Choosing sweet pepper seeds, suitable for salads, it is best to pay attention to thick-walled varieties. Such peppers have a very juicy and tasty wall, which is used as food. Thick-walled peppers intended for use in salads, as well as for cooking and winter preparations. They are good stuffed and in lecho.
Pepper varieties are zoned by region, so when choosing planting material you need to pay attention to what area a particular variety is intended for. If liberties are still permissible for the southern regions, then in the northern regions everything is somewhat more serious due to the too short summer period.
Northerners are better off choosing early and mid-season varieties of pepper produced by agricultural companies in their regions.
Pepper seeds sweet early thick-walled products beyond the Urals are offered by the companies “Uralsky Dachanik” and “Semena Altai”.
Varieties of early ripening peppers
From the company "Ural Summer Resident"
Turquoise
Early ripening variety. It takes 75 days from planting seedlings to fruiting. The thickness of the pericarp is up to 10 mm. The fruit is cube-shaped, almost identical in height and width, with sides 11 by 11 cm. Ripe fruits are red.
Atlantic F1
Actually, a hybrid of foreign selection from the Seminis company. Offered by the Ural Summer Resident for sale in the northern regions due to the ripening period of the crop of 70 days. The peppers are very large, weighing up to 400 g. The pericarp is 9 mm thick. The planting density of bushes of this variety is recommended to be 2 bushes per square meter. m.
Magnificent century
Early ripening variety. The shape of the peppers is very convenient for stuffing. The dimensions are also almost ideal for this purpose, since the fruits are medium, weighing up to 180 g. The pericarp is up to 12 mm.
Hercules
Early ripening variety. It takes 95 days from the emergence of seedlings to harvest. Peppers are cube-shaped, up to 12 cm long. Thick-walled peppers are classified as “on the verge.” The thickness of the pericarp is on average 6 mm.
Drive F1
Early maturing hybrid Dutch selection intended for cultivation in greenhouses. The dark yellow pepper has a length of up to 17 cm and a weight of up to 200 g. The pericarp is up to 1 cm thick. This is one of the largest and thickest-walled peppers among the colored varieties. The fruits are formed sequentially, allowing you to harvest from one bush for quite a long time.
Highway F1
It is one of the earliest varieties of pepper. It bears fruit in mid-summer. The peppers are not very beautifully shaped, looking like a crooked prism. Large, weighing from 180 g and up to 14 cm long. The pericarp is 7 to 11 mm thick. The hybrid is resistant to adverse weather conditions and blossom end rot. It has high productivity.
The Ural Summer Resident company is practically the only one that offers truly early-ripening varieties of sweet peppers, taking into account the region. Other Trans-Ural companies offer early-ripening varieties with a ripening period of at least 100 days.
Residents of the southern regions of Russia, as well as residents of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, have a much wider choice of thick-walled sweet peppers. They can grow early varieties of peppers with a ripening period of 100 to 110 days. In the conditions of Siberia, such varieties should already be classified as mid-season.
The Aelita company offers early-ripening varieties of thick-walled peppers with a fruiting period of 115 days. This company carries out wholesale deliveries only. Seeds of her selection can be found in other specialized stores.
Big Daddy
Selection of the company "Aelita". Thick-walled (pericarp up to 8 mm) early-ripening variety with ripening period of peppers up to 120 days. Fruits of an interesting purple color, weighing up to 100 g. A variety for universal use. Very good for stuffing.
Big gold
Early ripening variety. The harvest can be harvested 95 days after planting. Peppers weighing 200 g. Wall up to 8 mm thick. Ripe peppers are a beautiful golden yellow color. The variety is universal.
The SeDeK company offers early ripening varieties:
Annushka F1
Ripening time is up to 110 days. Peppers are prismatic, weighing 200 g. The walls of the pod are 6 mm thick. Very productive. Gives up to 7 kg per square meter. The hybrid is offered for culinary processing and fresh consumption.
Apollo F1
An early ripening hybrid with a ripening period of 105 days. Can grow and bear fruit in open and closed ground. The fruits are large, prism-shaped, weighing up to 200 g. The pericarp is 8 mm thick. The variety is valuable for its high yield (7 kg per square meter) and good keeping quality.The purpose is universal.
Western
Early ripening (100 days) variety with medium-sized fruits weighing up to 100 g. Pericarp 7 mm thick. A variety of pepper for universal use. Recommended for salads and culinary processing. The advantages of the variety are: uniform fruit formation, resistance to blossom end rot and high yield.
Jack
An early ripe (110 days) variety with large, bright orange fruits weighing up to 200 g when ripe. Designed for growing in open beds and in greenhouse conditions. The purpose of the variety is universal.
The choice of pepper seeds today is very large; it is unlikely that you can buy everything you want, simply because there is not enough space in the beds. Pepper seeds cannot be stored for more than five years. At the same time, they gradually lose their viability. This point should be taken into account if you want to buy seeds “for next year.”
Preparing for sowing
When purchasing seeds, first of all, you should give preference to seeds from trusted manufacturers. Whether to save money by buying cheaper seeds is up to the gardener to decide, but certain points should be taken into account.
