Growing bell peppers in open ground is possible not only in regions with a warm climate. Therefore, in the garden of many vegetable growers you can find beds with this cultivated plant. In order for each bush to have a strong stem and strong roots, and for the fruits to begin to form in a timely manner, it is necessary to plant ready-made seedlings grown at home.
Preparing a strong base
How to plant peppers in open ground, seedlings or seeds is everyone’s choice. But you are more likely to get a good result in the first case.Seeds are germinated independently at home, following several rules.
Growing sweet peppers in open ground begins three months after sowing the seeds. Therefore, grains need to be planted in early February. For the rapid appearance of healthy sprouts, the seeds must be subjected to various manipulations.
Caring for sweet peppers begins from the seeds. The preparatory stage in the technology of growing pepper in open ground is based on seed treatment. To remove fungal and bacterial infections from the seed shell, a disinfection procedure is carried out. A weak solution of potassium permanganate will come in handy.
It is enough to add 1 g of the substance to the water; the solution should have a slight pink tint. The exposure time of the grains in such a solution should be about 25 minutes.
After disinfection, it is recommended to carry out care by hardening the seeds. How to carry out the procedure correctly? For this purpose, the seeds are alternately placed in a cold and warm place for three days. Hardening will allow the bushes to withstand adverse weather conditions in the future.
In order for the seedlings to grow faster and enjoy a high-quality harvest in the future, it is recommended not to skip the soaking procedure. For this purpose, you can buy special preparations or make your own from natural ingredients. You can use a recipe based on wood ash or aloe juice. Aloe juice will additionally increase resistance to various diseases. A cloth bag containing pepper seeds is placed in the juice of two fleshy leaves.
Planting seeds
It is faster to grow peppers if you wrap the seeds in a damp cloth and put them in a warm place. After two days, the seeds can already be sown in a prepared container with soil. The distance between the holes should be at least 1.5 cm.Place one seed in each hole. The container is covered with plastic film or glass. As soon as most of the seedlings appear, the seedlings are opened.
The soil for peppers should be light. You can mix black soil, humus and sand yourself. It is useful to add charcoal. The soil with seedlings is watered with water, which has settled for at least a day.
Seedlings should be protected from drafts and provided with sufficient light access. Be sure to apply mineral or organic fertilizers. The first time feeding the seedlings is done immediately when the first leaves bloom. The last feeding is carried out two weeks before transplanting into an open area.
Peppers are very difficult to transplant, so many experienced gardeners skip the stage associated with picking (pinching out long roots). But if planting pepper seedlings is accompanied by correct and careful picking, then the root system will be branched and strong. One of the experiments described the positive result of this procedure: “I have been growing peppers for several years now. The picking procedure greatly increases the strength of each bush and allows seedlings to quickly adapt to a new location.”
If you decide to plant pepper seeds in open ground, then sowing begins three weeks earlier than with seedlings. It is recommended to place 4-5 grains in holes about 4 cm deep. The method of heaping seeds makes it possible to facilitate the process of seedling development. More attention should be paid to sowing seeds.
Features of planting under the open sky
There are many secrets on how to grow a good pepper crop in open ground.
How to plant sweet pepper seedlings in open ground? Before planting pepper seedlings in open ground, you need to choose a place and prepare the beds.Bell peppers should be planted in a place where there is no piercing wind. In the fall, a suitable plot of land is dug up and fertilized. Planting peppers and caring for them in open ground cannot be done without feeding them with potassium and phosphorus substances.
Also, sweet peppers in open ground do not tolerate too hot air and direct sunlight. You need to take care of shading the beds in hot weather.
In the spring, you need to loosen the soil again, adding ammonium nitrate. The pepper planting scheme can be varied, but the variety is always taken into account. At what distance from each other is it recommended to plant seedlings in the ground? The holes are dug at a distance of 35 cm. The distance between the rows should be approximately 45 cm. If two pieces are planted in a hole, then the distance should be increased to 60 cm.
The square-cluster planting method is known and often used. The hole should have equal sides, at least 60 cm. You can plant two pepper bushes in each hole. How to plant a plant if there are three in a nest? In this case, the dimensions of the sides should be equal to 70 cm. More details about this method of planting can be seen in the video.
Peppers are planted in the ground at the end of spring. If the weather does not settle, then the planting of pepper is postponed to the beginning of June. It is better to plant peppers in the ground in the evening or on cloudy days.
The seedlings are thoroughly watered and one bush at a time is carefully removed from the container along with the earthen lump that is enveloped by the roots. What fertilizers should I apply when planting peppers? When planting, it is useful to add a composition with humus and nitrophoska to the hole. The plant is placed to a depth of the first pair of leaves.
Immediately after planting, it is recommended to install pegs to which the bushes will be tied in the future.It should be tied after hilling and mulching. Such care will not allow the delicate leaves to break and the stem to bend.
Useful layer
A valuable care step is mulching the pepper. The peculiarities of cultivation lie in covering the soil with an organic or inorganic layer called mulch. Mulching the soil is necessary to reduce weeds, retain moisture, and protect from heat and cold. In the soil that is covered with mulch, beneficial flora spreads and it becomes fertile.
You can mulch the area where the pepper will be planted with the following substances.
- An organic layer of straw can quickly cool the ground, reduce the number of weeds, and allow you to get a good harvest. The depth of the mulch layer is at least 10 cm.
- For growing sweet peppers, humus and compost are useful and nutritious mulches. They contain beneficial microorganisms that fight pathogens. Pepper grows better, the fruits ripen faster and become juicy.
- Mulch the ground with chopped grass. Any herb can be used. Planting sweet peppers in such a place will only bring benefits. The layer retains moisture well, promotes rapid plant development and fruit formation. The thickness of the mulch should be at least 30 cm.
