And provide the necessary conditions for growing sweet peppers.
Temperature conditions for growing sweet peppers
Pepper is a heat-demanding crop. Seeds begin to germinate at temperatures not lower than +13°C, but only a few seedlings appear in certain varieties. However, at this temperature, the processes of swelling and awakening of seeds to growth are extremely slow and seedlings appear only on the 18-25th day after sowing, and sometimes later. Only a temperature of +25°C ensures uniform seed germination and emergence of seedlings in 7-9 days.
The optimal air temperature for 4-7 days after emergence is +14-16°C during the day, +8-10°C at night, and then during the day in sunny weather the temperature is maintained at +25-27°C, in cloudy weather - +18-20°C, at night reduced to +13-15°C. Plants in “infancy” up to 50-60 days are especially sensitive to changes in temperature. In the future, pepper grows and develops best at a temperature of +22-30°C.
Pepper plants are very sensitive to sub-zero temperatures. They die at frosts of -0.3-0.5°C. Excessively hot weather is also unfavorable for them, especially in combination with a lack of moisture in the soil and air. At temperatures above +35°C, plants are depressed and buds and flowers fall off. The conditions of summer heat during the flowering period are especially unfavorable.
Temperature conditions are closely related to light intensity. In low light conditions (cloudy weather, night), the air temperature should be lower than on clear sunny days.
Under the influence of the climatic conditions of their homeland, pepper plants have developed a very high requirement for soil and air moisture. This can be explained by the relatively limited spread of the root system and the high need for water for transpiration and crop formation.
How to water bell peppers correctly
Water requirements vary significantly depending on the age of the plants. In the first period of their life (before the onset of fruit formation), no more than 8-10% of total water consumption is required. In the future, this figure increases significantly.
When growing peppers on clay soils, it is advisable to maintain soil moisture at 80-90% of the LW (lowest moisture capacity). On loamy and sandy loam soils, irrigation should be carried out when the humidity is reduced to 70% HB in a layer 30 cm deep.
Watering is carried out regularly. Optimal soil and air humidity enhances fruit formation, increases the commercial quality of fruits, and reduces the incidence of plant diseases.
The critical period of water requirement is long, from the beginning of the appearance of the first buds to the setting of fruits, 1.5-2 months. Seedlings grown with a lack of moisture - stunted, weak, with a small number of leaves - do not take root well. Yields are low, the fruits are small, deformed, and susceptible to blossom end rot.
Plants react negatively to both soil drying out and waterlogging. In the first case, they suffer from an excessive increase in the concentration of salts in the soil solution. When waterlogging occurs, the activity of growth processes decreases due to a lack of oxygen in the soil. Overmoistening of the soil has a particularly adverse effect on young plants (the first 3-4 weeks after germination). Under such conditions, organic acids and alcohols accumulate in the roots, which leads to a deterioration in the supply of nitrogen and the synthesis of amino acids.
Similar phenomena also occur when cold water (below +15°C) is used for irrigation in hot weather, when the air and soil temperature rises above +30°C. Under such conditions, severe wilting of plants is often observed.
Pepper is very demanding on air humidity. Insufficient water vapor content in the air, especially in hot weather, causes excessive suppression of plants and even the falling of flowers and young ovaries. A relative air humidity of at least 70% is considered favorable for pepper.
Pepper is very light-loving. When shaded, buds and ovaries fall off, leaves turn yellow, and vegetative organs become fragile and very brittle. With a lack of light, most plants never begin their reproductive period and fruits do not set.
For normal plant development, a short (12-14 hour) day is required. Moreover, various varieties begin to respond to short days only from 20-30 days of age. A short day accelerates the development of plants, causes earlier flowering and earlier formation of fruits. It has no effect on plants older than 60 days. The effect of a shortened day is manifested only in conditions of high air and soil temperatures. Late-ripening varieties respond more strongly to shortened days than early-ripening varieties originating from temperate latitudes.
Necessary soil for growing sweet peppers
Pepper plants are also very demanding on soil fertility. They grow and bear fruit very poorly on heavy, clayey, cold soils with a high groundwater level. High acidity of the soil is also unfavorable for them. The optimal reaction of the soil solution is within the pH range of 6.0-6.6.
The highest pepper yields are obtained on sandy loam or light clay chernozems. A rich supply of humus and a high content of mineral nutrients in an easily accessible form provide plants with maximum productivity. Therefore, on low-fertility soils, they practice abundant application of organic and mineral fertilizers - pepper reacts to them very quickly and actively.
