Content
Bell peppers and eggplants are often grown side by side: in adjacent beds or in the same greenhouse. These cultures have a lot in common:
- demanding care;
- high frequency of watering;
- love for nutritious soils;
- equal timing of seed sowing;
- approximately equal fruit ripening time;
- The most important factor is thermophilicity.
This similarity allows you to simultaneously grow pepper and eggplant seeds for seedlings. Find out how to do this correctly and get a high harvest next season in this article.
What stages must the seeds go through?
Many summer residents and gardeners with experience have negative experience of independent growing pepper seedlings and eggplants. As a rule, these crops have poor germination, do not like picking, and are slow to adapt to a permanent location. As a result, the gardener loses most of the seedlings, which affects the vegetable harvest.
To reduce seedling losses, you must follow all recommendations and not skip any of the steps below. So, pepper and eggplant seedlings need to be planted in several stages:
- Determining the timing of sowing seeds.
- Selection of seed material.
- Preparing containers for seedlings.
- Mixing soil for seedlings.
- Processing and hardening of seeds.
- Germination of seeds.
- Planting seeds in the ground.
- Waiting for shoots.
- Caring for young seedlings.
- Picking (if necessary).
- Hardening of seedlings before planting in a permanent place.
- Transferring seedlings to beds or to a greenhouse.
Calculating the date of sowing seeds
To correctly determine the time of sowing seeds for seedlings, you need to know the ripening time of the selected variety, as well as the climatic features of the region. Basically, the growing season of bell peppers ranges from 90 to 140 days, for eggplants this time is slightly longer - 100-150 days.
In the southern regions of Russia, most gardeners bring seedlings of peppers and eggplants to the ground in early May; for the middle zone, this is mid or late May. In the north and the Urals, heat-loving peppers and eggplants are most often grown in greenhouses or greenhouses, but there are varieties suitable for the climate of these regions. In this case, you need to transfer the seedlings to the beds no earlier than the beginning of June, when the air temperature stabilizes and the threat of night frosts disappears.
Considering that sprouts from pepper and eggplant seeds appear on the 8-15th day after sowing, you can calculate the approximate time of planting seedlings - this is the end of February or the beginning of March. It was during this period that gardeners and summer residents of most of Russia fill the window sills of their apartments with boxes of vegetable seedlings.
Selection and preparation of seeds for planting
First of all, the gardener must decide on the variety of pepper or eggplant. If this is not your first experience of growing seedlings yourself, in principle, you can choose any varieties.
And for those who are just trying to grow their own seedlings, It is better to buy seeds of the most unpretentious varieties of peppers and eggplants. Typically, such varieties are not distinguished by high yields or unusual fruits - as a rule, these are the most common, average crops. But these plants tolerate replanting much better, are not so demanding to care for, and provide a low but stable yield.
Experienced gardeners are well aware of all the rules for growing seedlings of each crop, and for beginners, comprehensive information about this is indicated on the package with seeds. A good agricultural company can be easily identified from the information on the seed packaging; it should contain:
- ripening time for peppers or eggplants;
- planting scheme;
- recommended soil;
- temperature limits;
- information about the endurance and yield of the variety;
- data on disinfection and other seed treatments.
Having decided on the seeds, you can proceed to the next stage - processing. As a rule, expensive seeds from trusted agricultural companies have already undergone all the necessary preparation for planting.You can verify this by looking at the information on the packaging, and some companies color processed seed material or seal the seeds in colored capsules, like glaze.
When the seeds were collected by a summer resident from last year’s own harvest, all preparatory activities must be performed in the following sequence:
- Soak the seeds in a one percent manganese solution for 20-30 minutes. After this, the pepper seeds and eggplant are washed under a stream of cold water. This procedure is aimed at disinfecting the seed material.
- Special growth stimulants help improve the germination of pepper and eggplant seeds. You can prepare such a mixture yourself: zinc, manganese, sulfate and boric acid, ammonium molybdate. The seeds are placed in this composition for a couple of days, after which they are washed and dried.
- Pickling is usually performed in an industrial setting. Essentially, this is the application of pesticides (granules or powder) to the seeds.
- Hardening is necessary for absolutely all eggplant and pepper seeds, otherwise the plants of these heat-loving crops will die when the ambient temperature drops sharply. You need to harden the seeds in several stages, alternately placing them in a warm place and on the top shelf of the refrigerator. The duration of each procedure is 10-12 hours, the number of temperature changes is about four.
These measures contribute to better germination, rapid seed pecking, and rapid seedling growth.
Germination of seeds
Growing eggplant and pepper seedlings will be more effective if the seeds are germinated before planting in the ground. This stage will only take a few days (3 to 5), but the result will be much better.
To germinate, pepper and eggplant seeds are placed on damp cotton cloth or cotton pads. It is not recommended to use gauze or a bandage for these purposes, since fragile sprouts often cling to the mesh of thread and break.
There is no need to pour too much water on the fabric - pepper and eggplant seeds should not float, it is enough to maintain constant moisture in the fabric or cotton wool.
