Rules and secrets of growing peppers in the open field: timing and planting pattern, care depending on the weather. When to plant bell peppers in open ground Planting pepper seedlings in open ground

In order to get a good harvest of pepper in our latitudes, it is necessary to grow strong, healthy, hardened seedlings.

How to get high-quality pepper seedlings and plant them correctly will be discussed in this article.

Sowing seeds

Pepper seeds, for growing in a permanent place in open ground, are sown in late February, early March. They germinate, with proper care, in a week and a half.

During the cultivation of seedlings, it must be regularly fed. There should be at least three such top dressings for the entire period, before planting plants in a permanent place. Fertilizer for top dressing can be bought at a specialized store.

If you have wood ash, then insist it for a week (3-4 tablespoons per liter of water). You can simply pour a pinch of ash into the pot with the plant and water it.

Water for irrigation is always taken well settled and at room temperature. The last feeding of seedlings is carried out 2-3 days before the seedlings are transferred to a permanent place.

With the onset of warm sunny days, seedlings must be hardened off. The period of the first stay in the open air is limited to two to three hours.

It's important to know: a few hours before planting seedlings in a permanent place, pots with plants must be well shed with warm water. This will nourish the earthen lump with moisture and the root system will be minimally damaged during transplantation.

Gradually, the hardening time increases. And over time, pepper pots can be left on the balcony or veranda for the whole day.

Transplantation in open ground

Pepper seedlings are transplanted outdoors when the threat of nightly return frosts has passed. It should be noted that by this time the earth should warm up to a temperature of 15-18 degrees.

The root system of these plants does not tolerate hypothermia, and in this case, if the temperature is unstable, then it is better to wait a few days and plant it in warm soil. Otherwise, the plant will adapt to new conditions for a long time, which slows down growth, and, accordingly, in the future, will affect the yield.

By the time the seedlings are transplanted into the garden, a properly grown plant should be about 15-20 centimeters tall, with 10-12 strong, well-developed leaves. Perhaps with a few flower buds. The age of seedlings by this time should be at least 60-65 days.

If the seedlings are older, about 70 days, then during transplantation, all flowers and opening buds are cut off from the plant. These plants will take root longer and fruiting will be delayed, since half-opened buds will not be pollinated during transplantation and there will be no fruits on them.

Plants in the stage of dense buds or with fruit set take root much faster and begin to bear fruit much earlier.

Soil preparation

The bed must be prepared in advance. The earth is dug up on a shovel bayonet, all weeds are selected and fertilizers are applied.

In order for the plant not to get sunburned and take root more easily, the transplant must be carried out in the afternoon or in cloudy weather. Holes are dug on the basis that the plant can be buried to the height of the pot from which it is transplanted. Humus is poured into each hole.

The distance between the holes is made about 40 centimeters in two rows in the garden. For better lighting and ease of watering, you can plant plants in a checkerboard pattern.

A bucket of humus is distributed into 3-4 wells, a handful of ash and a pinch of superphosphate are added. All fertilizers are well mixed and watered with warm water.

It is better not to apply fresh manure for peppers, as the plants can “get fat”, all the growth energy will go into building up the leaf mass to the detriment of fruiting. In the absence of humus, you can use ready-made fertilizers purchased at a specialized store. It is better if these are granular complex fertilizers.

What is the best way to transplant

When transplanting, it is necessary to remove the plant from the pot with care, as the stems are very brittle and can be easily damaged.

Try not to crumble the earthen ball. Near each plant, it is necessary to install a peg for gartering peppers when they grow.

The pepper is carefully placed in the hole and covered with earth, lightly compacted, trying not to damage the plant and the root system, and watered with warm water.

permanent place

It is better to cover the plants with spunbond for 10-14 days during the engraftment of peppers, throwing it on pre-installed arcs.

It is necessary to open seedlings in the warm season. You can simply cover the beds with black spunbond, since the temperature of the earth, and not the surrounding air, is important for these plants.

Another advantage of black spunbond is that weeds germinate less and the bed can be weeded less often. For better rooting of seedlings, it is not watered for a week after transplantation.

Further care for peppers comes down to watering, weeding and top dressing. It is worth considering such a moment - the first fruit must be removed as soon as the period of technical maturation begins, this stimulates the plant to further rapid growth and fruit set.

