Contents
Not every gardener decides to grow eggplants in his summer cottage. This nightshade culture is distinguished by its capricious character. The homeland of eggplant is distant and hot India, so it is rather difficult for this vegetable to grow in our northern latitudes. But for our gardeners, nothing is impossible. The experience of many generations has shown that seedlings are the main thing in growing eggplant. It is on how strong and healthy it turned out that the harvest of this capricious culture depends. We will tell you how to prepare eggplant seedlings and ensure their normal growth below.
The benefits of eggplant
All the capriciousness of eggplant is more than offset by its benefits. The statement that eggplant contains a good half of the periodic table is absolutely not unfounded. This vegetable contains the most necessary vitamins and minerals for a person:
- cellulose;
- protein;
- calcium;
- phosphorus;
- vitamins C, PP, B1, B2, B5;
- soluble sugars;
- pectin and others.
As a bonus to such a nutrient-rich composition comes the low calorie content of eggplant. It will not only not do any harm to the figure, but will also help get rid of annoying kilograms. In addition, due to the fiber contained in this vegetable, eggplants have a slight diuretic effect and remove excess fluid and toxins from the body.
The nicotinic acid included in its composition will help the body of even the most heavy smoker to cope with nicotine starvation.
“Cranky” eggplant seedlings
Problems with eggplant seedlings are a fairly common occurrence, which occurs not only among beginners, but also with experienced gardeners. Most often, after the appearance of the first shoots, eggplant plants either completely stop growing or grow very poorly. There can be several reasons for this behavior of seedlings:
- Soil that is not suitable or poor in composition – with an unsuitable composition of the earth, eggplant seedlings can still at the very least come to terms, but it will not be able to grow in soil that is poor in minerals. Pre-sowing soil preparation and fertilization will help to avoid such problems.
- Lack of light – only sprouting shoots suffer from this. If at this stage they are not provided with proper lighting, then they will stop their growth.
- Damage to the root system is the most common problem of stunting eggplant seedlings. The root system can rot with an excess of moisture or be damaged during transplantation. In these cases, any growth stimulator should be used.
- Lack of space – this reason for stunting is determined quite simply. To do this, the seedling is carefully pulled out of the pot. If its roots are colored brown, then the plant suffers from a lack of space and needs to be transplanted into a larger container.
To avoid such problems, eggplant seedlings must be properly planted and grown.
Preparing eggplant seedlings
This is one of the few crops that are recommended to be grown only in seedlings. This is due to the fact that eggplants have a very long period of growth and ripening, on average about 130 – 160 days, so when planting seeds immediately in a greenhouse, you can not wait for the harvest.
Preparing eggplant seedlings has much in common with growing pepper seedlings, but there are also a number of features.
Soil preparation
Like all nightshade crops, eggplant is very demanding on the composition of the soil. For seedlings, the soil should be light and moisture-intensive. At the same time, it should contain useful substances to a sufficient extent, and the acidity level should not be higher than neutral. Of course, you can use store-bought soil for nightshade seedlings, but it would be much better to cook it yourself.
The prepared land is stored either on the balcony or in the barn.
There are two options for preparing land for eggplant seedlings:
- An option for the “lazy” – garden soil after cabbage or cucumbers is suitable as a soil for seedlings. Do not take the land after the “relatives” of eggplant, such as peppers, tomatoes and potatoes.
- The ideal option is to mix compost humus, low-lying peat and lying sawdust in proportions of 2: 1: ½ to make such a soil. If the site has clay soil, then another ½ of the washed sand is added to this proportion. Moreover, if really lying sawdust is taken, then they should be washed twice with boiling water, then spilled with a solution of urea and sprinkled with wood ash. This is done so that the sawdust in the process of decomposition does not waste the nitrogen necessary for the seedlings.
Regardless of whether the soil was bought in a store or prepared on its own, before planting the seeds, it must either be shed with boiling water with the addition of potassium permanganate, or steamed. Also, before planting seeds, it is recommended to fertilize the soil with superphosphate, wood ash, urea and potassium sulfate.
Preparation and sowing of seeds
The timing of these events for different regions is slightly different. For the southern regions, which can grow eggplants in the open ground under a film, they begin to prepare seedlings in mid-March, and plant them in a permanent place from May 25 to June 10, that is, after the frost has completely ended. For everyone else, it is preferable to grow eggplant in a greenhouse. When planting in a greenhouse, seedlings should be older than when planting in open ground. Therefore, planting seeds should be done in late February or early March, and planted in a greenhouse no later than May 15 – 20.
For planting, you should choose only high-quality eggplant seeds from trusted manufacturers. But even such seeds need seedbed preparationwhich includes:
- sorting – at this stage, only whole and undamaged seeds should be selected. After selecting whole seeds, they should be soaked in water for 5 to 10 minutes. After this time, all floating seeds must be collected from the surface of the water – they are empty and should not be planted. Disinfection – this procedure is necessary in order to wash off any pathogens of fungal or viral infections from the surface of the seeds. To do this, the seeds are soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 25 – 30 minutes. After that, they must be washed. During this treatment, the seeds may acquire a brown-black color. Some manufacturers independently disinfect their seeds, they indicate this information on the packaging. Such eggplant seeds do not need to be soaked in potassium permanganate.
- Seed treatment to improve germination – without this procedure, eggplant seeds can germinate for a very long time. Therefore, it is recommended to treat them with boric acid, ash solution or ready-made liquid fertilizers based on humate.
- Germination of seeds – this is the longest of all pre-sowing procedures. For germination, eggplant seeds are placed between layers of damp cloth. A cloth with seeds is placed on a saucer, which is placed in a plastic bag. If the saucer with the seeds is not placed in a bag, the fabric will dry quickly, and the seeds with it. The optimum temperature for germination is no more than 25 degrees, and the germination period is up to 5 days.
