The Swallow pepper was bred by individual selection from the Moldova 118 variety. It began to be grown in 1974. Reviews about the pepper are positive; the variety produces fruits that are large in size and sweet in taste. Pepper is loved by gardeners for its immunity to diseases, even verticillium and bacterial wilt. The plant is resistant to attacks by parasites.
Biological features of bushes
Description of the variety - the Swallow pepper has semi-spreading, standard bushes, 54 - 62 cm high, because of this they need to be tied up. With careful care, 2.7 - 6 kg of fruits are collected from 1 m².This is a mid-season variety, since 116–121 days pass from the emergence of seedlings to the harvesting of fruits.
Description of fruits
Fruit characteristics - peppers have thick walls, up to 5 mm at technical ripeness, up to 7 mm at full ripeness. The fruits have the shape of oval cones. When picked, the tomatoes are light green in color, and when they ripen, they turn scarlet. Each pepper weighs 65 - 100 g.
The length of the fruit is approximately 8 - 11 cm. Collected peppers are eaten raw, added to salads, stuffed, stewed, and canned. They have a delicate but rather dense skin, so the fruits are easy to transport, and the peppers last for quite a long time.
Sowing seeds
Cultivation begins with sowing seeds for seedlings at the end of February. For sowing, select the best seeds, place them in a solution of potassium permanganate for disinfection, soak them in herbal preparations: agave juice, Epins-extra, Kemira. Then germinate the seeds by scattering them on damp gauze and placing them in a warm place.
Prepare a box or peat pots and fill them with soil. You can buy special soil for peppers in the store. Be sure to steam the soil or heat it in the oven. If you sow the seeds in one box, then spread them out, making a space between them of 1.5 - 2 mm. Powder the top with a layer of soil 8 - 10 mm. After sowing the seeds, the box or pots are thoroughly watered and covered with polyethylene film or glass. Place in a warm and bright place with an air temperature of +23 – 25 °C.
Remove the glass or film when the first shoots appear. Constantly monitor the humidity; the soil should not be too wet or too dry. It is better to water using a spray bottle so as not to wash away the seeds. If the seeds were sown in one box, then in April, plant the seedlings in separate containers.
The seedlings are fertilized for the first time when 3–4 leaves grow. To feed, pour 15 g of potassium salt, 25 g of urea, 60 g of superphosphate into a 10-liter bucket half filled with water. Stir the mixture thoroughly and water the seedlings.
When seedlings grow 4–5 leaves, it is necessary to additionally illuminate the pepper with fluorescent lamps; the bush should be illuminated for 12 hours a day. The seedlings are gradually hardened by placing them on the balcony, first for 1 - 2 hours, then for the whole day, and at night they are brought into the apartment.
Planting seedlings in a permanent place
Seedlings are planted on the site in late May or early June. They select a place where cucumbers, cabbage, beets, onions, carrots, pumpkins, and legumes (except beans) previously grew. It is not recommended to plant peppers in the area where other nightshades grew last year: eggplants, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, since they all have similar diseases and the same types of pests love them. In the fall, they dig up the soil and apply fertilizer. In the spring they dig again.
To plant seedlings, holes are dug, making a space of 40 cm between holes in one row and row spacing of 60 cm. Each hole is filled halfway with nutritious soil. The seedlings are placed, the roots are carefully straightened, and covered with soil. It is necessary to ensure that the root part protrudes above ground level after planting. Then the plantings are thoroughly watered. They tie the bushes to pegs.
Bush care
Peppers need to be watered constantly. It is better to mulch the soil with rotted sawdust - this will slow down the drying out of moisture and the growth of weeds. After watering, it is necessary to loosen the soil to a depth of approximately 7–9 cm and pull out weeds.
Important! You should not plant sweet bell peppers and hot peppers next to each other, as when bell peppers cross-pollinate, the vegetable may become somewhat bitter.
Feed the pepper 3 times per season:
- 3 – 4 weeks after planting the seedlings in a permanent place;
- when the ovaries begin to fill;
- at the end of summer, when the fruits become smaller.
Fertilize by making the following fertilizing:
- Add 5 parts water to 1 part manure.
- Pour 1 kg of chicken manure into a ten-liter bucket of water.
- Pour 19 g of ammonium nitrate, 18 g of potassium chloride, 45 g of superphosphate into a ten-liter bucket of water. Ten liters of the resulting solution are used for 8 - 11 bushes.
- Feed with the drug "Growth".
2 weeks after the ovaries appear, feed the bushes with Ideala fertilizer. Collect ripened peppers in a timely manner, then new ovaries will form faster and the fruits will gain weight faster. If you pick fruits that are slightly unripe, the yield of the plant will increase.
How to increase the yield from a bush
To get maximum yield, the following conditions must be met:
- The stakes, to which the pepper is then tied, are driven into the soil before planting the seedlings, then its root system will not be damaged.
- Although the crop loves watering, during constant rain it is necessary to cover the bushes with plastic film, then the plants will not begin to rot.
- To increase the yield, it is advised to pick the first flower that appears on the upper fork of the branches.
- First, peppers are harvested when they are technically ripe, and then when the vegetables are completely ripe.
- You should not plant bell peppers or hot peppers nearby, as after pollination the bell peppers may taste bitter.
At the end of August, it is advised to pick all the flowers from the bushes, then the peppers will be larger, juicier and fleshier.Since fruits can grow on the bushes until frost, pick off slightly unripe fruits from the bushes - the remaining ones will fill up faster and gain weight.
Reviews about the pepper are quite enthusiastic. Its seeds have high germination rates for a long time. The culture is easy to care for. If you follow the rules of growing crops, you can collect a lot of fruits from the bushes. The variety is quite popular; many gardeners plant peppers.