See the tips of an experienced gardener on planting pepper seedlings in open ground:

It was first grown in Mexico. However, only after long and hard work of breeders from Bulgaria, this vegetable acquired large sizes and juicy pulp. Then they began to export it to Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, where the pepper was called "Bulgarian". In Western countries, it is known as paprika. Myself pepper needs sun and warmth.

Stages of growing a vegetable

There are several stages growing bell pepper:

Place for landing. The nightshade family, which includes peppers, do not like areas where other nightshade crops were previously grown. You need to choose a place where cucumbers, legumes or pumpkin crops, cabbage or greens were previously planted. The site should be in an open area under the sun, the soil should be fertile and water-retaining. Clear future beds of weeds.
Soil preparation. The soil should be prepared a year before planting, it is at this time that the future site is fertilized (5 kg per square meter). In autumn, the soil is dug up with the addition of 50 grams of phosphorus / potash fertilizers. Before planting seedlings, the place is disinfected, for this the following solution is prepared: a tablespoon of vitriol per 15 liters of water. After completing all the steps, we plant peppers.
Landing method. We divide the plot into beds, observing the following distance of 40-50 cm between the holes and 60 cm for a row between the beds. Peppers are planted at such a depth that the root neck is at ground level. In the case of growing peppers in peat pots, plant seedlings with them. If the seedlings were grown in the same container, then try to separate the peppers from each other and at the same time leave an earthen lump on the roots. After that, you need to half fill the hole with soil and water the plants at the rate of one bucket for three peppers. When all the water is absorbed into the soil, fill the holes with earth to the top.
Landing in open ground. It's time to plant - when the seedling has 8-12 leaves. At the same time, the air temperature should be stable, about 17 ° C, and the soil - about 12 ° C. Peppers should not be planted too early, otherwise, due to frost and low temperatures, the plant will get sick and will lag behind in development.
In early May, we plant peppers in a greenhouse for two weeks, after which we plant seedlings in open ground, but within two weeks we cover the beds with a film for faster plant growth.

Grow bell pepper in the open field is quite easy. The main thing is to follow some recommendations for planting and growing.

In nature, there are more than 2,000 species, and their homeland is Central America. In this article I will talk about sweet pepper, which is also called Bulgarian. The "Mexican" came to Europe in the 15th century and in a roundabout way, through Spain, Turkey, Iran, eventually penetrated into our region. Here he seriously took root, despite the thermophilicity and capricious disposition - after all, pepper has more than enough virtues! It is not only rich in bright colors that give the dish a festive look, is not only tasty and juicy, but is also an invaluable storehouse of vitamins. In this part, a rare vegetable or fruit can be compared with it.

Pepper seeds need pre-planting treatment - they need to be kept until swollen for five hours in water, the temperature of which is about + 50 ° C. After that, they must be placed for pecking in a damp cloth for 2-3 days, the temperature in the room is about +20°C. Having carried out such a simple preplant preparation of seeds, you will receive seedlings literally the next day after sowing.

Sown pepper seeds must be thoroughly watered, and immediately after that, cover with plastic wrap or glass. Before germination, they can be in any warm (about + 22 ° C) place, while lighting does not matter, it is possible in the dark. After germination, the optimum temperature for growing seedlings during the day is about +26...+28°С, at night about +10...+15°С.

Do not indulge in excess peppers, this can only damage them - cause a disease with a black leg. But try not to let the substrate dry out. Water for irrigation should be warm - about + 30 ° C, from excessively cold seedlings will be frail, get sick and may even die. Do not forget to monitor the air in the room in which the seedlings are grown, it should not be too dry. Spray the plants, and the room itself is well ventilated, not forgetting to protect it from drafts.

Pepper seedlings require additional lighting. During the month of February, it must be illuminated from 7 am to 9 pm. Before planting, seedlings need hardening, gradual accustoming to the rays of the sun, lower temperatures, wind and rain. To do this, the plant is taken out into fresh air, gradually increasing the time it stays there. During hardening, keep an eye on the weather conditions, do not allow pepper seedlings to fall under frost or low temperatures - for pepper it is below + 13 ° C.