Before the formation of fruits, when the root system is not yet powerful enough, pepper needs increased doses of phosphorus fertilizers, which accelerate the growth and development of the root system, as well as the formation of generative organs. The greatest demand for nitrogen manifests itself in the period before flowering and during the formation and ripening of fruits, when, in the event of a lack of this nutrient, the lower leaves die off. The critical period in potassium consumption is from fruit set to ripening. The crop needs calcium relatively evenly throughout the growing season. A deficiency of this element in the soil causes the death of leaves, a decrease in yield and a deterioration in its quality.
Plants react favorably to the addition of microelements to the soil - boron, manganese, zinc, iodine, molybdenum and others.
Pepper responds well to the addition of humus, but shows a negative attitude towards fresh manure. Therefore, poorly decomposed organic fertilizers must be applied to the previous crop. The largest harvest of the best quality is obtained with the combined application of organic and mineral fertilizers.
It should be remembered that an excess of mineral nutrition elements in the soil negatively affects all vital processes of the plant organism. Excess nitrogen (both in mineral and organic form) activates the growth of vegetative mass and can significantly delay fruit formation. An excessive amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, on the contrary, can inhibit the growth of leaf surface in young plants, which also results in a significant reduction in yield. Therefore, when growing pepper, it is necessary to create the most optimal ratio of mineral nutrition elements, taking into account soil fertility and the planned harvest in accordance with the specific environmental conditions. It should be remembered that it is easier to compensate for a deficiency in nutrient salts with additional fertilizing than to eliminate their excess.
The optimal air temperature in the greenhouse during the day in sunny weather should be +24-28°C, in cloudy weather +22-24°C, at night +18-20°C. Air temperatures of +30°C and above cause active plant growth, but pepper flowers are not pollinated and fall off. Small, deformed fruits develop from the remaining flowers. Changes in night and day temperatures and high air humidity have a bad effect on pepper, so greenhouses should be regularly ventilated.
Pepper requires sufficient soil and air moisture. This crop does not tolerate even short-term drying out of the soil. Water the peppers 1-2 times a week with warm water at the root, spending 1-2 liters of water per plant. Overmoistening is not allowed. If the air humidity in the greenhouse is high, the pollen becomes unviable, pollination and fruit set do not occur. Therefore, watering plants should be done in the morning.
How to properly feed peppers
The plants are fed every 2-3 weeks. For 10 liters of settled warm water take: 25-39 g of ammonium nitrate, 30-40 g of superphosphate, 10-20 g of potassium sulfate. For 2-3 m2 use 10 liters of fertilizer solution. After feeding, in order to avoid leaf burns, it is necessary to water the plants with clean water. The root system of pepper, compared to the ground part, grows less actively and is usually located at a depth of 20-40 cm. This must be taken into account when loosening the soil. Regular loosening is carried out until the plants in the row are completely closed. Loosen carefully, trying not to damage the root system.
Plants of medium-sized varieties and hybrids reach a height of up to 1 m in film greenhouses. Pepper shoots are fragile and easily break, so it is necessary to tie up the plants. Each skeletal branch is tied separately. For low varieties, special shaping is not required; it is enough to remove excess fruitless shoots and side shoots below the branching of the main stem. This helps to better ventilate and illuminate the leaves of the lower tier and the crown of the bush. It is also recommended to remove leaves below the branching of the main stem after the crown of the plants has closed.
Plants of tall varieties and hybrids in greenhouses can reach a height of up to 1.5-2 m. As a rule, the leaves of such hybrids are large, the plants branch heavily, thickening the plantings. All this leads to shading of plants. Pepper is a light-loving crop and the more light the plant receives, the higher the yield you will get. Therefore, plants need to be shaped. After the formation of the 9-10th leaf (depending on the variety), 3 lateral shoots of the first order usually appear on the plant, of which the 2 strongest are left. The third side shoot (or the remaining side shoots, if there are more of them) is pinched onto one leaf (one fruit). Subsequently, the skeletal branches of the bush are formed from the remaining 2 side shoots: with each subsequent branching, a more developed shoot of the next branching order is left as the main one (i.e., replacement shoot), and the second shoot, forming a fork-shaped branch, is pinched after the first leaf. Periodically remove all barren shoots (stepchildren), as well as all side shoots and leaves growing below the branching point of the main stem. Be sure to cut off the lower flowers and ovaries that form before the first lower branching of the main stem. The skeletal branches of the plant are tied to trellis wire and periodically twisted.
Shoots of medium- and vigorous-growing varieties and hybrids are pinched out a month before the end of the growing season. This limits the appearance of new ovaries and accelerates the ripening of already set fruits.
Sweet pepper is a very popular vegetable crop; it contains a large amount of vitamins and amino acids. It can be used with meat dishes, steamed, boiled, fried, canned.
The benefits of sweet pepper are that it: strengthens the immune system, improves hair, vision, and lowers blood pressure.