After such preparation, the seeds can be planted in the ground. For this, bleaching cups or pots are taken. A few hours before planting the seeds, the earth in cups is watered with settled water or a weak solution of potassium permanganate. In each of them, 2 – 3 seeds are planted to a depth of 1,5 – 2 centimeters. Do not plant seeds very close to each other, it is better to leave 2 to 3 centimeters between them. Planted seeds are covered with earth and slightly compacted. Before germination, the cups should be covered with glass or polyethylene and kept at a temperature of 20 – 25 degrees.
A mark is made on its surface at the desired depth level. When landing, the pencil will simply go into the ground to this mark, thereby making holes with the desired depth.
If the seeds were planted germinated, then the first sprouts of eggplant will appear on the 4th – 5th day. If dry seeds were planted, then the first shoots will be on the 8th – 10th day. After most of the seeds have sprouted, the glass or polyethylene should be removed from the cups and rearranged for a week in a bright, cool place with a temperature of about 18 degrees. Such hardening will allow young seedlings to grow roots instead of leaves.
We recommend watching a video that shows how to plant eggplant seeds for seedlings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrmAmyb9fmk
Growth care for eggplant seedlings
In order to get a good harvest of eggplants in the future, it is not enough just to plant them. The seedlings of this culture must be carefully looked after – only in this case the work of the gardener will be duly rewarded. Caring for eggplant seedlings includes:
- seedling illumination;
- watering;
- transplant;
- top dressing;
- hardening.
Let’s go through each point in more detail.
Seedling illumination
Supplemental lighting is recommended for seedlings of many crops, and eggplant is one of them. This is especially true of early eggplant seedlings, which were planted in February – March. During these months, daylight is not able to compensate for the need of young plants in light.
Fluorescent lamps are used as an additional light source, they are also called fluorescent lamps. They provide proper lighting without heating up at the same time. Fluorescent lamps should not be placed very close to young eggplant plants. The optimal distance will be 15 – 30 cm. Turn on fluorescent lamps only in the morning and evening.
Therefore, each gardener independently regulates the duration of additional illumination of seedlings, depending on the lighting conditions in his apartment or house.
Without additional lighting, seedlings of this capricious culture can:
- grow poorly;
- stretch out;
- late to lay flower buds.
If there is no opportunity to additionally highlight young eggplant plants, then it is recommended to place them in the sunniest place. In this case, you need to monitor the density of plants. Indeed, with a strong thickening, some eggplant plants will get more light, while others will get less.
Watering
Eggplants love fairly moist soil. But, despite this, after the appearance of the first shoots, it is not recommended to water them. Only if the top layer is very dry, you can slightly moisten it with a spray bottle.
The first watering of eggplant seedlings is carried out for 2-3 days. All subsequent watering should be done no more than once every 5 days. Water for irrigation should be warm and must be separated for at least one day. It is best to water in the morning. During watering, you should try not to get on the leaves of the seedlings – eggplants do not like this.
When growing eggplant, it is very important to catch the line between drying out the soil and its excessive moisture. In the first case, prolonged drought will have a detrimental effect on the sensitive root system of eggplant plants. In the second case, excess moisture can provoke the appearance of various rot and other diseases.
Seedling transplant
Eggplant seedlings have a rather weak root system, so picking will not do her any good. In order for the plants to have where to grow their roots, they are transferred from one cup to another. This is done about a month after germination, when the plants have the first two true leaves. The container for transshipment should be larger than the container in which the seedlings grew before.
Before transplanting eggplant seedlings, water them well. If this is not done, then when removed from the pot, the earth from the roots may crumble, thereby damaging them.
Seed dressing
As eggplant seedlings grow, so do their nutritional needs. Therefore, skipping this stage of seedling care is not recommended.
The very first top dressing of eggplants should be carried out between 10 and 15 days after transplanting seedlings.
For the first feeding of young plants, various fertilizers are used, for example:
- mineral fertilizers, such as “Kemira universal”, “Mortar” or nitrophoska in the amount of 1 teaspoon per 5 liters of water;
- humus-based fertilizers – “Ideal” or “Effect” at a dosage of 1 teaspoon per liter of water;
- organic fertilizers – you can use any organic matter, but the use of bird droppings shows good results. To do this, dry litter is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:20 and allowed to stand for a while.
All top dressing of seedlings is carried out only under the root. When it gets on the foliage, fertilizers are washed off with a spray bottle.
All subsequent seedling fertilizers are carried out every 10 to 15 days.
Hardening of seedlings
Hardening is a mandatory item for caring for eggplant seedlings, which will be planted in open ground. But this does not mean that this procedure should be skipped when growing in a greenhouse. Compared to normal seedlings, hardened eggplant plants will have higher immunity. In addition, they will grow and bear fruit better.
There are two options for hardening young eggplant plants:
- Hardening is carried out 7 – 10 days before planting the plants in a permanent place. To do this, either open a window in the room where the seedlings are located, or take the plants out onto the balcony.
- Hardening can also be done in a greenhouse. To do this, seedlings are placed in a greenhouse at the end of April, but not planted. If frosts are expected, then the plant is covered with a film or non-woven material.
Compliance with these simple rules of care will ensure excellent growth for eggplant seedlings. But even the best seedlings can be spoiled by untimely planting in a greenhouse or open ground. In the case of eggplants, it is worth waiting not only for the complete end of spring frosts, but also for a certain height of plants. It is worth planting seedlings in a permanent place only after it reaches 20 centimeters in height. By this time, 6-8 leaves should already have formed on the thick stems of eggplant seedlings. It was during this period that the plants had already grown a good root system and were ready for planting.
The video will tell you how to care for eggplant seedlings in a greenhouse: