Growing Chili Seedlings Easy

Growing chili (red hot pepper) seedlings is straightforward. The fruits ripen 17-18 weeks after germination. Taking these terms into account, the seeds should be sown. As a rule, this happens in late February - early March.

Growing chili pepper seedlings: instructions for proper planting

For the seedlings to be strong and healthy, you need to properly prepare the seeds for sowing.

To do this, they must be germinated, otherwise the seedlings will appear only after 15-20 days:

1. If the seeds were collected on their own, then they must be kept in a saturated solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes for disinfection. If they are from a trusted manufacturer, then this is not necessary, since they have already been processed.
2. Then the pickled seeds should be laid out on a napkin or gauze before growing chili seedlings. Cover with the same material on top, place on a saucer and moisten well. Put a plastic bag on top of it and put it in a warm place. Humidity should be checked periodically.
3. After 3-4 days, the seeds will hatch - they will release the roots. So it's time to send them to the soil for growing chili seedlings.
4. The versatile substrate can be purchased at the store or prepared by yourself. Why take 1 part of garden land, 1 part of sand and 1 part of humus. Before planting, they are heated in the oven with the addition of a small amount of water. Immediately before they decided to plant chili peppers, sift the soil, add 2 tbsp. l. integrated mineral fertilizer, for example, Nitrofoski, on a bucket of soil and pour it into the planting container.
5. Then the seeds should be spread out at a distance of 2 cm from each other.
6. Sprinkle them with earth in a layer of 1-1.5 cm, compact slightly, pour from a spray bottle, cover with foil and put away in heat.

With this method of landing, a pick will be required in the future.

If you need to do without it, then the seeds are laid out immediately in separate cups with drainage from expanded clay, gravel, eggshells, and so on.

Seedling care

When the first shoots loops appear, the boxes are immediately placed on a sunny windowsill so that at night the temperature can be reduced to 18-19 °, and during the day it can be maintained at 23-24 °. Daylight hours for cultivation of hot peppers should be 12-13 hours. Therefore, it applies supplementary lighting with phytolamps or fluorescent lamps.

Watering is carried out with warm water as the soil dries up. You can do this with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.

Hot pepper pick

When the first pair of true leaves appears, they begin to pick the seedlings.

The soil in a common container is watered so that the seedlings are easily separated without tearing off the roots. The soil is taken the same as for sowing. At the same time, the seedlings are not buried - they are sprinkled with earth until they thicken above the root - the growth points. Water well with warm water.

Subsequent care for seedlings is reduced to:

• regular watering without waterlogging to avoid black leg disease;
• supplementary lighting;
• 1-2 top dressing with full mineral fertilizer.

Before planting seedlings, it must be hardened.

Growing chili peppers outdoors

The place for this culture is prepared in advance. It should be sunny and calm. From soils, neutral sandy loams and loams, seasoned with humus, are suitable for it. The ridge is dug onto a bayonet with a spade with a crochet, leveled with a rake and given several days for the earth to settle.

Then, at a distance of 0.3-0.5 m (depending on the height and spreading of the variety), holes are made according to the size of the containers in which the seedlings are located, 1 tbsp is poured into them. l. Nitrophoska and handfuls humus... Sprinkle with potassium permanganate and carefully plant the peppers, without deepening them and trying not to cut the roots.

Plants are not watered before planting - then, once in a well-shed hole, the roots rush for moisture and quickly spread over the largest area.

In the aisles, irrigation ditches are made, into which water is poured after planting and irrigation is carried out in the future. Planting is mulched with humus, rotted sawdust or peat.

Seedlings should be planted in early June when the threat of frost has passed. If a color has already appeared on it, then at the night of planting it is necessary to cover it with a non-woven material so that it does not fall off.

Before planting seedlings, it should be hardened by taking it out into the street, gradually increasing the time.

Care consists in:

• weeding;
• loosening;
• mulching;
• dressing;
• watering.

During the growing season, 3 fertilizing is carried out and combined with the next watering:

1. The first of nitrogen and potassium is carried out 2 weeks after planting.
2. The second - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium - in early July.
3. The third - phosphorus and potassium - 3 weeks before the end of the growing season.

In addition, they carry out preventive treatment of the culture from late blight, spraying it 2-3 times per season with Bordeaux liquid. As the chili peppers ripen, the red fruits are removed along with the tail.

If you want to get a well-branching pepper bush and more fruits, then it should be pinched at a height of 20 cm. In the case when larger peppers are needed, some of the flowers and shoots should be removed.

Chili Peppers

Diseases and pests

The most dangerous pests for hot peppers are spider mites and aphids. To combat them, you need to spray the plants with a celtan or karbofos before and after flowering. For prevention, an infusion of garlic, onions or tobacco dust with a soapy solution is suitable.

Another pest is slugs. Wood ash, mustard powder can help from them - it is sprinkled between plants. And in the heat, they loosen the aisles by 3-4 cm.

With a black leg, the plants fall as if cut down, and the root and stem turn black. The disease appears when the air temperature drops and the soil becomes waterlogged. In this case, you need to stop watering, treat the soil with potassium permanganate, burn diseased plants.

We grow hot peppers in the suburbs - video