How to grow sweet peppers? In open ground. Gardeners in central Russia grow peppers using seedlings. The time period from germination to harvest is about 140 days. Seedlings at the stage of bud development at the age of 70 days are planted in a greenhouse or open ground.
To grow seedlings by early June, you need to sow pepper seeds in early March.
If you have a greenhouse or the opportunity to cover the bed with film, then sowing the seeds can be done in February.
Planting diagram for sweet peppers.
Before planting, the seeds must be prepared. First, they are sorted by immersion in salted water and stirring. The floating seeds are not full-fledged, they are of poor quality, so they are removed. The rest are washed and disinfected in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate. Then they are washed again and enriched with mineral fertilizers. A mixture of mineral fertilizers can be purchased in specialized stores. The seeds are soaked for a day in a solution containing fertilizer. They need to be treated by bubbling, that is, immersion in water, which is blown with air. This processing takes place within two days. Next, the seeds are placed on a damp cloth and placed in a warm place with a temperature of about 30 degrees. After they begin to peck, you need to place them in the soil to a depth of 1.5 cm.
The picking stage for peppers is different from other vegetables. Many gardeners recommend replanting two plants in pots at a time. Peppers are cross-pollinated crops, so planting them in pairs helps increase productivity.
The choice of a specific variety of sweet pepper depends on the purpose of the fruit and your taste. If peppers will be consumed fresh more often, it is advisable to choose varieties with larger fruits. These are varieties such as Gift of Moldova, California Miracle, Winnie the Pooh. These varieties require special growing conditions. If the fruits are going to be canned, then small-fruited varieties - Kupets, Topolin - are more suitable. They are not so capricious and do not require comfortable conditions when growing. When planting, you can use the seeds of mature large fruits. How many pepper bushes should be on the plot needs to be decided individually. To use the fruits for cooking and canning for the winter, 20-25 plant bushes are usually enough for the average family.
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Table of indoor air temperature when growing seedlings.
When the seedlings have two true leaves, they need to be transplanted into separate pots. When diving, seedlings do not need to be buried too deep. Sometimes you can do without diving. You can sow the seeds directly into pots. As the seedlings grow, you need to transplant the sprouts into larger pots without damaging their roots. The weaker plants are then removed. This method is more effective. Picking pepper somewhat retards plant growth.
When growing seedlings, they need strong lighting. Before planting in the soil, it is necessary to harden the sprouts under the sun. If the seedlings have never been exposed to the sun before planting, they may burn after they are transplanted into open ground. Therefore, you need to periodically expose the seedlings to the sun. First - for an hour, then - for a longer time, then - for the whole day. At night you need to bring the seedlings to a warm place.
Pepper is a fairly hardy plant. In hot countries it is grown as a perennial crop. It regenerates well, tolerates pruning well, and is in constant alternation of stages of flowering, fruit appearance and harvest ripening. In regions with frosty winters this is not possible, so pepper is grown as an annual plant. However, if you have a greenhouse, you can use a long-term method of cultivating the crop.
Peppers are planted in open ground in early June, and in greenhouses in early May. It is better to plant peppers in the ground where crops such as radishes, turnips, radishes, and cabbage previously grew. It is not recommended to plant them in the soil where the tomato grew. Before planting, the soil must be fertilized. The best soil for growing sweet peppers is sandy-clay soil, which contains a lot of humus.
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The following varieties of bell pepper are distinguished: Corvette, Mirage, Player, Zorka, Atlantic, Cardinal, Orange Miracle, Red Elephant, Yolo Miracle, Californian Miracle, Triton, Gift of Moldova, Sweet Banana, Ox Ear.
How to grow sweet peppers correctly? When choosing a site for your garden, you need to take into account that the pepper must be constantly in the sun. In addition, it does not tolerate strong winds. The best place for pepper is in the south of the building, where it will be protected from the wind and receive additional lighting reflected by the wall of the house. You can create wind protection for plants from film or wattle.
Sweet peppers do not tolerate cold soil. The soil temperature should be at least 20 degrees. If you want to get a good harvest, you need to raise the beds by 40 cm or create subsoil heating. The soil should not be too dense, especially if it contains a large amount of clay.
Pepper loves warmth, sun and average humidity. In a greenhouse it can be grown together with tomatoes, but the bed with peppers needs to be watered more often. There is no need to overheat the bushes during flowering, as this can cause the flowers to wilt. The most favorable temperature for flowering is 25 degrees. When fruits appear, the plants need to be fertilized. The fertilizer should contain a lot of calcium and nitrogen.
Peppers need to be planted in beds at a distance of 40 cm from each other. For each plant, you need to install a support that is tied to the stem at the level of the main fork. If there is not enough space on the site, you can use the thickened planting method. The fruits will be smaller, but their number will be large.
