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Every year before the start of spring, the summer resident begins to think about what he will plant in the beds. Among the traditional list you can see potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and, of course, peppers. Any gardening enthusiast dreams of growing a rich harvest. Before the start of the summer season, it is worth taking seriously the preparation for sowing pepper seeds. In this way, you will ensure fast shoots and increase the chances of a good harvest. Before starting sowing, one of the methods should be used – disinfection, soaking and bubbling, hardening.
Selection and disinfection
Careful selection should be made before sowing pepper seeds. To do this, you need to lay them out on paper, then discard large and very small ones. Only medium in size should be left, while it is necessary to pay attention to hollowness.
To determine you will need one liter of water and 30-40 g of table salt. Seeds must be placed in the resulting solution. So, the hollow ones will float to the surface, and the good ones will remain at the bottom. The duration of the procedure will take only seven minutes, and you will be able to determine the quality. After you throw away all the bad seed that has surfaced, the remaining ones at the bottom must be washed and dried, scattered on paper.
In addition to selection, disinfection must be included in the preparation of pepper seeds for sowing in order to ensure the health of the plant and prevent infection.
To carry out the disinfection procedure at home, it is easiest to use potassium permanganate or potassium permanganate. For this, a 1-2% solution of potassium permanganate is prepared and for a period of ten to fifteen minutes, the already selected seeds are lowered into this solution. After disinfection, they must be washed with water and dried. The disinfection procedure must be carried out just before sowing.
Soaking and bubbling
For the impatient, who want to see the sprouts as soon as possible, there is a soaking method. Pre-disinfected seeds are placed on moistened foam rubber or gauze and left in a warm place. It is necessary to control the moisture content of the fabric, protecting it from drying out.
After the swelling of pepper seeds is noticeable, they are planted in moist soil, or they wait for the sprouts to germinate, and then plant them. It is very important to remember the soil moisture, because otherwise the sprouts will die.
Instead of the soaking procedure, bubbling can be used. This technology is the treatment of seeds with oxygen. The result is seeds that are free of harmful microflora. This technology is carried out as follows.
Before sowing, in a period of one to two weeks, it is necessary to lower the tip of the aquarium compressor into a high container filled with two-thirds of water (temperature 20-22 ° C). When bubbles appear in the water, place the seeds in such water. The bubbling procedure is carried out for 24–36 hours, after which they must be dried.
Hardening
In order for the seeds to more easily endure planting on the ground, and also to be resistant to temperature extremes, a hardening procedure should be carried out before sowing. There are two ways to implement this technology.
- After disinfection, they are soaked in thermal water until swelling, after which they are placed in a cold place at a temperature of -1 ° C for a day. After that, dry.
- A slightly more complicated way. Since the swollen seeds are subjected to variable temperatures for 10-12 days, that is, for twelve hours it is necessary to keep the planting blank at a temperature of 20-24, the next 12 hours at low temperatures – -2 ° C.
Saturation with microelements
To improve the entry of pepper, you can apply the procedure of saturation with microelements. It is believed that treatment with microelements allows pepper to improve resistance, increase its resistance to temperature extremes and increase productivity. This stage is carried out the day before sowing.
Among the various trace elements, ash is considered the most affordable. It contains about thirty nutrients. To prepare the solution, you need to take one liter of water and dissolve twenty grams of wood ash in it. Infuse this solution for a day.
After all the procedures have been carried out, we put the pepper in a gauze bag and immerse it in the solution for five hours. After the procedure, the seeds must be washed and dried. Of course, in addition to ash, you can use any other trace elements, but you must not forget to clearly follow the instructions.
Sowing
To obtain an early and good harvest of pepper, to a large extent depends on the time of sowing seedlings. After all, it takes about a hundred days for the plant to germinate. So, for greenhouses it is already possible to sow in the period of February 1-25. The soil for seedlings can be purchased at the store or prepared independently.
For good seedlings, containers with nutrient mixtures are needed. A recess of 0.5 cm in size is made in each cell. The soil must be moistened. Place one seed in each cell. After the end of the sowing procedure, the containers are placed in a warm place for 4-5 days. During this time, the germination process will begin.
After that, the containers are transferred to a bright place with a temperature of 12-14°C, which is optimal for plant growth. A big mistake of gardeners is that they want to get a large number of seedlings in a small area, and this can only harm the plants. The quality will only deteriorate, the leaves of the plants will oppress each other.
For seedlings at home, it is necessary to purchase fluorescent lamps and place them at a height of 8-10 from the plant so as not to burn the leaves of the sprouts. To obtain volumetric lighting, plants should not be fenced with foil, plants will receive light due to sunlight, and if there is a shortage of light, lamps will make up for it. Already well-prepared seedlings have flower buds, and the height of the plant itself will be 25–30 cm.
Video “Preparing pepper and eggplant seeds for sowing”
A video with a detailed discussion of all stages of preparing sweet pepper and eggplant seeds for sowing.
