Pepper, planting seedlings in a greenhouse should be made at a time when it can be protected from returnable short-term frosts. This is a very important point. Any peppers, sweet or Bulgarian, hot or semi-hot - thermophilic plants. Therefore, do not rush into planting seedlings in the greenhouse. Air temperatures below 10 ° C will delay the development of plants for 10-15 days. That is, pepper will not die, but its development will stop. When to plant pepper seedlings in a greenhouse, planting dates? How to plant pepper seedlings?
Preparation of beds for planting pepper seedlings
I usually make beds in a greenhouse 80 cm wide so that you can make two or even three rows (depending on the variety). Aisles - 30-40 cm wide.
How to prepare the soil of the bed before planting pepper seedlings?
It should be dug up or loosened on the day of transplanting seedlings. Experts do not advise doing this in advance. Water the soil abundantly so that it is well saturated with moisture. Depending on the acidity of the soil, dolomite flour should be added if the soil is acidic, as well as mineral fertilizers, compost and other nutrients.
It is very good for pepper seedlings, if a warm bed was formed, that is, at a depth of 20-30 cm from the autumn manure or dry grass, branches, plant residues were laid so that the soil was warm.
But in any case, pepper does not like acidic soils, so it will never be superfluous to add dolomite flour. It is introduced at the rate of 100-150 g per 1 square. meter beds. This, incidentally, is a very good fertilizer, it is very evenly dispersed over the surface of the soil. Dolomite flour absorbs moisture well (like salt), so keep it in a sealed container.
Then we add complex fertilizers to the garden - nitrofosk or nitroammofosku, you can Kemira Universal (one of the above) - 50-70 g per 1 square. meter. And if you have compost or rotted (!) Manure - for pepper these are fertilizers No. 1, then you can add them. Pepper is very responsive, like no other culture, to the introduction of organics. Try to evenly distribute all fertilizers on the surface of the earth. Then gently mix the soil with the sprinkled dolomite flour and fertilizers with a rake.
If you have a little compost or rotted manure, you can add it directly to the holes.
Now we start marking our beds. From what kind of pepper we will plant - low or tall - it depends on how thickly we will plant seedlings and in which place in the beds which variety to plant. For example, the undersized Winnie the Pooh variety is advised to be planted closer to the side wall of the greenhouse. There will be more light for him and tall plants will not obscure him. And medium-sized varieties - Tenderness, Loyalty, Medal - after undersized, away from the side wall.
So, we mark the beginning of our beds in three rows of plants. I remind you - the width of the beds is 80 cm. Digging holes on the bayonet of a shovel. We add a good handful of rotted manure or compost to each well. Then you should mix the soil well with compost or manure in the hole. Remember that pepper is a photophilous plant, thickened plantings will not add to your harvest, on the contrary, plants will grow very poorly.
How to plant pepper seedlings correctly
We pour each hole with water with potassium permanganate and begin to plant.
Plants grown in 500 gram seedlings have a well-developed root system. We do not deepen the seedlings of pepper during planting, because when we dive, we have already buried it to seven-leaf 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, for example, Tenderness, Swallow. To do this, we mark our garden in two rows. We also dig holes in depth on the bayonet of a shovel, and the distance between them is 25-35 cm. Of course, here we also bring in organic matter - compost, rotted manure or their mixture. By the way, you can still add a little (a handful) of wood ash. Ash is generally an ideal fertilizer not only for pepper, but also for many garden crops. Do not forget to seedlings well before sowing seedlings well pink manganese solution. Not bad if the solution is warm, even hot.
The depth of planting of medium-sized varieties is the same as low-growing. That is, we do not deepen the seedlings, but try to plant them to the depth of the pot. The moment of transplanting is a stress for plants, but if we did everything right, you will not notice any signs of wilting.
If you are transplanting seedlings in hot weather, then plants should be pritenit, for example, a newspaper. In general, landing should be done best in the early morning or afternoon, closer to evening.
When planting seedlings of tall varieties, we also mark the bed in two rows, but we will leave a distance of at least 40-50 cm between the plants. We try to make holes for these varieties deeper, because there will be more nutrition for these varieties and hybrids. Compost and rotted manure for them will require significantly more - 1/3 of a bucket for each hole.
Protecting pepper seedlings from frost
How to protect planted seedlings from frost? I usually set arcs and cover the seedlings with spanbond or lutrasil - a light covering material. By the way, arcs can not be installed, because the material is quite light, it will not break the plants, in addition, the seedlings are in the greenhouse, which means there will be no wind here.
Thus, we will protect our seedlings not only from frost, but also from short-term cooling. And we already know that pepper does not feel very comfortable when the air temperature is below + 10 ° C.
Fertilizing seedlings
What top dressing of pepper plants after planting should be done? It can be mineral and organic top dressing.
The first top dressing of pepper seedlings is carried out no earlier than 1.5 weeks after planting it in a greenhouse.
Mineral nutrition
For 10 liters of water:
- ammonium nitrate 10-15 g,
- superphosphate double -30-40 g,
- potassium sulfate - 10-15 g,
- calcium nitrate - 20 g.
Organic top dressing
mullein infusion in water - 1: 8 (soak 1 part of mullein in 4 parts of water for 5-7 days, then add another 4 parts of water, mix and use for feeding).
Alternate mineral and organic dressing with an interval of 10-15 days.
You can often notice that at a certain stage of development, the leaves of seedlings begin to turn yellow. Flowers and ovaries may fall. One reason for the lack of potassium and magnesium. Follic top dressing during the flowering and fruit setting seasonings with ash solution and Epsom salts solution (sold in pharmacies as a laxative) makes up for the shortage of these elements.
Preparation of ash solution - 100 g of ash per 10 liters of water.
Dressing with magnesium - 1 teaspoon of Epsom salt in 250 ml of water.
Pest control in the greenhouse
Peach aphids, spider mites, whiteflies - the main most common pests on pepper plants in the greenhouse. Losses from them can reach 30%.
Aphids breed with incredible speed. Over the week, its number increases 30-40 times. Aphid colonies are located on shoots, leaves, flowers, causing the leaves to become piled up, inhibit growth, and the fruits are often formed underdeveloped.
An ordinary spider mite is the most dangerous and widespread pest of many greenhouse crops. It often affects peppers. Even peninsular and sharp varieties. The tick populates more often the lower side of the leaves, entwining them with a noticeable cobweb, sucks the plant sap. On the leaves, the damage from the spider mite manifests itself in the form of bright spots, which eventually turn brown and dry.
Ants are the first aphid carriers. They feed on sweetish aphid secretions, protect aphid colonies from entomophages, scaring off these beneficial insects. One of the effective ways to combat ants is to lay out baits, by eating which the ants stop reproducing and die.
The recipe for bait for extermination of ants:
- boric acid or borax - 1 teaspoon,
- powdered sugar - 1 teaspoon,
- boiled chicken yolk - 1 pc.,
Mix, knead, divide into small balls (1cm) and place them in a greenhouse.
Of course you know such chemicals as Karbofos (30 g per 10 liters of water), Actellik (25-30 g per 10 liters of water), Hostaquik (10-15 g per 10 liters of water), Decis (10-15 g per 10 liters of water), which have a very strong effect on aphids.
The following drugs are effective for combating spider mites: Karbofos (30 g per 10 l of water), Acrex (10-15 g per 10 l of water), Keltan (15-20 g per 10 l of water), Arrivo (25-30 g per 10 liters of water).
Whitefly is best treated with Applewood (5-10 g per 10 liters of water).
Material updated March 29, 2016.