Peppers need to be trimmed several times during the growing season. At the same time, the longest shoots are cut off. Remove branches inside the bush and shoots of branches located below the main fork. Pruning is done after harvesting the peppers, once every week. If ripe fruits are harvested on time, this favors the growth of the ovary and new fruits.
When grown in open soil, pepper is a rather demanding crop. But this is compensated by its wonderful taste, bright colors that give any dish a festive look, and an abundance of vitamins.
If the seedlings were grown in an insufficiently moistened substrate, then the plants remain stunted, weak, and have few leaves. When transferred to the ground, such seedlings do not take root well. Consequences: the yield is low, the fruits are gnarled, and blossom end rot appears.
Regular watering from a watering can only slightly moistens the soil of the garden bed, no matter what its quality is. But growing on clay soils requires much more water than on loam or sandy loam. It would be good to water in the form of rain, then the air humidity increases. At low atmospheric humidity, pepper sheds not only buds and flowers, but also fruits.
The harmfulness of pepper is that it is difficult to please. A little drier soil, it reacts with a decrease in yield, a little damper, again it’s not okay, again a decrease in yield. Only the reasons are slightly different. When there is excess in the soil (according to pepper), the growth processes in the plant slow down, this especially affects the seedling stages, the roots do not absorb soil nitrogen and do not synthesize amino acids. Hunger is coming. Here you can fertilize as much as possible... If the soil dries out, the reason is an increase in the concentration of minerals. We notice this in a jar in which salt is dissolved in water. Less water remains in the jar, and the solution becomes saltier. This is what pepper reacts to.
At the same time, there is another slingshot that the plant will certainly demonstrate to the gardener: the flowers may not fall off, but this does not mean that they will be pollinated!
In a greenhouse it is easier to create the necessary humidity for picky people. Since peppers and tomatoes have different tastes, it is not rational to grow them in the same greenhouse. But not every gardener has several greenhouses for each vegetable, so there are always priorities, which is more important for us.
By the way, pepper is not the most moisture-loving plant; cabbage, radishes, and celery require much more water.
In our dry summer of 2012, my celery root did not grow, I could not give him as much water as he could drink, I chose pepper.
It needs soil that is structural, fertile, deep, warm, rich in humus and nutrients, with a form convenient for the plant, light, and well-permeable to water. In a word, perfect!
Early varieties of peppers work better on sandy loam soils, while mid-season and late varieties require loam or chernozem with a good ability to retain moisture. It is better not to grow it on clay and sandy soils; it will be of little use.
Any heavy soil reduces the yield of pepper; it grows slowly and gets sick in the heat. It doesn’t like acidic soils, so don’t rush to acidify it with manure or bird droppings; it’s better to lime the beds for growing peppers. But the problem is that it doesn’t like lime either, so you can’t overdo it, and you shouldn’t lime it in the fall before planting in the new year; it’s better to do it 2 years before the pepper arrives on the plot.
Calcium leaves organic matter in the soil; roots develop better in such soil, which is very good for leaf growth without compromising fruit formation.
Bell peppers need less phosphorus than tomatoes. But magnesium is required for its transportation; if there is no magnesium, photosynthesis suffers, the stems reach for the sun, the leaves change color, and their color will not be restored. If the plant has enough phosphorus, it becomes cold-resistant. And without phosphorus, fruits do not form or ripen.
Without iron, plant cells do not absorb carbon dioxide, and leaves lose color.
Without manganese, flowers and buds fall off; seeds cannot be taken from such a plant.
Pepper varieties for the Urals
I decided to write this article only because I discovered how every book, every brochure, every Internet article lists varieties of peppers for the Urals, varieties...
Growing peppers in a greenhouse guarantees an early harvest
Somehow, conditions suddenly appeared that made it possible to build greenhouses in garden plots: the climate rapidly changed; the old wooden frames served their purpose...
Sweet peppers are grown less often in the country than cucumbers and tomatoes. Meanwhile, there is no special wisdom in obtaining large yields of this vegetable. And although this is a fairly heat-loving crop, with the right approach, peppers can be successfully grown in the middle zone.
The ripening period of peppers from germination to fruit harvesting is: 80-100 days for early varieties, 120-140 days for late varieties, so you can start thinking about seedlings in late February - early March.
Seeds need to be planted 55-60 days before planting seedlings in the ground. If you plant earlier, the plants will stretch out, weaken and take root poorly, which cannot but affect the future harvest.
