How to plant bell pepper - a heat-loving plant?
How to properly plant bell peppers in the garden, at a summer cottage, how to prepare the soil, fertilize and pinch? Guzel Khusainova, deputy head of the branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Rosselkhoztsentr" in the Republic of Tatarstan, tells.
Pepper belongs to the nightshade family. According to the period of development, peppers are early, mid-season, late-ripening varieties. The plant is thermophilic. It grows best with 12 hours of daylight. For planting, you need to use seeds from two to three years ago. Pepper seeds are sown in February.
Light soils are best suited for growing sweet peppers. The soil must be prepared in advance - for a year, organic fertilizers of 5 kg / m² are applied under the predecessor, and in the fall - 50 g of potash and phosphorus fertilizers for deep digging. In the spring, 40 g of ammonium nitrate is added to the top layer of soil.
The optimum temperature for the growth of peppers is +20…+25 °C. If we plant pepper in open ground, then immediately after transplantation, young plants can be covered with covering material, making them a greenhouse. This will create favorable conditions for their rapid development.
Top dressing is carried out in three doses: 1st top dressing - two weeks after planting seedlings, 2nd top dressing - during the flowering period of pepper, 3rd top dressing - when fruits appear. An excellent result is given by feeding peppers with liquid organic fertilizers: chicken manure, mullein.
In hot and humid weather, it is necessary to remove the side shoots, especially the lower stepchildren. If the weather is hot, dry, the plants do not stepchild, since the leaf mass perfectly protects soil moisture from evaporation.
Experienced vegetable growers advise removing the central flower on the plant growing from the first branch, this will help increase the yield. During the growing season, the pepper must be cut several times, trying to shorten the longest shoots.
It is also necessary to weed and loosen without harming its roots. During the season, three or four such procedures are carried out, and during the second loosening, the plants need to be spudded.
In the open field, sweet peppers need to choose a sunny place and protect it from drafts and wind. In hot weather, it is shaded from direct sunlight. The soil needs to be mulched. This will keep the soil moisture at the right level and help reduce watering.
Watering should be regular. It is necessary to start watering five days after planting and more often until full rooting. Then every 10 days until harvest, more often in dry weather. During the fruiting period, watering is needed twice a week. The water should not be cold.
Peppers should be located away from plantings of other nightshade crops. To protect pepper, appropriate measures must be taken regularly. In autumn or spring, apply Trichodermin biofungicide for digging the soil. Observe the distance between plants when planting, carefully remove the plant residues of the previous crop.
The first spraying should be carried out two weeks after planting the seedlings, the next - after 10-14 days.