A close relative of the sweet bell pepper is a representative of the nightshade genus - hot red pepper. This perennial subshrub was brought to our country from tropical latitudes. Chili peppers are classified as heat-loving plants that are afraid low temperatures, therefore, in countries with harsh winters, its cultivation requires greenhouse conditions. In order to always have it fresh on hand, it is quite possible to grow chili peppers on the windowsill.
Growing this stinging plant at home on a windowsill cannot be called a difficult task that can cause a lot of trouble. It is important that the plant is not too picky. In fact, there is nothing wrong with choosing seeds for seedlings that are designed to grow in open ground. However, it is still better to opt for homemade seeds.
The most popular varieties of chili peppers for growing at home on a windowsill:
If the leaves suddenly turn yellowish, this indicates a lack of nitrogen, so urea should be added to the fertilizing.
It is necessary to ensure that the soil is not too dry or, conversely, waterlogged. Water the plants with water that has previously settled. With uneven, infrequent watering, seedlings become weak and, due to lack of water, they shed their leaves. The trunk becomes woody prematurely, only a single trunk is formed in the pepper, the plant withers, the period of fruit ripening increases, and fruitfulness decreases.
On the contrary, too wet soil makes the soil denser, suffers root system plants, pepper nutrition deteriorates. Overwatering causes the leaves to turn dark green - a signal about improper care for seedlings.
Peppers can remain unpollinated for various reasons. This often happens when a plant is grown in a greenhouse and, due to inexperience, the vegetable grower did not foresee that insects should somehow get into the structure. In addition, there should be a light breeze “walking” there. It also happens that peppers grown in open ground remain unpollinated. The reason is hidden in the bad weather conditions, and the fact that there were few insects, and they were not able to pollinate the bulk of the inflorescences. What to do?! Realizing that this is a significant threat to being left without a harvest, vegetable growers, together with breeders, have long found an excellent way out of the situation - to pollinate the peppers themselves!
How does pollination occur?
At home, it is quite possible to learn how to pollinate peppers on your own, without the help of experienced people. For convenience, you need to take a toothbrush or something similar.
Today, many have already chosen to replace similar work regular brushes to electric ones. This matter has been taken under special control!
When is the time to pollinate peppers?
Before the plant is ready for pollination, work cannot be done. The petals of the inflorescences, gracefully curved downwards, will indicate readiness. It is important to take into account humidity when pollinating environment, the normal figure is somewhere around 70%. The fact is that high humidity makes the pollen heavy, damp and it seems to stick to the inflorescence and it is impossible to “pluck” it. Low level humidity completely dries out the substance.
For pollination, choose the morning hours when it is cool. However, this process is also performed at lunchtime. There is not much difference, because when everything happens naturally, nothing depends on the time of day. It is also important to remember that pepper cannot always be pollinated at one time, so it is advisable to repeat the procedure several times, with a break of one day.
How are peppers pollinated?
The brush is brought as close as possible to the inflorescence and, only lightly touching it, pollinates, when used electric brush. Pollination occurs without contact. It is enough to turn on the tool and hold it over the inflorescence.
Often, when pollinating, peppers are tied together with a thin cord, passing it at the bottom of the stems, wrapping it around the base of each bush, and when the cord is taut, shake it slightly. This way, all the bushes will begin to sway at the same time, and the pollen will begin to shift, that is, pollination of the peppers will occur. The same effect can be achieved by passing a fan on over each pepper bush, but keep in mind that the power of the unit must be moderate, otherwise the inflorescences can be torn off.
As you can see, everything is ridiculously simple, and you can pollinate peppers yourself at home, room conditions. Therefore, arm yourself with the most suitable device and go ahead and take care of your pepper yourself!
How to understand that pollination was successful?
Unfortunately, you will not be able to understand the effectiveness of pollination until after a week. Only after the specified period will the first fruits begin to appear on the peppers. Only then can we judge that pollination was successful.
Growing peppers in protected ground (in a greenhouse) is the most common and in a simple way. If the soil for planting is prepared correctly, is sufficiently soft and light, and allows moisture to pass through well, then the results are excellent.
Pepper is an agricultural crop that requires well-loosened and breathable soil. Therefore, caring for pepper in a greenhouse involves regular weeding and loosening. If a crop is grown in one place for several seasons in a row, then the soil must be disinfected.
Before planting, the area must be dug up to a depth of approximately 40 cm, and a large number of fertilizers of organic origin, and, if necessary, mineral fertilizers. Typically, well-rotted manure is used for these purposes at a rate of 1-1.5 tons per 100 square meters. Immediately before planting seedlings, the soil should be thoroughly leveled.