- You can plant seedlings using inorganic mulch. This includes black film. The soil under the black film retains moisture well and protects against weeds. Many experienced vegetable growers plant peppers under the film, since there is no need for constant watering and weeding of the beds.
On the Internet you can find detailed information about each type of mulch, as well as watch a video.
In addition to its benefits, mulching can lead to problems. Most often this occurs when a thick layer of mulch is installed. Stagnation of moisture in the soil can lead to rotting of the roots. Periodically you should replace the old layer with a new one.
To avoid mistakes, each type of mulch should be laid in the thickness recommended by agronomists. The layer is laid on well-heated, dry soil. Every spring, the old layer of mulch should be removed.
Caring attitude
The first days after transplantation, pepper growth slows down, the leaves are sluggish and drooping. Within a few days, when the bushes take root, a strong stem will begin to develop. Caring for peppers in open ground is accompanied by regular watering, fertilizing the soil and weed control.
Growing and caring for peppers in open ground should be accompanied by proper, regular watering. The first watering is carried out at the time of planting, and then 5 days later. If the weather does not favor rain, then water until the first fruits appear, it is recommended every week. During rapid fruiting, watering is reduced. As soon as the first harvest is harvested and new flowers appear on the plants, the previous watering regime is resumed.
As soon as the height of the plant reaches 35 cm, pinch off the top. Thanks to this, new side branches will appear. In order for the flowering to be abundant and many ovaries to form, the flower located in the center is removed.
Throughout the entire period of growing bell peppers, you need to pick off excess leaves and twigs. This provides better access to sunlight and air to the stem.
Pepper loves soft, well-loosened soil. Therefore, a hard crust should not be allowed. During loosening, the soil is enriched with oxygen, the plant grows faster, and the activity of beneficial bacteria improves.At the same time, weed control is underway. The first loosening should be carried out no deeper than 6 cm. In the future, it is useful to loosen the soil after each watering or rain.
Since peppers are heat-loving plants, they can hardly withstand unfavorable weather surprises. You can protect peppers from frost as follows. Shelters are constructed from cardboard and warm fabric over the beds. If cold nights continue for a long time, it is better to cover with film.
Additional nutritional components
Growing bell pepper is not complete without adding nutrients. The frequency of applied fertilizer should be once every 12-14 days. The plant needs to be fertilized at least three times. Peppers especially urgently need nourishment during flowering and fruit formation.
The first feeding of nutrients occurs 14 days after planting. During this time, the peppers will take root and get used to the new place. The best formulations at this stage are those that contain mullein. Water is added to the manure in a ratio of 1:5, infused and mixed with water 1:2 before watering.
When flowers appear, you can use the following recipe based on herbal infusion and mullein. Nettle, plantain and dandelion leaves are poured with water, mullein is added and infused for a week. Apply the prepared solution at the root of each bush. You can repeat watering every 2 weeks. The nutrients obtained during this feeding contribute to increased growth and better fruit formation.
To attract pollinating insects during the flowering period, you can use a solution with sugar. Sugar and boric acid are dissolved in water. The resulting mixture is sprayed onto the bushes.As a result, ovaries form faster.
During fruit formation, you can care for it using fertilizer based on chicken manure and nitroammophoska. The components are mixed and left to infuse for the whole week. Fertilizer is transferred to the garden bed between the rows.
Bell peppers can be cared for using nettle infusion. An infusion of nettle alone stimulates the growth and development of pepper. Young nettle is best suited for infusion. It contains magnesium, iron, potassium and other essential micronutrients. The stems are crushed and infused in a barrel of water, covered with a lid, for two days. Before feeding, the solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10.
Before applying organic or mineral fertilizers, the beds should be watered with plain water. Such care will allow the nutritional components to be evenly distributed and avoid burns to the root system.
Agricultural technology for growing peppers does not allow the use of fresh manure as fertilizer. Manure contains a lot of nitrogen, so the risk of an excess of this element increases. The stem and leaves begin to gain mass and strength, and fruiting stops.
When problems arise
If it has been noticed that the leaves change shape, color, the stems look lethargic, or other signs appear, the cause is often a lack of mineral components:
- with a lack of potassium, the leaves curl, and their tips dry out and turn yellow;
- It’s time to apply nitrogen fertilizers when the leaves have lost their rich green color and turned gray;
- if the leaves are pressed against the stem and have acquired a bluish tint, it means there is not enough phosphorus;
- white spots indicate magnesium deficiency;
- leaves and ovaries fall off when there is an excess of nitrogen.
To grow sweet peppers, you need to create conditions. If not properly cared for, it is susceptible to the development of various diseases. The most common disease is blackleg, which develops in soil that is too wet. You can notice the problem by the dark part of the stem with a coating that runs near the ground. If measures are not taken, then all the roots will rot and the plant will die.
To reduce the risk of developing blackleg, seeds are planted only in treated soil; only strong, healthy seedlings are transplanted into open ground. The distance between the bushes must be large, this will reduce the rate of spread of the disease. In addition, closely planted bushes will not allow air and light to pass through well.
Late blight is a fungal infection that affects the green part of the plant. You can recognize it by the appearance of brown spots on the stem and leaves. To avoid this disease, care must begin from the seeds. Before planting, they are soaked in potassium permanganate, and seedlings in open ground are foliar sprayed with protective solutions. You should also avoid the proximity of peppers to tomatoes and potatoes.
Another common fungal disease is white rot. The lower part of the stem is covered with a whitish coating, while the inside of the stem turns black. As a result, the stem loses strength and the plant dies. To avoid the problem, pepper seedlings are transplanted into the ground, well warmed by the sun. Don’t forget to remove wilted leaves in time and water the bushes only with warm water. At an early stage of the onset of the disease, you can try to get rid of it with a solution of wood ash.
