When choosing sweet pepper seeds suitable for salads, it is best to pay attention to thick-walled varieties. Such peppers have a very juicy and tasty wall, which is eaten. Thick-walled peppers are intended for use in salads, as well as for cooking and winter preparations. They are good stuffed and lecho.
Pepper varieties are zoned by region, so when choosing planting material, you need to pay attention to what area a particular variety is intended for. If liberties are still acceptable for the southern regions, then with the northern regions everything is somewhat more serious due to the too short summer period.
It is better for northerners to take early and mid-ripening varieties of pepper produced by agricultural companies in their regions.
Seeds of sweet early thick-walled pepper beyond the Urals are offered by the Ural Dachnik and Altai Seeds companies.
Varieties of early ripe pepper
From the company “Ural summer resident”
Turquoise
Early maturing variety. From planting seedlings to fruiting, 75 days pass. The thickness of the pericarp is up to 10 mm. The fruit is cuboid, almost the same in height and width, with sides 11 by 11 cm. Mature fruits are red.
Atlantic F1
Actually, a hybrid of foreign selection from Seminis. It is offered by the Ural Summer Resident for sale in the northern regions due to the harvest ripening time of 70 days. The peppers are very large, weighing up to 400 g. The pericarp is 9 mm thick. The planting density of bushes of this variety is recommended 2 bushes per sq. m.
Magnificent century
Early maturing variety. The shape of the peppers is very convenient for stuffing. The dimensions are also almost ideal for this purpose, since the fruits are medium, weighing up to 180 g. The pericarp is up to 12 mm.
Hercules
Early maturing variety. Before the harvest, 95 days pass from the emergence of seedlings. Peppers are cube-shaped, up to 12 cm long. Thick-walled peppers are “on the verge”. The thickness of the pericarp is on average 6 mm.
Drive F1
Early maturing hybrid of the Dutch selection intended for cultivation in greenhouses. The dark yellow pepper has a length of up to 17 cm and a weight of up to 200 g. The pericarp is up to 1 cm thick. This is one of the largest and thickest-walled peppers among the colored varieties. The fruits are formed sequentially, allowing you to harvest from one bush for quite a long time.
Highway F1
It is one of the earliest varieties of pepper. Harvest in mid-summer. Peppers are not too beautiful in shape, which is a curved prism. Large, weighing from 180 g and up to 14 cm long. Pericarp 7 to 11 mm thick. The hybrid is resistant to adverse weather conditions and blossom end rot. Differs in high productivity.
The company “Uralskiy summer resident” is practically the only one who offers really early ripe varieties of sweet pepper, taking into account the region. The rest of the Trans-Urals firms offer early-ripening varieties with a ripening period of at least 100 days.
Residents of the southern regions of Our Country, as well as residents of Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, have a much wider choice of sweet thick-walled peppers. They can grow early varieties of pepper with a ripening period of 100 to 110 days. In the conditions of Siberia, such varieties should already be classified as mid-ripening.
Firm “Aelita” offers early-ripening varieties of thick-walled peppers with a fruiting period of 115 days. This firm carries out only wholesale deliveries. Seeds of her selection can be found in other specialized stores.
Big Papa
Selection of the company “Aelita”. Thick-walled (pericarp up to 8 mm) early-ripening variety with a ripening period of peppers up to 120 days. Fruits of an interesting purple color, weighing up to 100 g. A variety of universal use. Very good for stuffing.
big gold
Early maturing variety. The crop can be harvested 95 days after planting. Peppers weighing 200 g. The wall is up to 8 mm thick. Ripe peppers are a beautiful golden yellow color. The variety is universal.
Firm “SeDeK” offers early-ripening varieties:
Annushka F1
Maturing terms up to 110 days. Prism-shaped peppers, weighing 200 g. The walls of the pod are 6 mm thick. Very fruitful. Gives up to 7 kg per square meter. The hybrid is offered for culinary processing and fresh consumption.
Apollo F1
Early ripe hybrid with a maturity of 105 days. It can grow and bear fruit in open and closed ground. The fruits are large, prismatic, weighing up to 200 g. The pericarp is 8 mm thick. The variety is valuable for its high yield (7 kg per sq. M.) and good keeping quality. The purpose is universal.
Western
Early ripe (100 days) variety with medium-sized fruits weighing up to 100 g. Pericarp 7 mm thick. Variety of pepper for general purpose. Recommended for salads and culinary processing. The advantages of the variety are: friendly fruit formation, resistance to blossom end rot and high yield.
Jack
Early ripe (110 days) variety with large, bright orange fruits weighing up to 200 g when mature. Designed for growing in open beds and in greenhouse conditions. The purpose of the variety is universal.
The choice of pepper seeds today is very large, it is hardly possible to buy everything you want, simply because there is not enough space in the beds. Pepper seeds are not stored for more than five years. At the same time, they gradually lose their germination. This point should be taken into account if you want to buy seeds “for next year.”
Preparation for sowing
When buying seeds, first of all, you need to give preference to seeds from trusted manufacturers. Whether to save money by buying cheaper seeds is up to the summer resident, but certain points should be taken into account.