The planting pattern directly depends on the plant variety and type of cultivation, that is, on the timing of sowing, the duration of the growing season, etc. The longer this process lasts, and the worse the lighting, the greater the distance between individual bushes should be. Then caring for peppers in the greenhouse will be easier.
Very bushy varieties should be planted according to the scheme 40 x 70 or 50 x 80 cm, respectively, 2-5 or 3-6 pieces per square meter. Varieties with small bushiness are placed according to the scheme 30 x 60 and 40 x 70 cm - 3-6 or 4-8 per square meter.
Care involves: The branches of the plant are quite fragile and break very easily, especially under the heavy weight of ripening fruits. Many varieties that are grown in protected soils can reach a height of one meter, so supports are installed for them.
Caring for peppers in a greenhouse requires the formation of a bush. Depending on the duration of the ripening period and the pattern, they are formed into several stems. The bush should not be too thick. Plants that are pruned in a timely manner begin to bear fruit earlier and more abundantly. But, in turn, this contributes to the risk of diseases in the plant and damage by pests.
Do not forget that the best quality care for peppers in a greenhouse will not give good results, if the plant is not pollinated on time. This should be done as follows: as soon as the first flowers appear, every day at noon you need to lightly shake the bushes. For example, you can carefully hit the structure to which the plants are tied. Pollination also occurs during pepper care activities.
Peppers are considered to be fully ripe once their color begins to change from green to red or yellow. But sometimes it is advisable to remove the fruits earlier to give the remaining peppers a chance to ripen. Well-ripened fruits should have smooth surface, fleshy structure, easy to separate from the stalk.
Depending on the variety, fruiting usually occurs approximately 8-11 weeks after seedlings are planted in the ground. The crop should be harvested every two weeks or as it matures. You need to cut the fruit at the base of the stalk using a knife or pruning shears.
Proper care of pepper in a greenhouse will help you get 5-6 kg during early cultivation, 10-12 kg during an extended cycle, and autumn growing 3-4 kg per square meter.
Sweet pepper is a vegetable crop unique in its properties and taste. Along with hot peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes, many gardeners grow it in open ground and greenhouses. Growing sweet and bitter peppers in a modern greenhouse is not particularly difficult, but requires adherence to a certain technology.
Sweet peppers grown in a greenhouse require a lot of attention. To grow good harvest quality vegetables should comply with all agrotechnical requirements, and caring for sweet peppers begins with the right choice varieties and growing high-quality seedling material.
Variety selection
Sweet bell peppers They are most often grown in greenhouses and most varieties are intended for cultivation in protected soil conditions. It is worth noting that in open ground you can grow healthy and strong plants, and also get a quite decent harvest. However, the heat-loving nature of this vegetable crop still requires maintaining a certain thermal regime, which is quite difficult to achieve under our climatic conditions on ridges in open ground.
Pollination technology
The formation of a high-quality harvest largely depends on pollination, which promotes the formation of ovaries on vegetable crop. Peppers pollinate well in a natural way, which is due to the fact that most varieties of peppers that can be grown in a greenhouse are self-pollinating.
Pollinating insects can be attracted to peppers when special honey plants are planted. However, if it is impossible to maintain the ventilation regime, natural pollination is hampered, and the formation of ovaries is delayed. In this case, you should proceed to the procedure, for which you can use ordinary cotton swabs. To facilitate fruit formation, plants should be sprayed by special means stimulating the formation of ovaries.
Pepper feeding
A significant part of modern varieties of sweet peppers belong to the category of hybrids intensive type, which suggests the presence certain conditions, affecting the formation of ovaries, as well as the timing of ripening and harvest volumes. One of the main factors that allows you to grow a healthy and strong plant, as well as increase productivity, is the use of fertilizers.
For this purpose, you can use both organic and mineral, as well as complex fertilizers. Experienced gardeners recommend using special “herbal teas” as fertilizer, which have a very beneficial effect on sweet greenhouse peppers. It should be noted that in addition to root fertilizers, you should use foliar feeding, which are especially effective during the period of intensive growth and fruiting of vegetable crops.
Diseases and pests
- black leg pepper;
- black spot;
- pepper late blight;
- white rot;
- aphids and .
Planting pepper seedlings (video)
It should be remembered that healthy, strong and hardened plants are rarely affected by diseases and pest attacks. In addition, strict and timely implementation of preventive measures can reduce the occurrence of such problems to zero.
Being a real storehouse of vitamins, pepper is one of the most beloved vegetables all over the world. At the height of summer it can be purchased for mere pennies, but already at the beginning of autumn its price begins to rise steadily. For this reason, prudent summer residents who have successfully grown tomatoes and cucumbers in their greenhouses enthusiastically begin. This process does not involve particularly complex steps. Compliance and certain rules will turn the process of growing this vegetable into a real pleasure.