Expensive seeds from well-known manufacturers are treated with antifungal drugs, microelements and growth stimulants in preparation for sale. This is usually indicated on the packaging. Such seeds are brightly colored, often in a “signature” color, and are completely ready for planting. All you need to do with such a seed is put it in a planting container and sprinkle it with soil.
Home-grown or unbranded cheap seeds require pre-planting treatment, as they can be contaminated with pathogenic microflora.
Germination test
There is always a risk of buying low-quality seed material and missing the most favorable days for planting. In order not to waste time when you need to plant seeds for seedlings, it is better to check them for germination in advance. To do this, select several grains from purchased bags for testing, tie them in a cloth and place them in water at a temperature of + 25°C for a day. After a day, they are taken out, placed directly with the bundle on a tray and placed in a warm place for 4 days.
After which the seeds are planted in the ground and wait for germination, maintaining soil moisture and high temperature.
Calibration
After determining the quality of the seeds and whether they are worth the time, the seeds need to be calibrated. In simple terms, select the best. Not all grains will sprout. Some of them may simply be empty. Medium-sized seeds are usually selected for sowing, screening out those that are too small and those that are too large.
Salt water calibration
You can identify empty achenes by placing the seeds in a salt solution. To do this, add 30–40 grams of table salt per liter of water. You may encounter the expression “three or four percent” salt solution. Or 30-40‰ (ppm). It's all the same thing. Especially considering that chemical precision is not required in this case.
Drop the seeds into the solution and stir a little so that they are moistened with water. After 7 - 10 minutes, good seeds will settle to the bottom, and empty achenes will remain at the top, which must be collected and discarded.
Not all gardeners like this method, as they believe that not only empty achenes remain at the top, but also dried seeds. Here the choice is up to the owner of the seeds.In fact, with a soaked upper peel, you can even tell by touch whether there is a seed in the achene or whether it is completely empty.
Good seeds should be removed from the saline solution, washed with fresh water and dried thoroughly.
Disinfection
After calibration, it is necessary to treat the seeds in a two percent solution of potassium permanganate, provided that the seeds have not previously been treated by the manufacturer.
Seeds, wrapped in a linen bag, are immersed in a solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour. After disinfection, they are washed with water and dried.
Instead of potassium permanganate solution, you can use special fungicidal preparations. In this case, the seeds are treated according to the instructions included with the preparation.
Treatment with microelements
There is an opinion that such treatment improves seed germination, increases resistance to diseases and adverse weather conditions. However, given that peppers are usually grown through seedlings that are kept indoors, the thesis about bad weather conditions is controversial.
At home, this treatment is carried out using an infusion of wood ash, which contains approximately 30 microelements necessary for pepper.
20 grams of ash, diluted in 1 liter of water, are infused for 24 hours. Then a bag of seeds is placed in the infusion for 5 hours. After a while, the peppercorns are taken out, washed again with water and dried.
When using purchased formulations, the seeds are processed according to the instructions.
Growth stimulants
Before planting, seeds are treated with a purchased or improvised stimulant to speed up germination and improve germination. At home, the best growth stimulator is considered to be nettle brewed with boiling water. 1 tbsp. spoon of nettle per glass of boiling water. Purchased ones are used according to the instructions.
The seeds are soaked in a growth stimulator for 1 hour. After this, you can plant them in the ground or carry out an additional procedure.
Soaking before sowing
After these manipulations, the seeds can be placed on a wet rag or foam rubber and wait until they swell. Considering that before this, the pepper grains had already been wet and dry for a good quarter of a day, and the shell had softened, they will swell quickly. The swollen peppercorns can be planted in a seedling container or left on damp material until the root hatches, and the seeds that have already hatched can be planted. The moisture level of the foam rubber or cloth must be constantly monitored.
Peppercorns that are lagging behind in development are thrown away.
Bubbling
Instead of soaking and germinating pepper seeds on damp material, you can use bubbling.
For pepper grains, bubbling is carried out for a day to a day and a half. This method allows you to saturate the seeds with oxygen. It's essentially a "jacuzzi for seeds." It is easy to do at home if you have a regular aquarium compressor for pumping air.
The first video shows how to make a bubbling device from a regular two-liter plastic bottle.
Bubbling can be combined with soaking peppercorns in a solution of microelements or a growth stimulator.Then it will be possible to remove at least two, or even three operations from preparing seeds for sowing (if you add microelements and a growth stimulator to the water).
Bubbling does not have to be done in a device like the one in the first video. You can place the air atomizer from the compressor in a regular jar. In this case, it will be clearly visible when the seeds are saturated with water and oxygen, become heavier and sink to the bottom. In the first case, you will not be able to see this.
Bubbling is carried out at a water temperature of 21°C. If the seeds begin to hatch, the compressor is stopped and the grains are planted in the soil. Or placed in the refrigerator for hardening.
Hardening
After germination, seeds can be placed in the refrigerator for a period of 3 days to 1 week. This procedure helps peppercorns more easily adapt to temperature changes in the future and make it easier to transplant seedlings into open ground.
After hardening, the pepper grains are placed in a seedling container filled with soil and sprinkled with soil on top. You can do this even before hardening, after the soaking stage.
This is the end of the gardener's torment seed preparation We are running out of sweet peppers for sowing. Next, the cultivation of seedlings begins.