It is better to prepare the seeds first. For this, 1 tsp. Dissolve potassium permanganate in 1 liter of hot water. Pour 3 tbsp over the seeds for half an hour. l. warm solution and then rinse with warm water. After this, you can also fill them with a heteroauxin solution for 12 hours - take 1 tablet per 1 liter of water. After this, place the seed in a canvas bag and put it in the snow overnight, and keep it in the room during the day. 5-6 days of such hardening are enough. At this time, you need to make sure that the seeds do not dry out, germinate or suffocate. After hardening, dry the seeds thoroughly before planting or sow immediately - whichever is more convenient.
It is best to prepare soil for seedlings using peat. If there is no peat, you can take humus. So, to 2 parts of humus (peat) add 1 part of turf soil, 1 part of sawdust. Pre-spill the sawdust with a solution of ammonium nitrate (a glass of nitrate in a bucket of water).
The sawdust should be moistened with this solution for 2 weeks. Then all components must be mixed, add 1 tbsp. n. superphosphate. 2 tbsp. l. ash - and the soil for seedlings is ready. The operation with sawdust is necessary so that the seedlings grow strong and do not experience nitrogen starvation, in which the leaves become pale and the plants themselves become weak.
Seeds can be sown in separate pots or in trays (boxes). In the second option, the distance between the rows should be 3-4 cm. There is no need to plant the seed deeply - 1 cm from the top is enough. Before the emergence of friendly shoots, it is better to cover the crops with plastic wrap.
Once the seeds have sprouted, the boxes should be placed on a cool windowsill for several days. Then you can move it to a warm place where the temperature is kept at 25°. As soon as the first true leaf appears, the peppers should be picked.
Every 12 days, peppers should be fed with complex fertilizer, starting from the time the second leaf appears. A total of 3 feedings need to be done. If signs of nitrogen starvation appear, it is best to feed the plants with chicken droppings - 0.5 liters of droppings per bucket of water.
As the plant develops, it needs to be shaped - leave the 2 strongest shoots to simulate the skeleton of the bush, and pinch out the weak branches after 12 leaves appear.
As soon as the plant develops more than 7 leaves and they are sufficiently strong (and this will happen in 50-60 days), the seedlings can be planted in a greenhouse or open ground.
It is worth knowing that peppers are capricious and demanding. They restore the root system poorly, do not like transplants, and take root slowly. Therefore, many gardeners eliminate the picking operation and plant non-picked plants.
Good strong seedlings are considered to be plants 20-25 cm high with 5-10 leaves and a strong stem 3-4 mm thick at the roots.
In May, it is time to prepare the ground for peppers, if it has not been prepared since the fall. Peppers feel best in garden beds after cucumbers and cabbage. They do not tolerate fresh manure - it is better to take rotted compost and add it to the ground - 1 square meter. m 1 bucket of manure, 50-60 g of superphosphate, 20 g of potassium salt.
Planting in the ground or in a greenhouse should begin when the air temperature reaches 15°. Frosts are destructive for peppers, so plants should not be planted before the end of May.
Peppers love moisture, so they need to be watered well before transplanting.
It is better to choose a cool, cloudy day for planting. Plants should be carefully removed from the boxes, being careful not to disturb the roots. It is optimal to plant peppers in peat cups and plant them in the ground together - then the peppers will get sick less.
The distance between rows should ideally be 50 cm, between plants - 30 cm. Plants should be planted in separate, well-watered holes. You can’t bury peppers when planting them: this will cause them to get sick and dry out. Sprinkle with soil up to the first leaves. But if you plant the peppers very shallowly, the top roots will begin to die, and this should not be allowed.
It is important to plant sweet and bitter peppers as far apart as possible to prevent cross-pollination. Otherwise, sweet peppers will be bitter, and bitter ones will not be pleasantly spicy.
The ground around the plants can be mulched with straw or grass so that the ground retains moisture longer and there are fewer weeds.
After planting, you should especially carefully monitor the moisture of the soil. Peppers really don't like dryness. They need to be watered often and regularly, but not too much.
If you overwater peppers, they may suffer from blossom end rot. If the peppers dry out, especially during the period when the peppers are setting, then the fruits will subsequently have a bitter taste. It is best to water in the morning, pouring the water carefully, at the root.
The water should be warm - cold water causes peppers to stop growing and yields to decrease. In the first days after planting, watering should be frequent. Then you can water it once every 10 days.
You need to loosen the rows more often, a couple of days after watering. These procedures provide air access to the roots. But since the roots of peppers are close to the surface, loosening should be shallow - no deeper than 6 cm.
15 days after planting the plants, they should be fed for the first time with complex mineral fertilizers. To do this, you need to take 1 kg of mullein and mix it with 10 liters of water, in which 30 g of superphosphate are dissolved.
This solution is enough for 1 square. m beds. You can also take chicken manure in the proportion already indicated above.
