Content
- 1 Preparing the soil for eggplant seedlings
- 2 Preparing eggplant seed material for planting
- 3 Sowing eggplant grains in the ground
- 4 Organizing proper lighting for eggplant seedlings
- 5 Adding fertilizer to the soil
- 6 Transplanting eggplant seedlings into large containers
- 7 Watering seedlings from the first days of its life
- 8 Hardening of seedlings
- 9 Planting seedlings in their permanent place
- 10 Caring for planted seedlings
Eggplants, like many garden crops, love light, warmth and regular watering. Young sprouts have a slow pace of development, which is not suitable for growing in the climatic conditions of the middle zone. Growing seedlings will help improve the survival rate and yield of the crop. First of all, it is necessary to select high-quality seed material, process and sow it. Further measures are aimed at caring for eggplant seedlings, on the correctness of which the development of plants depends.
Preparing the soil for eggplant seedlings
The intensity of plant development depends on the fertility of the soil. Soil for growing eggplant seedlings It’s easier to buy at a specialized retail outlet. It is sold already with all the added microelements. Alternatively, it’s easy to prepare the soil yourself.
Loose soil will allow moisture and oxygen to penetrate to the plant roots.It is important to disinfect the soil before sowing.
Self-preparing the soil involves mixing 1 part peat, 2 parts humus and adding half of this total mass of wood shavings. The quality of clay soil can be improved by adding washed river sand. Soil from the garden where cabbage or cucumbers used to grow is good for eggplant seedlings. Disinfect the soil with boiling water. There are 2 ways here:
- pour boiling water with thickly dissolved manganese over the ground;
- The prepared soil is steamed over boiling water using a sieve for 30 minutes.
The simplest preparations are suitable for feeding. It's easy to make wood ash yourself by burning a few logs. In the store you only have to buy potassium, superphosphate and urea.
Preparing eggplant seed material for planting
Eggplant grains begin to be prepared long before they are sowing. It is important to decide on the location of planting the seedlings in order to approximately know the timing of preparation and sowing of seeds. If the plants are supposed to be planted in a vegetable garden under film, then sowing will occur in the third decade of March. When growing eggplants in a greenhouse, sowing can begin in the third decade of February or early March.
Preparation of seed material involves their disinfection. Eggplant grains are immersed in a saturated solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour, after which they are washed with clean water. The following treatment is aimed at accelerating germination. As growth stimulants, you can take store-bought solutions or prepare them yourself from 1 liter of water + 0.5 kg of boric acid. A solution of 1 liter of water + 100 ml of aloe juice shows good results.
Sprouting will help speed up germination and protect yourself from sowing empty grains.Eggplant seeds are wrapped in wet cotton cloth or gauze, placed on a saucer, covered with film and placed in a warm place with a temperature of 25OWITH.
Sowing eggplant grains in the ground
Small round or square plastic cups are optimal for sowing eggplant seeds. You can’t save money here, and it’s better to plant 3 seeds in each container. When the eggplant grains sprout, two weak sprouts are removed, and the strong ones are left to grow. Before sowing, water the soil in cups. You can take plain tap water, let it stand for a couple of days and dissolve a few manganese crystals until you get a pale solution.
The sprouted seed is carefully buried in the soil to a depth of about 2 cm. There is no longer any need to water the soil; just cover all the sown cups with film and place them in a warm place. Sown sprouted grains will hatch within 5 days. If the seeds were unprepared and dry, germination should be expected on the 10th day. After the shoots have emerged, the film is removed from the cups and taken to a cooler place. However, you can't overdo it. The temperature where the eggplant seedlings will continue to grow should be a maximum of 5OFrom below from the place where the cups with seeds stood immediately after sowing.
Organizing proper lighting for eggplant seedlings
Sprouted young eggplant sprouts need to be provided with intense lighting from the first days. They receive most of it through the window, however, this is not enough for early February seedlings.Winter daylight hours are short and are not enough for the full development of the plant. The problem can be solved by installing artificial lighting.
Simple incandescent light bulbs will not work here. The best results are shown by fluorescent and LED paws or a combination of both. There is practically no heat emanating from them, but the lamps provide a lot of light. It is important to keep the light source as close as possible to the plant, which is 150 mm. The lighting is turned on approximately 2 hours before dawn, and also after dark in the evening. The time to turn the lamps on and off is easy to calculate, based on the fact that daylight hours for eggplant seedlings should last at least 14 hours. Reducing the duration of lighting threatens weak development of seedlings and late formation of buds.
It is recommended to turn on the lamps several hours before dawn and after sunset, thereby increasing the duration of daylight up to 14 hours. Otherwise, eggplant seedlings develop less intensively, and the flower buds on them will form much later.
