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Sweet pepper (and hot pepper too) in all climatic regions of our country can be grown only with the help of seedlings. Although it is precisely the sharp varieties in the very south of Our Country that it is possible to grow by direct sowing of seeds into the ground. Many novice gardeners, when faced with the problems of growing pepper seedlings for the first time, are somewhat lost from the abundance of products designed to help in such a difficult task. First of all, this concerns the choice of containers in which these seedlings will be grown.
Peat pots and tablets – what is it
The first thing beginners get acquainted with when trying to delve into the rather complicated process of choosing where, how and in what to grow peppers is the existence of peat pots and tablets. At the moment, they are sold in every specialized garden store, actively offered and advertised on the Internet and in the markets. Moreover, growing pepper seedlings in peat tablets is a real guarantee that plants will not die in the first stages of their existence.
What are the pros and cons of this technology?
Peat tanks
Peat pots have been on the horticultural market for a long time, but opinions differ greatly about the effectiveness of their use. They can come in a wide variety of shapes (round, square) and sizes, sold individually or in blocks, and even as finished cassettes. The wall thickness can also vary from 1,5 to 2,5 mm.
Peat pots have many undeniable advantages:
- Produced from environmentally friendly peat material, respectively, do not contain harmful chemicals and bacteria;
- The porous, breathable material of the walls allows the roots to breathe and develop well;
- Easy to use – no need to wash, disinfect, make additional holes for drainage;
- Finally, most importantly, when transplanting, there is a minimal risk of injuring the delicate roots of pepper, since the plant, together with the pot, is simply placed in the next largest container or immediately in the soil of the future garden;
- As a consequence of the above argument, pepper seedlings do not receive stress, take root faster and give an earlier and more abundant harvest.
With all this, many summer residents and gardeners who tried to plant pepper seedlings in peat pots were not very satisfied with the result. Moreover, some enthusiasts even carried out a number of experiments on growing half of pepper seedlings in ordinary plastic pots, and half in peat. And the part that was grown in peat pots looked and developed worse. Why could this happen?
First of all, it should be noted that in recent years, many manufacturers have been making peat pots from pressed cardboard. And such products can no longer be compared with their properties with peat.
In addition, in peat containers, the soil, on the one hand, dries out much faster, and on the other hand, the pots themselves, having a tendency to get wet, can become moldy. Thus, when planting pepper in a peat dish, it is necessary to constantly monitor the level of soil moisture, which can be a problem when busy with other things and lack of time.
Peat tablets
Peat tablets are cylindrical discs pressed from various types of peat, enriched with microelements and growth stimulants. Outside, each tablet is covered with the thinnest paper mesh impregnated with antibacterial drugs. It helps protect the seeds from infection and retains its shape when moistened.
Thus, a peat tablet is both a container for seedling growth and a ready-made sterile soil mixture, and even with various additives useful for plants. An important positive point, as with peat pots, is that there is no stress on the roots when transplanting pepper seedlings. Using peat tablets is also very easy and saves a lot of time.
But when planting especially valuable varieties of pepper or when growing a small amount of seedlings for a family, the use of peat tablets is more than justified. Moreover, pepper belongs to crops that are rather painful for transplanting and picking, and the use of peat tablets will negate this stress.
Growing in peat tablets
To begin with, when choosing tablets, you need to carefully study the information on the package and choose those made from low acidity peat. Do not take peat tablets without packaging, and even more so without protective nets.
Peat tablets come in different sizes – from 24 to 44 mm, sometimes there are also large sizes – 70 and 90 mm.
Which of them to use for planting peppers depends partly on your financial capabilities and desire to make your life easier. If you want to save money, you can take initially 33 mm peat tablets, grow pepper seedlings in them up to the third or fourth leaf without any problems, and then move the plants with the tablet to large containers.
You can also do this – initially plant pepper seeds in peat tablets, 70 or 90 mm in size. If you are going to plant pepper seedlings in a greenhouse, then in these tablets they will live remarkably until planting in the ground. For planting in open ground, most likely, one more transshipment into a larger pot will be required, but this is ideal. Most often, it happens that there is simply not enough space in the house to accommodate such voluminous pots.
Naturally, the larger the diameter of the peat tablet, the higher its price. And significantly. So the choice is yours.
Landing technology
The timing of sowing seeds in peat tablets can be shifted by a week or two to a later time, due to the lack of picking, and the associated delay in the growth of pepper seedlings.
To plant pepper seeds in peat tablets, it is not even necessary to soak and germinate them. But if you have a lot of time and you want to experiment, then, of course, you can do the whole standard set of work on preparing seeds for sowing.
Then you need to take some kind of deep and voluminous dish (often plastic boxes for cakes or other culinary products are used) and put peat tablets in it so that the small recesses are on top. Recently, special cassettes for the size of tablets with pallets and suitable lids have appeared on sale. Such kits make life even easier and initially create ideal greenhouse conditions for seed germination.
The surface of peat tablets is moistened gradually over 20-30 minutes. You can use ordinary settled warm water, or you can add Baikal EM or Zircon to it, of your choice, to further increase the energy of seed germination. The tablets will swell and gradually grow several times, but their diameter will remain almost the same. Excess water must be carefully drained.