Pepper planting

The best predecessors for pepper:, after, and. Bad predecessors:, pepper, and.

Light soils are best for growing. It is better to prepare the soil for pepper in advance - a year in advance, adding 5 kg per square meter for the predecessor, and in the fall, 50 g each and fertilizer for deep digging. In the spring, on the site - in the top layer of soil, we add 40 g of ammonium nitrate. Five days before transplanting pepper seedlings to a permanent place, decontaminate the soil, this must be done with a solution - add a tablespoon to a bucket of water.

Seedlings are planted in open ground at the end of May - mid-June, according to the scheme 40x40 cm. Pepper seedlings are planted in an unheated film greenhouse in early April, and in tunnel shelters - at the end of May.

Try to place the seedlings in the holes at the same depth at which the plants grew in the seedling box, without exposing the roots and without digging its basal neck. Pepper does not like cold soil, and if you want to get a serious harvest, arrange for it to be raised by 25-55 centimeters.

Remember, pepper is highly susceptible to pollination, so if you plant several of its varieties on your site, try to place them at the maximum distance from each other and, if possible, separate them from each other using plantings of tall tomatoes, and.

Growing pepper by planting seeds in open ground is impractical even in the southern regions. It will still be necessary to sow late, when the soil warms up, the plant will develop more slowly, the first fruits will ripen later, and the fruiting period of the pepper will be significantly shorter.

Pepper Care

Pepper care consists of timely watering, garters, weeding and top dressing. The first feeding of pepper seedlings must be carried out in the phase of 1-2 true leaves, for which 0.5 g of ammonium nitrate, 1 g of potassium fertilizers and 3 g of superphosphate are mixed in 1 liter of water. The second top dressing 2 weeks after the first, the dose of mineral fertilizers for it must be doubled.

Feeding pepper seedlings is effective with a special infusion, for the preparation of which it is necessary to take 1 part of nettle and 10 parts of water - we insist 2 days. The last top dressing should be carried out 2 days before you intend to plant seedlings in a permanent place, while increasing the dose of potash fertilizers to 7 g per 1 liter of water. During the season, you need to make about 3-4 top dressings of pepper - 1:10, alternating such top dressings with foliar ones, for which you need to use mineral fertilizers, such as nitrophoska (a tablespoon per bucket of water).

With a lack of potassium, pepper leaves curl and a drying border appears on them. But with potassium, you need to be careful - pepper does not tolerate an abundance of potassium chloride. If the plant lacks nitrogen, its leaves become dull and, acquiring a grayish tint, gradually become smaller. When there is a lack of phosphorus, the underside of the pepper leaves turns deep purple, and the leaves themselves are pressed closer to the stem of the plant and rise up. If there is a lack of magnesium, the leaves become marbled, and an excess of nitrogen in the soil leads to the dropping of ovaries and pepper flowers.

In hot and humid weather, it is imperative to carry out pinching (removal of lateral shoots), especially for the lower stepchildren, and vice versa, if the weather is hot but dry, the plants do not pinch, since the leaf mass perfectly protects soil moisture from evaporation. Experienced vegetable growers advise removing the central flower on the plant growing from the first branch, this will help increase the yield.

During the growing season, peppers must be cut several times, trying to shorten the longest shoots and ensure the absence of shaded branches. Be sure to remove all shoots of pepper below the main fork of its stem, as well as branches inside the crown. Pruning must be done every ten days and after harvesting. Simultaneously with pruning, soil cultivation is also carried out.

Try to attract pollinators to the garden, for this, during flowering, spray the plants with a sugar solution: 100 g of sugar and 2 g of boric acid per liter of hot water. An excellent result is given by feeding peppers with liquid organic fertilizers.

It is useful to mulch pepper with rotted straw - a layer of about 10 cm, so you can reduce the frequency of watering, reducing them to once every 9-10 days. Timely care of pepper plants also consists in gartering plants. It is necessary to make a garter after hilling and mulching.

Pests and diseases

The most common peppers are: , white rot, macrosporiosis, top rot, septoria, black leg. More than others, pepper is harmed, scoop, and. To protect the pepper from damage, one hour before planting its seedlings, pre-made holes must be filled with water. Having planted seedlings of pepper, again spray plantings with a sprayer. During the season, 3 times pepper plants must be pollinated with wood ash - better by dew. This will also help protect them from pests.