Adding fertilizer to the soil
It is important to support young shoots at the initial stage of their growth. First time eggplant seedlings are fed after the appearance of two full leaves. You can wait until the third leaf grows. For feeding, make a solution of 1 liter of water, 1 g of potassium, 1 tsp. wood ash, 0.5 tsp. nitrate and 4 g of superphosphate.
The second time the seedlings are fed with organic fertilizers 10 days after the first application of fertilizing.Eggplant seedlings react instantly to organic matter, and after 3 days they grow rapidly. For the second feeding, you will need to prepare a solution of 1 part fermented chicken manure and 15 parts water.
The third feeding is considered the main one, which is performed 1 week before planting eggplant seedlings in the ground. Vegetable growers usually use superphosphate. This fertilizer is poorly soluble in water, so the solution is prepared in advance. For 1 liter of hot water, dilute 1 tbsp. l. fertilizers, and periodically stirring this liquid, wait about 1 day until the superphosphate is completely dissolved. The next day, a clean layer of water should form on top of the jar, which must be drained. The remaining saturated solution is diluted at the rate of 1 tsp. in a bucket of water, and feed the eggplant seedlings.
Transplanting eggplant seedlings into large containers
If the seeds were initially sown in small containers with a diameter of up to 50 mm, after about a month the mature plants will have little space and are transplanted into large glasses. Containers with a diameter of 80 mm and a wall height of up to 100 mm are ideal. To avoid damaging the root system, seedlings are watered abundantly before transplanting. By turning the glass over, the plant will easily come out along with a lump of earth. All that remains is to place it in a new large container with soil, and then carefully sprinkle loose soil on top.
Transplanted eggplant seedlings Place in large glasses on the windowsill, and cover the glass with white paper for 2 days.During this period, the plant requires moderate lighting.
Watering seedlings from the first days of its life
At growing eggplant seedlings We must remember that newly hatched sprouts do not require watering. It is enough to moisten slightly dried soil from a spray bottle with warm, settled water. The sprouted seedlings are watered for the first time on the third day. The interval for further watering is set after 5 days. It is best to water the seedlings before lunch at about 11 o'clock in the afternoon. It is important not to wet the delicate leaves of plants and not to flood the soil until silt forms.
If the soil dries out faster due to high indoor temperatures, water the seedlings after 3 days. It is important to loosen the soil under each plant to allow oxygen to enter.
Hardening of seedlings
Indoor culture is very delicate and is not immediately suitable for outdoor planting. Plants need adaptation to the external environment, which is achieved through hardening. The hardening process begins approximately 2 weeks before planting in the ground. Eggplant seedlings are taken out for a short time to a cold veranda or balcony, increasing the stay time every day. If you have a greenhouse, seedlings can be taken out for hardening at the end of April. However, night frosts will still have a negative impact on the plants, so they are covered at night with an additional structure with an awning. During the day the covering is removed.
Planting seedlings in their permanent place
The time for planting seedlings depends on the place where they are grown. By this time, the plant should have formed from 8 to 12 full leaves. When growing eggplants in a greenhouse, planting seedlings starts on May 5th. The same numbers are followed when planting in open ground in the southern regions.For the northern and steppe regions, the optimal landing time is considered to be the middle and end of May, but it all depends on weather conditions.
During planting, each plant is carefully removed from the cup so as not to disturb the lump of soil with the root system. Thus, the seedlings take root faster and immediately begin to grow. Plants grown in pots will produce an eggplant harvest 25 days earlier than seedlings grown in boxes. When planting, maintain a distance between rows of 700 mm, and the spacing of each plant is 250 mm. If the seedlings were grown in a box, the plants are carefully removed and buried 80 mm. Here you need to pay attention that the root collar is recessed by 15 mm. After planting, each seedling is watered.
Caring for planted seedlings
4 days after planting eggplant seedlings in the ground, all plants are inspected. If some have poor survival rates or the seedlings have generally dried out, new plants are planted in their place.
In summer, eggplants are watered every 9 days. During drought, the intensity of watering can be increased. After each watering, be sure to fluff up the soil to a depth of 80 mm. On the 20th day after planting, it is necessary to apply the first fertilizing of 100 g of urea per 10 m2. The second time is fed 3 weeks after the first application of fertilizers. For the same area, 150 g of superphosphate and 100 g of urea are buried in the soil using a hoe, after which the beds are watered.
The video shows how to care for seedlings:
If everything was done correctly at the initial stage, healthy seedlings will bring a good harvest of eggplants. It is only important to protect the crop from the Colorado potato beetle, which loves to eat it.