Preparing containers for seedlings and filling them with soil
As mentioned earlier, it is better to immediately grow seedlings of peppers and eggplants in individual pots - these plants do not tolerate picking well. From these considerations peppers and eggplants are rarely grown in large boxes; the most suitable container for them is small plastic pots.
The diameter of the pot for bell pepper seedlings is 4 cm; for eggplants you need larger containers - about 5 cm.
To further reduce the risk of damage to pepper and eggplant seedlings during transplantation, the seeds of these crops can be sown in peat cups. Such seedlings are transferred to the soil along with the container - the peat decomposes in the soil without interfering with root growth.
One thing can be said about the soil for peppers and eggplants - these crops love light and crumbly soils, rich in nutrients and oxygen. Each experienced gardener has his own “recipe” for preparing a substrate for seedlings of these fastidious plants. The most successful of them are mixtures:
- turf soil, sand, humus;
- peat, humus, sawdust;
- garden soil, humus manure;
- turf soil, peat, vermicult.
The prepared substrate must be disinfected; the best way is to calcinate the soil in the oven. You can treat the soil with special antibacterial agents.
Prepared containers for peppers and eggplants are filled with substrate, pouring a layer of no more than 7 cm. The soil is spilled with settled warm water with the addition of manganese and left for 10-12 hours.
Sowing seeds
Germinated seeds should be sown immediately after being removed from a damp cloth. Two grooves are made in the soil of each cup. Their depth should be about 1 cm, and the distance between them should be at least two centimeters. It is better to plant two seeds in each container at once; later, when each plant has three true leaves, the weaker sprout should be removed.
The seeds are carefully placed in the soil and sprinkled with substrate. There is no need to compact the soil; pepper and eggplant seeds love air. There is no need to water newly sown seeds either; the first watering should last for at least 4-5 days.
It is better to cover the containers with plastic wrap or glass. This helps retain moisture and maintain the temperature inside the cups with seeds.
Peppers and eggplants need a temperature of about 28 degrees to germinate, so for the first few days you need to keep containers with seeds in a very warm place.
As soon as the first shoots appear, the film must be removed, otherwise the plants will turn yellow and disappear.
Seven days after emergence, the temperature must be reduced to 23 degrees. During this period, the root system of eggplant and pepper seedlings is formed. After 5 days you can return to the previous temperature regime.
Seedling care
Caring for peppers and eggplants is quite difficult - these crops require constant attention. Therefore, at the stage of growing seedlings, the gardener needs to:
- water plants approximately once every five days. At first, it is better to do this with a spray bottle or a teaspoon, so as not to wash away the soil around the tender sprouts. Subsequently, watering can be done with a watering can, being careful not to pour water on the leaves. Seedlings located behind glass can get sunburned by water droplets. To water eggplant and pepper seedlings, you need to use soft water, boiled or settled. The ideal option is melt or rain water.
- Pepper seedlings and eggplants love nutrient soils, these plants need regular fertilization. To stimulate the growth of seedlings and the growth of green mass, it is necessary to fertilize them with nitrogen compounds.
- If there is not enough sunlight, peppers and eggplants need add additional illumination artificially. To do this, use lamps installed at a distance of 15 cm from the plants. They are turned on for 10-12 hours a day, the rest of the time the seedlings should “sleep”, they are covered with a thick cloth, and the lamps are turned off.
- Must be endured temperature regime. During the daytime, the room temperature should be about 25 degrees, and at night the temperature should be reduced to 15 degrees.This will help the eggplants and peppers get used to the natural conditions that await them in the garden.
- Seedlings begin ventilatewhen there are three true leaves on the stems. First, open the window on the window near which the containers with eggplants and peppers are located. Then the plants can be taken out onto the loggia or balcony. After 10-14 days, they begin to take the seedlings outside, gradually increasing the time they spend in the fresh air. 10 days before transplanting the seedlings to the beds, young peppers and eggplants should calmly withstand the whole day in the fresh air.
- To disembark eggplant seedlings and peppers need to be prepared. 10-12 hours before this, the plants are watered generously with warm water. It is better to transplant on a cloudy day or do it in the evening when the heat subsides.
Additional recommendations
No matter how hard gardeners try to grow decent seedlings, there is always a risk of making a mistake. In the case of peppers and eggplants, even a small mistake can be fatal - these plants are too delicate.
Experienced farmers advise:
- Avoid drafts.
- Place containers with seedlings on south-eastern and south-western window sills.
- Create high humidity in the room using household humidifiers or a wet towel on a radiator.
- Every 3-4 days, rotate the cups with eggplants and peppers around their axis so that the plants are evenly illuminated by the sun and their stems do not tilt in one direction.
Compliance with all the rules and recommendations will help novice gardeners grow their seedlings. And this will save you from buying low-quality pepper and eggplant plants, help you replant as quickly as possible, and ensure high yields of tasty and healthy fruits.
Sowing pepper and eggplant seeds for seedlings is a completely feasible task for every farmer.