If you notice pepper seedlings, treat the pepper with whey - one and a half liters per bucket of water. After this procedure, powder the plants with sifted wood ash.

Peppers, both sweet and bitter (burning), I grow in my summer cottage (Siberia, Altai) through seedlings in the open field using film shelters.

Planting seedlings in our area, depending on weather conditions, is carried out in late May - early June. This season, for example, I planted peppers on May 28th. Unlike tomato seedlings, which had outgrown a little by the planting date (May 16), the peppers, on the contrary, turned out to be just fine. They have already formed the beginnings of buds, some bitter peppers even opened flowers - this state of the plants at the time of planting is the most suitable.

Seedlings of sweet pepper before planting

Hot pepper seedlings before planting

The seedlings of peppers had already been transported to my country house for several days and placed on a sunny windowsill, and, in the end, some pests (apparently, two-tailed earwigs) had already scouted the path to it - on some plants there were slight damage to the leaves.

Damage to the leaves of pepper seedlings by pests

This also served as an extra reason not to delay the planting of peppers any further.

The weather on the date of landing, as often happens at this time of the year, was not very favorable.

In our area, strong spring winds are a common thing.

A strong gusty wind did not let me work all day, but by the evening it still calmed down, and I immediately started planting seedlings of peppers in the ground.

The beds have been prepared for me for a long time, the arcs for fixing the covering film in place, the film itself is also at the ready, so the landing went quickly and quickly. I have few peppers - only about 50 roots on two beds. One bed is prepared for hot peppers, and the other for two varieties of sweet (Kupets and Morozko). These varieties are proven, reliable - they are distinguished by good yields, unpretentiousness and good fruit quality. I use my own seeds, so all plants grow healthy and strong. To exclude the slightest possibility of cross-pollination of sweet and bitter peppers, just in case, I place their beds away from each other (30 meters).

Pepper beds have been filled with humus since autumn, so I don’t apply any fertilizers in spring. Planting seedlings of sweet and bitter peppers is very simple, and everything is done in almost the same way as with tomatoes.

First, with an ordinary spatula, I mark holes for seedlings in a row in two rows (50 cm between rows), so that there is a distance of 25-30 cm between plants in a row (slightly less than for tomatoes).

Holes for planting seedlings dug in the garden

Seedlings for convenience lay out along the beds

Then I take the plants out of the cups, lower them into the prepared holes and immediately fill them with soil. In order for the plants to be extracted better, and the soil does not crumble, I water all the seedlings the day before planting.

Planting pepper seedlings

Unlike seedlings of tomatoes, I do not bury peppers when planting, but plant them at the same level as they grew in cups. It would be possible to immediately put the support pegs for the plants, but I simply did not have enough time for this - the wind did not give such an opportunity. But, nothing, it is quite possible to do this later, when the weather improves. I planted some plants for the experiment, as well as tomatoes, two in one hole to see what would come of it.

After the bed was completely planted, all the peppers were carefully and plentifully (10 liters per 8-10 plants) poured from a watering can with warm water heated in the sun.

A bed of peppers planted and watered

Hot pepper plant after planting

Then he covered the beds with peppers with the prepared strips of the covering sheet and carefully fixed it on the arcs, because in the morning the wind will begin to play tricks again, which means that everything must be done firmly and firmly!

Shelter in the garden is securely fixed

This completed the planting of pepper seedlings. They didn't take much time or effort.

Now for a week you can not touch anything, do not water, do not loosen, but just make sure that the plants are not too cold at night, and if frosts come, then be sure to additionally cover the plantings with a second protective layer - already from plastic film. And if a bright, burning spring sun appears during the day, then on the contrary, you have to tear off the beds so that the peppers are not too hot. All these troubles last in our area until June 10-15, when the threat of frost recedes completely, and the winds also subside.

Then it will be necessary to take care of the peppers - watering, loosening, weeding, top dressing, and so on until the time of the harvest!

But for the care, peppers will always thank the diligent gardener with magnificent, beautiful, excellent, juicy fruits! And very helpful!