Pepper is a frequent visitor on our table. It is sweet and bitter, of different varieties, sizes and shades. This vegetable is rich in vitamins and minerals, proteins and sugars, fatty and essential oils. In a word, pepper is a storehouse of useful substances, which simply must be in the diet of everyone who adheres to the principles of healthy eating.
Growing pepper in your garden is not at all difficult. But to get a good harvest of beautiful and juicy vegetables, you need to give this process enough time and attention. And first of all, it is necessary to study the features of agricultural technology of this culture.
In particular, many novice lovers are interested in the question of whether it is real to grow pepper in the open ground from seeds, bypassing the seedling stage. Let's find out!
Can I grow pepper without seedlings?
So, no one can give an unambiguous answer to this question, since the cultivation of pepper in one or another region is not the same because of the differences in climatic and weather conditions. For example, in most cities in the middle zone, it is simply impossible to grow pepper without seedlings. To have time to ripen the fruits, they need 100-150 days (depending on the variety), which means that the harvest will have to be harvested in October, when frosts already strike. In other words, growing through sprouts in this case is the only possible option.
But in the warmer southern regions (the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, Crimea, Kuban), this situation is possible in principle, but this is also risky: what if this summer turns out to be too cool this year? Therefore, it is better to focus on the seedling method of cultivation. He will give a guarantee that your peppers will be stronger and stronger, which means they will give the best harvest and have time to ripen to a cold snap. And now let's find out how to grow healthy pepper seedlings in an ordinary city apartment.
How to grow pepper seedlings?
A characteristic feature that distinguishes pepper from other garden crops is the slowdown in the growth of its seedlings after picking. The fact is that the plant is very sensitive to microtraumas of the root system, which is inevitable when transplanting. Because of this, it is preferable to grow peppers without picks at all. For this, seeds should not be sown in pots or cassettes, but in plastic bags (for example, from sour cream). After the peppers are sufficiently grown and strengthened, they do not need to be transplanted into another container, but simply cut the packet and, together with a lump of earth, pass into the hole.
Such a moment as seed preparation is also important. For example, for a more harmonious germination, the inoculum is pre-soaked in water or humic fertilizer, and then kept in a moist napkin until the appearance of the first shoots. And to increase the stress-resistance of plants, the swollen seeds are hardened, alternately withstanding in warmth, then in cold.
The soil for planting peppers should be light and nutritious. The optimal acidity is 6-6.5 pH. In the process of preparing the soil, superphosphate in granules or wood ash can be added.
In order for your peppers to not stretch, it is required to artificially prolong the light day to 8-10 hours a day,
And another question that we have not covered is the choice of the variety. This is a matter of your personal preferences: in stores today there is such a wide range of all sorts of pepper seeds that advising here simply does not make sense. We only note that varieties or hybrids for growing in greenhouses (whether heated or not heated) and in open ground will be different. And there are no special differences in how to grow sweet (Bulgarian) or bitter pepper on seedlings.