In the summer you need to feed the plants several more times with a mixture of mullein and superphosphate. Apply 0.5 liters of mixture per plant. The next feeding must be done through
2 weeks. Take 2 tbsp per bucket of water. l. nitrophoska and water the plants with this mixture. The main thing is that the solution does not get on the leaves; to do this, it must be carefully poured under the root. Otherwise, burns will appear on the leaves.
If necessary, you can feed the plants a couple more times. All fertilizing is carried out at night, on damp soil.
When flowers appear, you need to watch the peppers especially carefully. If it gets too hot (more than 33-34°), the flowers may fall off and the peppers may wilt, so it is best to shade the plants in extreme heat.
It is better to tear off the first flower that appears, so that the peppers do not become depleted of strength and development is not delayed.
Although with proper agricultural practices the risk of disease is minimized, peppers are still not immune to various infections.
Most often, plants are affected by late blight, fusarium, brown spot, black rot of fruits, and black leg. Almost all of these diseases are fungal in nature.
Diseases such as mosaic are caused by viruses. Blossom rot, when plants begin to rot, occurs due to errors in watering and care.
To protect plants from black rot, before planting seedlings, you need to treat the seeds with potassium permanganate according to the scheme indicated above, and do not plant peppers in the garden after nightshades.
With blackleg, rot of the root part of the plant appears, which leads to its death. Affected peppers should be removed immediately, and the beds with the remaining ones should be watered with a 3% solution of copper sulfate and sprinkled with ash.
Spraying with garlic infusion helps against late blight.
To do this, mix 100-150 g of crushed dry leaves or scales of garlic heads in 10 liters of water, leave for 24 hours and spray the plant with this solution. You can also use 1% Bordeaux mixture. To prevent late blight, peppers should be planted away from tomatoes and potatoes.
In greenhouses, peppers are most often affected by gray rot. This is usually due to high humidity. Therefore, for the purpose of prevention in greenhouses, it is necessary to regularly ventilate the premises and plant peppers at large intervals between each other.
Peppers accumulate vitamins before the seeds ripen. Therefore, ripe red and yellow peppers contain more vitamins than green ones.
Ripe peppers should be carefully cut with pruning shears. By picking off the fruits, as many people mistakenly do, you can damage the fragile plant. It is important to regularly remove the fruits as they ripen, without leaving them on the bush.
If ripened fruits remain on it for a long time, then the plant stops blooming and producing new ovaries. If you pick the peppers on time, the plant will continue to bloom and bear fruit.
If frosts begin and the ground peppers are not yet fully ripe, it is best to tear the plants out of the ground with their roots and hang them in a warm place. The peppers will soon ripen on their own.
There is another way - in the fall the peppers can be dug up and transplanted into a pot. At home on the windowsill they will grow and bear fruit until next summer (after all, this is a perennial plant).
Peppers are responsive to care. If you put your soul into them, they will amaze you with their productivity and rich taste. Go for it!
I also want to talk about pepper, although much has already been written about it. But there are as many secrets as there are gardeners. So, in order.
As I wrote before, we take the land from the dacha, in the village, in a ravine under nettles. We put it in bags, bring it home and put it on the loggia. Although it is glazed, it is not insulated, so the ground freezes. I don’t plant seedlings early, although I tried in mid-February, and at the end and beginning of March, but settled on the date of March 10. We plant peppers in the ground on May 10-15 under double acrylic, the densest. Therefore, even if there is frost, they will still not freeze. By this time, the peppers have grown to 30-35 cm - strong, the leaves are large, green, the bush is all in buds and - most importantly - does not bloom, literally 2-3 flowers, and that’s all. And my landing rules are as follows.
In mid-February, we bring the soil from the loggia into the common corridor, where it remains until March 1 and thaws during this time. And on the 1st, I pour it into a basin, add a full handful of ash, mix it and pour it into seedling boxes. Then I pour a hot pink solution of potassium permanganate on it. Until March 10, the boxes are in the hallway of the apartment. During this time, the earth has time to rest and dry out a little. I loosen it, lightly pat it down and make two grooves, pour it with a slightly warm pinkish
potassium permanganate solution and plant the seeds. First I pickle the seeds in a dark solution of manganese and plant them without washing them. I don’t carry out any more manipulations with them - I think that if the seeds are good, they will germinate successfully, but why revive dead ones?
I have my own seeds, so I plant them every 1 cm. I remove those that sprout later than necessary, and my own seeds sprout literally after 5-7 days. All this time, the boxes stand on the table by the window, covered with polyethylene, secured with an elastic band.