Usually, peat tablets already have small holes in the center, it is advisable to deepen them a little, literally half a centimeter, with some blunt object. Prepared pepper seeds are laid out one by one in these holes and covered with a small amount of peat to level the surface of the soil. If you did not germinate the seeds in advance, then you can put two seeds in one hole, so that later, if both germinate, carefully cut the weaker one at the level of the substrate.
It is not necessary to water the crops at this stage, the moisture content of the tablets is more than enough. The sown seeds are covered with a transparent lid to create the effect of a greenhouse and placed in a warm place (+23°C-+25°C). The lid must be opened every day for ventilation and the condensate accumulated on it must be wiped off.
Shoots of peppers usually appear in 7-12 days. After the appearance of the first sprouts, the lid must be removed, and the tray with peat tablets should be placed in a bright place. However, this can be done in advance so as not to miss the moment of seed germination. The main thing is that the pallet with pepper seedlings should not stand in the sun, otherwise the seeds risk boiling.
Another advantage of using peat pellets is the fact that seedlings can appear unevenly, and in the process of growth, small peppers can be easily grouped according to the degree of development, moving them to different pallets.
Further care for pepper seedlings comes down only to controlling the moisture content of peat and watering. It can be easily done by pouring a little water into the pan – the tablets themselves will draw in as much liquid as they need. It is easy to determine the watering time by the state of the tablets – they begin to shrink slightly. If you poured too much water, it is better to drain the excess after a while so that the roots can breathe freely. You do not need to feed the seedlings – everything you need is already in the tablets.
If roots began to appear from the bottom of the peat tablets, then the period of development of pepper seedlings in them has come to an end and it must be moved along with the tablets to a large container.
Variety of containers
Well, what if you grow pepper seedlings in large volumes (more than 100 bushes) for yourself and relatives or for sale? Or you do not have extra money to buy pills, but there is extra time to tinker with seedlings. In these cases, the choice of container for pepper seedlings remains very wide. The only thing to remember, especially if you are a beginner gardener, is that pepper does not like root system disturbances, so it is better to immediately plant it in separate, albeit small containers.
Plastic cassettes
The ideal option in this case would be plastic cassettes. At present, they are presented on the market in a wide variety of sizes, both in terms of the cells themselves for planting, and in terms of the number of cells in the cassette. In addition, they are easy to cut, which means that you can easily adjust their dimensions to your needs. Each cell is perforated, which favorably affects the airing of the roots.
Thus, seedling cassettes have a lot of advantages:
- They are durable in operation – with careful use – more than 10 years;
- They are light and compact, they can be stacked;
- They are inexpensive and available;
- Seedlings in them are quite easily transported;
- Seedlings are quite easily removed from the cells with a slight pressure from below, an earthen lump is preserved, due to which it takes root more easily.
Peppers have the following options:
- use for sowing cassettes with small cells (40×40, 50×50) with further transplanting-transshipment of pepper seedlings into larger ones;
- planting seeds immediately in cassettes with large cells (75×75 or even 90×90) and growing seedlings in them before planting in the ground.
Which option to choose is up to you. In the latter case, you just need to be very careful with watering in the first month of growth of pepper seedlings, since in large containers there is a possibility of acidification of the soil. It is better to water little by little, but often.
In any case, as mentioned above, to grow ideal pepper seedlings, three weeks before planting in open ground, plants must be planted in even larger pots, with a volume of more than one liter.
Cassettes are often sold separately, without pallets, and if you want to save money on buying them, you can easily make pallets yourself. To do this, a sheet of dense polyethylene is cut out, each side of which should be 5 cm larger than the same side of the prepared cassette. Then install the cassette in the center of the sheet and fold all the edges up. Fasten them with a stapler or tape. Trim off the excess carefully. The pallet is ready.
Disposable tableware
The easiest option is to use ordinary disposable cups.
For the initial sowing of seeds, even small cups with a volume of 100-150 ml are suitable. But after 3-4 leaves unfold on the seedlings, it is imperative to transfer each plant into larger seedling cups, with a volume of about 500 ml. If there is extra space on the windowsill, you can immediately take containers from one liter or more for transshipment.
Homemade containers
To grow pepper seedlings, you can use almost any cardboard container for juices and dairy products. It is only necessary to wash them thoroughly before use, cut and pierce many drainage holes with an awl. The convenience of such containers for growing pepper seedlings lies in the fact that before planting in the ground, the cardboard is simply cut and the earthen ball remains intact.
Often, for growing seedlings of pepper, home-made cups are made in large quantities from dark polyethylene, paper, or even newspapers. The technology is very simple. First, there is a wooden or plastic fruit box. Then a base is taken, which is wrapped in paper or polyethylene of the desired height. As a basis, you can take a large plastic bottle or, even better, a piece of a metal square profile. After one turn, everything superfluous is cut off, the parts are fastened with adhesive tape, and the bottom is bent inward. Ready cups are filled with fertile soil and placed in a box for stability. When landing in the ground, it is enough just to cut them on one side.
Conclusion
As you can see, the choice of containers in which you can grow strong and healthy pepper seedlings is very extensive. It all depends on your capabilities and desires.
