It is important to know what to feed the peppers after planting in the ground and how to care for them in order to reap a large, high-quality harvest and not ruin the plant.
Preparing for transplant
Seeds begin to be sown two months before transplanting the seedlings into separate pots or other small containers at a distance of 1.5 cm. It is useful to first place the seeds in a wet napkin for 2 days. Cover containers with planted seeds with film to create a greenhouse effect.
The seedlings themselves already need nutrition. The first feeding should occur when two leaves appear on the sprout. Mineral fertilizers or self-made compost from organic components are suitable. The use of fresh manure is not permitted at this stage.
Repeated feeding is done after another two weeks. By this time, at least five leaves should appear on the sprouts. Urea mixed with potassium monophosphate is often used. You can buy ready-made mineral fertilizers for peppers, for example, Krepysh, Ideal, Aquadon-micro.
It is useful to replace mineral fertilizers with organic food at any stage of plant development. Can be treated with mullein with water or chicken droppings with water.
At the beginning of summer, the seedlings are moved to open ground - it is advisable that the weather is not too sunny. Each bush in the garden bed should be planted at a distance of 35 cm. You should not choose a shady area. The plant does not like drafts and strong winds. The hole is not dug very deep and nitrogen, potassium, phosphate fertilizers. One bush is carefully taken from the seedlings along with a lump of earth.
14 days after planting, the plant will take root, and it will be possible to carry out the first feeding with mineral fertilizers or bird droppings. You can treat it with mullein diluted with water and add superphosphate. Purchased solutions are also suitable, for example, Sudarushka or Ideal.
Useful compounds
Feeding peppers in open ground is even more necessary. To decide what to fertilize pepper with, you need to take into account the condition of the bush, the soil in which the vegetable grows, and the stage of development.
In order for the peppers to feel great in the ground when planting, you need to prepare the soil. You can buy soil or prepare a growing medium yourself. The great benefits of peat oxidant are noted:
- thanks to this component, the earth becomes soft and porous;
- peat is a natural antiseptic;
- retains nutrients in the soil;
- The need for peat can be seen when a crust forms on the surface of the soil.
How to use fertilizer correctly? There are many tips from agricultural technicians on how to use plant food: “If you scatter peat around the area, there will be no benefit. Before I plant peppers, I use one of the recipes for preparing the soil for sprouts.”
Fertilizer can be applied at any time of the year. There are several options for how to properly prepare the soil:
- Take equal parts of humus, peat and regular soil, add charcoal and dilute with superphosphate.
- You can take humus, peat, river sand and ordinary soil in equal quantities.
- You can make a mixture based on peat, river sand and soil (the components are taken in equal proportions). To impregnate the mixture you will need urea, potassium sulfate and superphosphate.
The absorption of microelements occurs not only through the roots, but also through the leaves. Foliar feeding of pepper is prepared by adding ammonium nitrate or potassium sulfate to a bucket of water. The prepared solutions are diluted with water intended for watering plants. You need to take 1 liter of solution and mix with 10 liters of liquid.
Superphosphate is popular, which requires about 60 g. The composition is poured with hot water and left to infuse for 24 hours. The resulting solution is filtered and diluted in 9 liters of water. It is convenient to use a spray bottle for spraying.
Variety of types and occasions
You need to feed peppers correctly after planting them in the ground. It is recommended to alternate fertilizer compositions. You need to know, for example, what to feed peppers during flowering or when problems appear.
To obtain juicy and sweet fruits, bushes can be treated with nitroammophos, preferably in spring. The first feeding of peppers should be done a couple of weeks after planting the seedlings. For 10 liters of water you need to take 40 g of fertilizer. We water the beds with a similar composition.
There is a wide variety of fertilizers for peppers in open ground. Feeding peppers after planting includes several stages:
- feeding peppers during flowering involves using nitrogen compounds;
- during the period of appearance of ovaries and first fruits, it is useful to treat the soil with ash (ash fights bacteria and fungi);
- calcium deficiency in the soil is replenished with calcium nitrate 0.2%;
- Phosphate fertilizers can be used throughout the season and during fruit formation.
Even in the early stages, the sweet pepper bush needs calcium to grow. Without it, the plant may rot, the ovaries will fall off, and growth will stop. If you do not use the necessary fertilizing in time, the plant will die.
Normal growth also depends on potassium fertilizers for peppers. Potassium is responsible for the movement of nutrients from the soil throughout all parts of the plant. With a lack of this component, growth slows down, the tips of the leaves turn black and dry out. Potassium is found in stove ash.