From time to time I buy new seeds at the store. I leave the ones that suit me, and remove the rest. Two years ago, yellow pepper seeds were purchased - White Gold, Golden Calf and Bugai. I don't have photos, but they are exactly as advertised on the bags, only even larger. The Titan and Atlant varieties have proven themselves to be excellent. They are all beautiful, very large and very sweet.
This is how I grow seedlings, everything is very simple, by March 20 all the seeds germinate. And on April 5, the transplantation begins. I replant them in 400 gram sour cream cups. And here the most important thing is that I definitely dive them.
For what? Yes, many argue that you don’t need to pick peppers, but I believe that if you don’t do this, the pepper will start to grow too quickly and by the time of planting it will be very tall and will bloom, but this is exactly undesirable! No matter how carefully we replant the pepper, if it is already blooming profusely, its color will still fall off, even if not all of it, and we don’t need that.
When I dive, in the first week the pepper seems to freeze and does not grow. By the end of the second week it begins to move a little, and only by the end of the third week does growth resume. This is approximately April 24-26. There are three weeks left before planting in the ground under film on May 12-15 – that’s quite enough. Pepper has time to grow, because he is no longer young in age.
And the transplant is quite simple. We dig holes, remove the sprouts from the cups, plant them and water them. We do not add any fertilizers. And only after a week, when the peppers have finally gotten stronger, we feed them when watering. By this time we already have the fertilizer ready. We prepare it like this: in a 200-liter barrel we put 1 bucket of manure, 1 package of granulated chicken manure, leftover yeast, jam, pieces of half-eaten bread, and grown nettles. All this ferments for 2-3 weeks and it’s ready.
But I add this fertilizer not 1 liter per bucket, but 0.5 liters. But every week (1 time). And if the weather is hot and dry, we water ourselves every other day or every day, but literally 0.7 liters each, since pepper has a superficial root system and this amount of moisture is enough for it.
Two weeks after planting, I spray the peppers once with a solution containing zircon. I read in one magazine that this is a natural preparation - an extract from the herb Echinacea purpurea, which is a medicinal plant. I always have a lot of pepper, every year, and I didn’t count.
Only in 2013 I decided to count. From 72 bushes we collected almost five bags - those in which sugar is sold at 50 kg. And two more buckets, but smaller ones, albeit red ones. And the peppers in the bags were not just large, but actually huge, red, yellow and very sweet! It was too much for us, we had to sell it. We took it with pleasure.
I make a lot of pepper preparations: I marinate them, prepare adjika, lecho, and freeze them. In general, we have a garden of 17 acres, so we grow everything we need and can, and we are not afraid of any food sanctions!
I wish all readers health, success on the dacha front, and the respected editors also patience to sort out our scribbles.
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Growing sweet peppers: preparing and planting sweet pepper seedlings, diving, planting in the ground, conditions for growing sweet peppers - soil requirements, temperature conditions, etc., bush formation, fertilizers and preparations to stimulate growth
I tried to write an article about sweet peppers, broadly covering the agricultural technology of growing this crop.
Briefly and concisely: preparation and planting of sweet pepper seedlings, diving, planting in the ground, conditions for growing sweet peppers - soil requirements, temperature conditions, etc., bush formation, fertilizers and preparations to stimulate growth, pest control and diseases of sweet peppers.
Growing sweet peppers, a rather whimsical crop, has many nuances and subtleties. What does a novice summer resident need to know, what is important for an experienced farmer to remember?
Seeds obtained last season are suitable for planting due to the low shelf life of the seed material. It is advisable to plant pepper seedlings at the end of March - in the first ten days of April. The optimal germination temperature is 17-22 °C, the minimum is 16-19 °C.
Requirements for the substrate: light and enriched, the optimal composition is humus, turf soil, sand or peat in equal parts, it is useful to add wood ash at the rate of 1 cup per bucket of the finished mixture. Before emergence, the crops are covered with film or glass, which is lifted or dried daily to eliminate condensation.
Preliminary preparation of seeds includes calibration in water (selection of small, empty seeds), dressing in a 2% solution of potassium permanganate for 15-20 minutes, and soaking the seeds. Purchased seed most often does not need calibration or processing, but you need to study the instructions on the packaging.
Planting is carried out to a depth of 1-2 cm using the continuous method, at the rate of 3-5 g per 1 sq.m. with a soil layer thickness of 12-15 cm.
Thermal conditions depend on the age of the seedlings. Before the first shoots appear, the air temperature is maintained at 25-30 °C, the soil at 13-16 °C, after germination for 5-7 days 13-15 °C, after picking it is maintained at 20-25 °C during the day and 12-15 °C at night .
Diving is carried out 20-30 days after germination: the central root shoot is shortened by 1-1.5 cm, then the plants are planted in cassettes or cups. This is done to increase the growth of root shoots.