The color of pepper directly depends on its maturity and variety: from green to purple.
The color of the fruit and its shape directly depend on the variety and type of pepper. Pepper fruits may have different shapes: elongated cone-shaped, wide, spherical, cuboidal, prism-shaped, curved. Pepper can be either sweet or bitter. Its weight can vary from 0.5 to 200 g, length - from 1 cm to 30. The degree of ripeness directly affects the color of the pepper: from light green to purple, ripe fruits can have all shades of red, brown and yellow.
In order to have a greenhouse, taking into account all the stages, you will need:
- potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate);
- growth stimulator (“Epin”, “Albit”);
- "Immunofit" - optional;
- small pots or cassettes for seedlings;
- nutrient soil;
- preparations for feeding;
- humus or peat;
- keltan or karbofos for pest control;
- planting scoop;
- sprayer;
- watering can;
- labels to indicate varieties.
Growing seedlings and feeding them
To grow pepper seedlings, the process of sowing seeds should begin at the end of February.
Before placing the seeds in the soil, they must be properly processed. Seeds are disinfected for half an hour in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate (potassium permanganate), after which they must be washed with water. Then the seeds must be treated with a growth stimulant, for example: Albit, Epin or Zircon. To make sure that the grown seedlings will not be attacked by the fungus, the seeds can be treated with Immunofyte. After all the treatments performed, the pepper seeds are planted in small separate pots.
The depth of immersion of the seed in the soil should be 0.6-1.3 cm; during germination, the temperature in the greenhouse should vary from +25 to 30 °C. When seedlings appear, on the 4-5th day, the temperature can be reduced to +16-18 ° C, it should remain lower for about a week, this is necessary so that the plants do not stretch in length. After a week, it must be increased again to +22-28 °C.
The first feeding of pepper seedlings is done when three full leaves appear on the bushes.
For feeding you need to mix:
- 125 g superphosphate;
- 50 g urea;
- 30 g potassium salt;
- 10 liters of water.
After feeding, the seedlings are watered clean water. The second feeding is carried out at the stage of appearance of the 4th leaf of the seedlings. But at the moment when the bush acquires 7-8 leaves, fertilizing should be especially active and plentiful, because at this time, unnoticed by the observer, flower organs are formed, which subsequently provide the basis for the entire future harvest. During the entire period of growing seedlings, soil is added to the pots twice.
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Hardening of seedlings and planting in a greenhouse
About two weeks before the bushes are planted in the ground, it is necessary to begin hardening them off. To do this, in the presence of warm weather, pots with seedlings need to be taken out to Fresh air or lift the film in a greenhouse. When night falls, the pots are brought indoors again or covered with film. To ensure that the seedlings gain greater strength and stability, feed them with potassium salt about a week before planting in the soil.
In order for the pepper to more actively produce its own hormones, which it will need for resistance to diseases and harmonization of various phases of growth, spray the seedlings with a natural growth stimulant a day before planting in the ground. According to recommendations experienced gardeners, the Epin stimulator has an extremely positive effect on fruiting and plant resistance to negative factors. The result of such irrigation is an increased yield of peppers by 40% and a reduction in their nitrate content by 70%.
If the seedling bushes have already acquired 12-14 leaves, in the axils of which buds have begun to form, then they can be safely planted in greenhouse soil. At this point, a healthy seedling bush has a thick stem of an even green color, approximately 20-25 cm in height. It should be taken into account that in an unheated film greenhouse or hotbed the soil must be heated to 15 °C, only then can seedlings be planted in it. At the time of planting in the ground, the seedling bushes must be at least 55 days old. The soil itself must be prepared for planting. Phosphorus and potassium fertilizers should be applied to the soil at the rate of 40 g/m², nitrogen fertilizers - 30 g/m².
In no case should you fertilize the soil under pepper with fresh manure; in extreme cases, it is acceptable to use compost or humus, 1 bucket for each square meter. The beds in the greenhouse, equipped for planting peppers, must have a meter width and a row spacing of 0.5 m. The planting density of the bushes is determined by the characteristics of the pepper variety.
For vigorous varieties and hybrids, the distance between bushes in one row should be approximately 35 cm, for medium-growing varieties - 25 cm. Early ripening and low-growing varieties are seated 15 cm apart, i.e. 10 plants per square meter. To plant seedlings, you need to pour 2 liters of water into each hole in advance; after immersing the plant in the soil, it must be thoroughly compacted with your hands and mulched with humus or peat.