pots have a well-developed root system. When planting, we do not bury pepper seedlings, because when picking, we have already buried them to the seven-lobed leaves.

Early ripening low-growing varieties, for example, Winnie the Pooh, are planted at a distance of 20-25 cm from each other in three rows.

Then we will plant medium-sized varieties, such as Tenderness and Lastochka. To do this, we mark our bed into two rows. We dig holes as deep as the bayonet of a shovel, and the distance between them is 25-35 cm. Of course, we also add organic matter here - compost, rotted manure or a mixture of both. By the way, you can also add a little (a handful) of wood ash. Ash is generally an ideal fertilizer not only for peppers, but also for many garden crops. Before planting seedlings, do not forget to thoroughly water the holes with a pink solution of potassium permanganate. It’s not bad if the solution is warm, even hot.

The planting depth for medium-growing varieties is the same as for low-growing varieties. That is, we do not bury the seedlings, but try to plant them at the depth of the pot. The moment of planting seedlings is stressful for the plants, but if we did everything correctly, you will not notice any signs of wilting.

If you are transplanting seedlings in hot weather, the plants should be shaded, for example, with newspaper. In general, planting should best be done early in the morning or in the afternoon, towards evening.

When planting seedlings of tall varieties, we also mark the bed into two rows, but we will leave a distance of at least 40-50 cm between the plants. We try to make the holes for these varieties deeper, because these varieties and hybrids will require more nutrition. They will require much more compost and rotted manure - 1/3 of a bucket for each hole.

Gardening tips

New gardeners are often lost, not knowing where to start and how to further care for the planted peppers. In addition to what is described in the article, you should pay attention to the following points:

1. When purchasing seeds, be sure to check the necessary growing conditions. Today, special varieties of pepper, mainly hybrids, have been bred for the greenhouse. As a rule, these are tall plants that require support.
2. If the pepper was grown without picking, the age of the seedlings at the time of transplantation should be 50 days, with picking - 60 days.
3. Pepper seeds are sown quite early, so the seedlings require additional lighting. Only in this case will the seedlings be strong and stocky.
4. When purchasing, also give preference to compact seedlings with 6-12 leaves. Overgrown plants take root with difficulty and later begin to bear fruit.
5. Quality seedlings should have dark green leaves without signs of damage and developing buds.
6. Before planting seedlings in a greenhouse, it is useful to treat them with a growth stimulator (Epin, Energen). The treatment will speed up the survival of plants, reduce stress caused by transplantation, and increase the immunity of pepper.
7. When preparing the soil in a greenhouse in the fall, it is necessary to replace the top layer with a fresh fertile layer 7-10 cm thick.
8. When planting, pepper should not be buried too deep; this will slow down its development.
9. Once a week, the pepper leaves are inspected to determine whether it has enough nutrition. Potassium deficiency can be identified by curling of the leaves. Phosphorus deficiency will cause the back of the leaves to turn purple. If the foliage turns gray, the plants are not getting enough nitrogen.
10. To get larger fruits, experienced gardeners normalize the number of ovaries, leaving from 15 to 25 on each bush (depending on the variety).
11. 30 days before the end of the growing season, it is recommended to pinch the tops of the plants so that the pepper redirects its forces to ripening the fruits.