Expensive seeds from well-known manufacturers are treated with antifungal drugs, microelements and growth stimulants in preparation for sale. This is usually indicated on the packaging. Such seeds are brightly colored, often in the “signature” color, and are completely ready for planting. All that needs to be done with such a seed is to put it in a seedling container and sprinkle it with earth.
Home-grown or non-branded cheap seeds need pre-planting treatment, as they can be infected with pathogenic microflora.
Test for germination
There is always a risk of buying low-quality seed material and missing the most favorable days for planting. In order not to lose time when you need to plant seeds for seedlings, it is better to check them for germination in advance. To do this, several grains are taken from the purchased bags for testing, they are tied in a cloth and placed in water with a temperature of + 25 ° C for a day. After a day, they take it out, put it directly with a bundle on a pallet and put it in a warm place for 4 days.
After that, the seeds are planted in the ground and wait for seedlings, maintaining the humidity and high temperature of the soil.
Calibration
After finding out the quality of the seeds and whether they are worth spending time on, the seeds need to be calibrated. In simple terms, select the best. Not all seeds will sprout. Some of them may just be empty. Medium-sized seeds are usually selected for sowing, sifting out too small and too large.
Salt water calibration
You can identify empty achenes by placing the seeds in a salt solution. To do this, put 30 – 40 grams of table salt per liter of water. The expression “three-, four-percent” salt solution may occur. Or 30-40‰ (ppm). It’s all the same. Especially considering that chemical precision is not required in this case.
We lower the seeds into the solution and stir a little so that they are moistened with water. After 7-10 minutes, good seeds will settle to the bottom, and empty seeds will remain at the top, which must be collected and discarded.
Not all gardeners like this method, as they believe that not only empty seeds remain at the top, but also overdried seeds. Here the choice is up to the owner of the seeds. In fact, with a soaked upper peel, you can even feel by touch whether there is a seed in the achene or whether it is completely empty.
Good seeds should be removed from the salt solution, washed with fresh water and dried thoroughly.
disinfection
After calibration, it is necessary to treat the seeds in a XNUMX% solution of potassium permanganate, provided that the seeds have not been previously treated by the manufacturer.
Seeds wrapped in a linen bag are immersed in a solution of potassium permanganate for half an hour. After disinfection, they are washed with water and dried.
Instead of a solution of potassium permanganate, you can use special fungicidal preparations. In this case, the seeds are treated according to the instructions attached to the preparation.
Treatment with trace elements
There is an opinion that such treatment improves seed germination, increases resistance to diseases and adverse weather conditions. However, given that pepper is usually grown from seedlings kept indoors, the thesis of bad weather conditions is debatable.
At home, such processing is carried out using an infusion of wood ash, which contains approximately 30 trace elements necessary for pepper.
20 grams of ash, diluted in 1 liter of water, insist for a day. After that, a bag of seeds is placed in the infusion for 5 hours. After a while, the peppercorns are taken out, washed again with water and dried.
When using purchased formulations, the seeds are treated according to the instructions.
Growth stimulants
Before planting, seeds are treated with a purchased or improvised stimulant to accelerate germination and improve germination. At home, nettle brewed with boiling water is considered the best growth stimulant. 1 st. a spoonful of nettle in a glass of boiling water. Purchased are used according to the instructions.
In the growth stimulator, the seeds are soaked for 1 hour. After that, you can plant them in the ground or carry out an additional procedure.
Soaking before sowing
After the manipulations, the seeds can be laid out on a wet rag or foam rubber and wait until they swell. Considering that before this, the pepper grains had been getting wet for a good quarter of a day, then drying up, and the shell had softened, they would swell quickly. Swollen peppercorns can be planted in a seedling container or left on wet material until the root hatches, and the seeds that have already hatched can be planted. The degree of moisture content of the foam rubber or cloth must be constantly monitored.
Peppercorns that are lagging behind in development are thrown out.
Bubbling
Instead of soaking and germinating pepper seeds on wet material, sparging can be used.
For pepper grains, bubbling is carried out within a day – one and a half. This method allows you to saturate the seeds with oxygen. In essence, this is a “hot tub for seeds.” It is easy to make at home with a conventional aquarium air compressor.
The first video shows how to make a sparger from a regular XNUMX liter plastic bottle.
Sparging can be combined with soaking peppercorns in a solution of trace elements or a growth stimulator. Then at least two or even three operations can be removed from the preparation of seeds for sowing (if microelements and a growth stimulator are added to the water).
Bubbling does not have to be carried out in such a device as in the first video. You can put the air atomizer from the compressor in a regular jar. In this case, it will be clearly visible when the seeds were saturated with water and oxygen, became heavier and sank to the bottom. In the first case, you will not be able to see it.
Bubbling is carried out at a water temperature of 21°C. If the seeds begin to hatch, the compressor is stopped and the grains are planted in the soil. Or placed in the refrigerator for hardening.
Hardening
Seeds after germination can be placed in a refrigerator for a period of 3 days to 1 week. This procedure helps peppercorns to more easily adapt to temperature changes in the future and it is easier to transfer seedlings to open ground.
After hardening, the pepper grains are placed in a seedling container filled with soil and sprinkled with earth on top. You can do this even before hardening, after the soaking stage.
On this, the gardener’s torment with the preparation of sweet pepper seeds for sowing ends. Next, the cultivation of seedlings begins.