Sweet pepper is one of the most commonly grown vegetable crops in our country. Even despite the exacting conditions of care, the popularity of this vegetable is only growing every year. The main reason for this is the taste and benefits of its sweet fruits. There are quite a few varieties of this culture, but several dozen of the most popular stand out among them. One of them is a variety of sweet pepper Cow’s ear.
Characteristic of the variety
This variety of sweet pepper is one of the best mid-season varieties. The harvest of his peppers will reach technical maturity in 96-100 days, and the entire cycle until the fruit fully ripens will take about 125 days.
Plants are medium in size, their height will not exceed 70 cm.
Pepper Cow’s ear in its shape resembles an elongated cone. Its dimensions are quite large: the length can vary from 12 to 16 cm with a weight of up to 200 grams. During the period of technical maturity, the fruits of this variety have a dark green color, and when biological maturity is reached, they are rich red with a glossy sheen.
This sweet pepper has a rather fleshy pulp with a wall thickness of up to 6-7 mm. Its distinctive feature is that it does not taste bitter even when unripe. This variety of pepper has a universal application. It is equally good in salads and in homemade preparations. According to most housewives, Cow’s Ear is an ideal variety for homemade lecho.
This variety of sweet pepper has excellent resistance to many diseases, and in particular to the tobacco mosaic virus. It has a fairly high and stable yield. Subject to agrotechnical recommendations, up to 3 kg of crop can be harvested from one square meter. Cow’s ear belongs to those varieties that retain their commercial and taste qualities well during storage and transportation.
Recommendations for growing
Sweet pepper of this variety is grown through seedlings. They start preparing it in mid-March.
This technique will immediately accustom young plants to the soil where they will have to grow, thereby minimizing stress from transplanting.
The process of preparing seeds for seedlings of the Ox ear variety includes several stages:
- Selection of live seeds. To do this, all seeds are immersed in water, and pop-up seed-dummy seeds are selected. They do not contain a sprout, so they should not be planted.
- Soaking seeds for several days.
- Treatment of seeds with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, followed by washing them with warm water.
Seeds that have undergone such preparation will be able to sprout faster, and will already have a certain immunity. They are planted in a substrate prepared in advance, after which they are covered with a film until shoots appear.
Therefore, it is better to plant the seeds in separate containers of 2-3 things. After germination, weak sprouts must be removed, leaving one strong one.
Ready-made seedlings of a vegetable crop of this variety can be planted both in open beds and in a greenhouse. When disembarking, it should be borne in mind that the best predecessors will be:
- green manure;
- legumes;
- cucumbers;
- all plants of the cruciferous family and others.
It is not recommended to plant seedlings of the Ox ear variety after tomatoes. And if there are no other options, then in the fall you need to dig up the earth with any organic fertilizer.
Otherwise, the requirements for the care of this variety are the same as for all peppers:
- Lots of light and warmth. Moreover, if peppers are planted in a greenhouse, then it is necessary to carry out ventilation. If this is not done, then the flowers and ovaries will crumble in the plants.
- Watering with warm water. The frequency of watering depends on weather conditions, but not less than 2 waterings per week. Prior to flowering, rain watering is preferable, and from the beginning of flowering until the end of the vegetative period, only under the root. The norm is from 1 to 2 liters of water per plant.
- Regular loosening and weeding. This stage of care can be skipped if you mulch the bed with pepper plants.
- Top dressing with mineral and organic fertilizers. Good results are obtained by the use of bird droppings, slurry, and superphosphate.
Subject to these recommendations, the Ox ear variety will bear fruit abundantly until the end of September.
You can learn more about growing sweet peppers from the video: