Content
Sweet peppers are one of gardeners’ favorite vegetables. Today, choosing the right seeds is difficult, since there are many varieties and hybrids. Lesya pepper is an amazing plant with many advantages. The characteristics of the variety, rules of cultivation and care will be discussed in the article.
Description
The variety was created by Ukrainian breeders. Lesya pepper can be grown throughout Russia and the CIS countries due to the unpretentiousness of the plant. It is distinguished by its ultra-earliness, the first fruits are harvested 4 months after sowing the seeds for seedlings.
Bushes
Pepper bushes of the Lesya variety are low, grow up to 60 cm, and are very spreading. There are many smooth leaves, they are the same size as peppercorns. The plants are high-yielding, each bush can produce up to 35 fruits with proper care.
Attention! To prevent the stems from breaking, the Lesya variety must be tied to a support.
Fruit
From the description of the Lesya variety on the package, as well as from the reviews of gardeners, it is clear that the peppers are not too large, up to 10 cm in length, heart-shaped. Each of them has a long nose, sometimes it is curved. Fruits have a smooth and shiny surface, no ribs.
The cut clearly shows that Lesya peppers have thick fleshy walls ranging from 8-10 mm. The weight of one fruit is about 160 grams, and each fruit contains up to 30 fruits. So much for the yield! This characteristic is perfectly confirmed by the photo of the Lesya variety.
Pepper Lesya captivates with its sweet taste, juicy and aromatic pulp. When technically ripe, the fruits are dark green, becoming dark red when ripe. The color is so rich that it stains your hands.
According to the description and reviews from gardeners, Lesya pepper is universally used. Suitable for use:
- fresh;
- for stuffing and baking;
- for frying and freezing;
- for preservation and drying.
Characteristic
To better understand the characteristics of Lesya pepper, let’s look at some of its characteristic features:
- Peppers are early ripening and productive.
- The fruits do not crack on the bushes or during storage.
- Keeping quality is high, peppers do not rot.
- It can be grown in open ground or in a greenhouse.
- The dense fruits of the variety are not damaged during transportation even over long distances.
- You can collect seeds from ripe fruits, because this is a variety, not a hybrid.
- Weather conditions have virtually no effect on yield, especially since Lesya peppers are drought-resistant varieties.
- Plants are resistant to many diseases, although preventive measures should not be abandoned.
What to do before sowing
The sweetest and most delicious peppers of the Lesya variety are obtained from seedlings. To obtain an early harvest, seeds are sown in late February or early March. The sowing dates can be postponed to mid-March, then the peppers will begin to ripen later.
Seed preparation
To get a good harvest, you need to specially prepare the seeds:
- CalibrationDilute the stimulant in a glass and pour in the seeds of the Lesya sweet pepper. Viable seed will fall to the bottom, and puny seeds will float on the surface, unable to produce a full harvest. Unusable seeds are removed, and the rest are left in the solution for 6 hours. Instead of a stimulant, you can use aloe juice; it contains trace elements necessary to stimulate growth.
- Soaking and germination. Pepper seeds, including the Lesya variety, are designed in such a way that they are difficult to germinate. Therefore, it is necessary to stimulate this process.
Soak the seeds in clean warm water for half an hour, then place them in a linen cloth for germination. The seed should be kept in a warm place in the light.
After 5-10 days, tender white dots will appear from the swollen seeds. But it is undesirable to wait for the roots to appear. It is inconvenient to sow such seeds, and it is very easy to injure the roots.
Preparing soil and containers
Sweet pepper of the Lesya variety loves fertile soil. If it is not possible to purchase a ready-made substrate, the mixture is prepared independently:
- humus or compost - 2 parts;
- garden soil - 1 part;
- river sand – 1 part.
In addition, for every kilogram of soil, add one tablespoon of wood ash.
As for mineral fertilizers, they are not applied when preparing the soil for sowing seeds. They will be needed for feeding.
The soil must be disinfected. There are different methods, each gardener chooses the most convenient for him. Here are some options:
- Steaming the soil in an oven for an hour at a temperature of 100-150 degrees.
- Warm up in the microwave at maximum mode for 5-6 minutes.
- Spilling boiling water with crystals of potassium permanganate.
Some gardeners treat the soil for sowing seedlings of sweet peppers of any variety with a solution of boric acid. Don’t forget about containers, especially if they have been in use for several years. They can be doused with boiling water or a solution of boric acid. Plastic seedling boxes are washed with hot water and laundry soap or other detergent.
Growing seedlings
Sowing pepper varieties Lesya is done with dry or germinated seeds. The time of germination depends on this. Seedlings can be grown with subsequent picking or without this operation.
To do this, use ordinary plastic cups or peat pots, the volume of which is at least about.5 liters. It must be remembered that pepper of any variety does not tolerate picking well and slows down its development.
Sowing seeds
Lesya sweet pepper seeds are placed in prepared containers in moist soil to a depth of no more than 1 cm, so as not to impede germination. The step when sowing in a common container is at least 3 cm. It is more convenient to take the swollen or germinated seed with tweezers so as not to damage the seeds.
After planting, carefully water the soil so as not to wash out the seeds, cover with film and place in a warm, well-lit place. The film is lifted daily for ventilation. There is no need to water until the first hooks appear.
When shoots appear, the shelter is removed. Further care consists of moderate watering so as not to provoke plant disease with blackleg.
Picking
When 2-3 true leaves appear on the peppers, the plants planted in a common container are placed in cups with a volume of at least 500 ml. The soil used is the same as when sowing seeds. Plants planted with seeds directly into cups are thinned out, leaving one, the strongest sprout in each vessel.
After watering the Lesya sweet pepper seedlings with warm water, place them in a lighted window and lower the temperature slightly. After two days, they are again placed in comfortable conditions, at a temperature of at least 20 degrees. If there is a lack of light, the seedlings are illuminated artificially.
Seedling care
You need to monitor the top layer of soil so that it does not dry out. Excessive watering is not allowed. After two weeks, seedlings of the Lesya pepper variety are fed. You can use special mineral fertilizers for seedlings or water them with wood ash dissolved in water. Pour 1 tablespoon of sifted ash into a liter jar, add hot water and leave for two hours. The same solution can be used for foliar fertilization as a preventive measure against aphids. Only the solution is made twice as weak.
About 14 days before planting in a permanent place (in a greenhouse or ground), the peppers are hardened, gradually accustoming them to new growing conditions. At the time of planting, the Lesya variety has from 10 to 16 leaves.
Sweet pepper Lesya, reviews from gardeners:
Care in the ground
Les planting of sweet pepper seedlings is timed to coincide with the weather conditions of the region, the main thing is to establish positive temperatures at night. You can plant them in the greenhouse earlier. When growing peppers in open ground, it is advisable to use shelter at first.
Planting seedlings
Since peppers love nutritious soil, peat, compost or humus and always wood ash are added before digging. Fill each well with two liters of boiling water. You can add potassium permanganate.
The holes are made at a distance of 40x40 or 35x45 cm. For early sweet peppers of the Lesya variety, this is enough. When the soil has cooled, the seedlings are planted. It is advisable to take them with a good lump of earth, in this case the seedlings take root better.
Plants are buried down to the first true leaves and the soil is compressed well. Plantings are immediately watered with warm water.
In the future, the peppers are watered in a timely manner only with warm water, the soil is loosened, and the weeds, fed.
For feeding, you can use mineral fertilizers or organic matter: infusion of mullein, bird droppings, green grass. From time to time, peppers are dusted with dry wood ash.
Diseases and pests
Despite the resistance of the Lesya variety to many diseases, it is not always possible to avoid them. The fact is that there may be plants nearby that are easily affected by various viruses. For prevention, special products are used that can be purchased in the store. They are used strictly according to the instructions.
Combined plantings help avoid diseases. Onions, garlic, parsley, marigolds and other strong-smelling plants repel not only diseases, but also pests.
The most ardent enemies of pepper are aphids, slugs, and the Colorado potato beetle. A good effect is obtained by spraying plants with an ash solution (1 kg of ash per 5 liters of water) or soapy water.