2-3 weeks after the first feeding, the time comes for the second feeding of the peppers. By this time, the ovaries should already have formed. If mineral feed was used for the first time, now it needs to be treated with an organic compound, or vice versa.
During flowering and fruiting, it is best to use organic fertilizers. For this purpose, for example, 1 kg of manure and 500 g of bird droppings are soaked in a bucket of water for 5 days.You can add 50 g of potassium monophosphate or purchased Sudarushka fertilizer to the resulting mixture for peppers.
How to fertilize a plant if problems arise? If peppers in the open ground begin to shed their leaves, grow poorly, and wither, it is necessary to rule out a lack of microelements or an excess of minerals.
The tactics of action depend on the signs:
- if the leaves become dull, pale green or even gray, it means there is a lack of nitrogen in the soil (should be sprayed with urea);
- if the ovaries fall off, then spraying with boric acid is necessary;
- lack of phosphate leads to poor fruit development (superphosphate is required).
To increase productivity and attract insects that pollinate, it is necessary to treat peppers during flowering with a sweet solution (100 g of sugar and 2 g of boric acid are mixed in a liter of water).
Before feeding the pepper, you need to water it with plain water. Thanks to this, the fertilizer will spread evenly and will not leave burns on the root system.
Folk recipes
Many agricultural technicians prefer to use folk remedies instead of mineral fertilizers.
Bananas
Banana peel fertilizer is very popular. Banana peels contain a lot of potassium. To do this, the peel is dried, crushed and the resulting powder is sprinkled on the bushes at the base. There is an option to make a tincture. The skins of 2-3 bananas are soaked in 3 liters of water for three days. The resulting infusion should be poured over the peppers.
Egg shell
Many summer residents feed the plant with eggshells, which contain a large amount of microelements.
You can simply crush the shells and sprinkle them on the beds, or you can make a tincture.The shells of several eggs are crushed, filled with water and left for three days.
Serum
Whey is extremely useful for all cultivated plants (the product is obtained as a result of milk souring). Whey is rich in vitamin-mineral complex, a lot of protein and lactose. Nourishes the soil and fights bacteria that cause plant diseases.
The serum is used to spray leaves to replenish amino acids. The fertilizer composition prevents the appearance of late blight; for this purpose, it is recommended to spray the peppers immediately after planting in the ground.
Whey is not used for fertilizer in its pure form. This is the only drawback of the nutritional component. Its acidic, fatty structure changes the acid-base balance of the earth. Be sure to dilute with water.
Iodine
All garden crops, including peppers, need iodine. This component improves growth, increases yield, makes fruits tasty and enriches them with vitamin C. In addition, it acts as an antiseptic and increases pepper resistance to many diseases.
Peppers can be treated with iodine solution for growth. It is enough to dissolve two drops in a liter of water (whey can replace water). It is best to use serum with iodine to care for young shoots.
After planting in open ground, you can use both foliar (whole bushes are sprayed) and root feeds. For foliar feeding, it is enough to dilute two drops of iodine in 1 liter of water and spray the leaves every 1.5 weeks.
Treating peppers with milk and iodine will not only enrich the plant with useful substances, but also protect it from diseases and many pests. Insects are lactose intolerant.After spraying, a protective white film is formed on the leaves, which does not allow pathogens to pass through. Mix 4 liters of water, 15 drops of iodine and 1 liter of milk.
Yeast
Yeast feeding is gaining popularity. Yeast contains phosphorus, nitrogen, vitamins and minerals. Compositions with yeast improve the development of the root system, activate the activity of microorganisms in the soil, which affect a good harvest. You should know that yeast suppresses the effect of potassium, so you need to add ash.
To prepare the composition, both dry and fresh yeast can be useful. Fresh yeast (1 kg) is poured with 5 liters of water per day. Before watering, the resulting solution is diluted in 50 liters of water.
Nettle
Bell peppers benefit from infusions of nettles. This plant contains a lot of iron, magnesium, potassium, calcium, which promote the growth and development of pepper.
Collect nettle stems before the seeds appear, chop them and place them in a large prepared container. Pour water on top and close the lid for a while to allow the composition to ferment. The infusion can be used after two weeks. Water the plants, having previously diluted them in water in a ratio of 1:10.
Nettle infusion can be used to spray the leaves. To do this, the fermented composition is filtered and diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20. Such treatment will protect the plant from many insect pests.