Growing without picking, using the cassette method, when 1-2 seeds are placed in each cell, has its advantages: there is no growth retardation and stress accompanying transplantation, and its disadvantages are less power of the root system. However, this disadvantage is compensated by faster growth and development in comparison with picked seedlings.
Water the seedlings as they dry out, on average after 1-2 days; waterlogging of the soil is unacceptable. It is advisable to fertilize twice a week with calcium nitrate at the rate of 1 g/1 liter of water or other complex fertilizer. Without picking, pepper seedlings are grown for up to 50 days, with picking – 60-70 days.
Plants can be planted in open ground after 5-7 true leaves appear. For better rooting and smoothing out stress, 2-3 days before planting, the seedlings are “hardened” by lowering the air temperature to 10-15 ° C for 5-7 hours, then a complex fertilizer is applied a day, 3 days before. When replanting, foliar feeding with potassium humate, biostimulants, especially sensitive varieties and hybrids with Epin, Megafon, Mars, etc. is useful.
Light loam, sandy loam soils are the best option for sweet peppers. It is important to place the beds in a well-lit, well-warmed area, preferably on a southern slope, inaccessible to cold winds.
Plants are planted in well-watered holes 7-8 cm deep. Planting depth - deepening the root collar no deeper than 1-2 cm to avoid diseases and rotting. The minimum area for one seedling is 50x35 cm, 4-5 plants per 1 sq.m. Effective planting scheme: row spacing 50-60 cm, 40-50 cm in a row, with drip irrigation 70-90 cm for row spacing and 40-50 cm in a row.
In the southern regions, where “seedless” cultivation of sweet peppers is practiced, the seeds are sown when the soil warms up to 15-18 °C. When the height of the seedlings is 15-17 cm, the growth point, the tip, is pinched to allow the side shoots to grow.
The culture is extremely sensitive to watering. Drying out is unacceptable, as is excessive moisture, leading to a lack of oxygen and slower fruit ripening. When there is excess moisture, the tops of the seedlings darken and wilt. Lack of moisture can be determined by the falling of leaves, ovaries, the development of blossom end rot, which is also associated with a lack of calcium, and incomplete ripening of sweet pepper fruits.
The first watering is carried out 7-10 days after planting, then the rate of single irrigation is 3-5 liters for each plant.
Responsive to soil density: after each watering, loosening is necessary to a depth of 7-8 cm.
It is important to maintain the temperature: 20-25 C° is considered optimal, frost is destructive: when the temperature drops noticeably, the beds are covered with film or light agrofibre.
The formation of the bush plays an important role. Removing stepsons, unproductive shoots, and lower leaves is necessary to reduce the load. It is believed that it is necessary to remove the first main bud to stimulate the growth of green mass and increase productivity.
In tall varieties, two or three stems can be formed, arising from the upper stepsons, which in this case should not be torn off, pinching the shoots above the second and third leaves.
Root and foliar feedings, leaf by leaf, begin after 2 weeks of growth in open ground. Pepper is demanding of a high content of magnesium and potassium in the soil, the deficiency of which is caused by blossom end rot of the fruit. Therefore, the “traditional” feeding is calcium nitrate, potassium-phosphorus complex.
From the “good old” ones - sodium humate, nitroammophoska, wood ash. Modern technology for growing peppers involves combined nutrition: fertilization at intervals of 10-12 days with complex preparations Kemira, Master, Rostconcentrate, Carbamide, enrichment of the soil with organic matter - manure, bird droppings. Biostimulants Epin, Radifarm, etc. give good results.
Weeding, killing weeds, loosening rows - basic care differs little from other crops. It is worth mentioning that low-growing varieties do not need support; tall varieties are tied to pegs or a trellis like tomatoes or climbing beans.
The main pests are cutworms, May beetle larvae, Colorado potato beetles, aphids, whiteflies, and thrips.
Common diseases of sweet peppers are verticillium wilt, rot, including end rot, bacteriosis, viral diseases, and alternaria.
As control measures, in addition to organic preparations of copper, sulfur - copper sulfate, Bordeaux mixture and others, the use of modern fungicides and microbiological preparations is effective: Actofit, Actellik against pests, Trichodermin against fungal diseases, complex preparations Gaupsin, Fitosporin and others.
Sweet pepper fruits are harvested both in technical (with possible subsequent ripening) and biological (final) ripeness, cut off with the stalk. For storage in refrigerators, packing boxes and perforated polyethylene bags are used. Pepper can be stored at a temperature of 0 +2°C for 20-25 days.
Let's hope that my advice will be useful to everyone who is interested in growing sweet peppers, an indispensable crop and garden decoration. If I missed something, please leave additions or comments in the comments.
Happy harvest to you!
