Housewives are always trying to rationally arrange the kitchen space. This also applies to those located in this room.

It is desirable to choose such that it was both beautiful and necessary.

The best option for the kitchen - decorative. It looks very aesthetically pleasing, especially when fruits appear. The same fruits are applicable in cooking as a very spicy seasoning.

In addition, in the winter it will serve as a pleasant reminder of the warm green summer.

Botanical description

The plant, which is usually called, does not belong to the pepper family. This culture belongs to the family of the bouillon and has the second name “capsicum”.

The culture is widespread on all continents. Can grow in open ground and in a flower pot at room conditions.

Pepper decorative room  - a plant in an apartment can grow and bear fruit up to 4-5 years. Propagated by seeds and. Height - 20-55 cm. Crown branched. The leaves are sharp, long or elongated oval, ovate. Color varies from light to dark green. May bloom singly or in bunches, flowers are more often white.

Did you know? Kapsikum in Latin means "bag." Obviously, pepper is so named after the shape of the fruit.

Fruits can have a different color: yellow, orange, red, purple. Moreover, a different color of the fruit can occur even if they appear on the same plant, depending on the ripening. Also, the peppers are different in shape (with a sharp or blunt end, spherical, oval) and size (small, medium, large - maximum 5 cm). It all depends on the variety.

Flowering and fruiting are not separated in time. On the bush can be at the same time flowers, immature fruits, ripe peppers. fruits, as a rule, very abundantly.

Bitterness, burning sensation and spice gives the fruit alkaloid capsaicin.

Important! The stems and leaves of the decorative pepper are poisonous.

Popular species

Types of home decorative set. They differ in crown, leaves, color and shape of fruits, fruiting time, peculiarities of care, etc.

Annual

Annuals  varieties are also called room paprika, pepper, vegetable, sweet (although some varieties are quite sharp). They differ in that after shedding or gathering the fruit the plant may shrink. Not all yearlings are waiting for such a fate. In room conditions, certain species can bear fruit more than one year.
Bushes are low, compact, 35-55 cm high. Fruits vary in shape and color depending on the variety.

Common varieties:

  • "Tepin";
  • "Redhead";
  • "Siberian Prince";
  • "Cherry Bomb";
  • "Golden Baby" and others.

Shrub

Shrub  varieties are very well suited for indoor conditions: window sill, loggia, balcony, etc. These are perennial plants. They successfully grow and bear fruit 5-6 years.

The variety is interesting in form, but its yield is average. In the apartment you can only collect about 20 peppercorns. More often grown "Lemon Lollipop" and "White Crystal", they are traditionally fruitful.
  The taste of pepper sweetish, sharpness in it quite a bit.

This is a rather tall look. It grows up to 80 cm, so more often the apartment is placed not on the windowsill, but on the floor on a loggia or balcony.

Chinese

Chinese  the grade is less common. This plant is up to 50 cm tall, like other species. Its leaves are ovate, light green, slightly shriveled. Flowers are white with a greenish tinge.

Fruits vary in shape, sometimes even take the form of a flashlight. Chinese pepper has, probably, the sharpest and burning fruits.

The disadvantage is that this species has a relatively slow growth.
  Common varieties:

  • "Santa Lucia";
  • "The language of the devil";
  • "Devil Yellow."

Pubescent

Pepper pubescent  (or fluffy) is grown more outdoors, because it is very tall (up to 3-4 m). For cultivation in the apartment are suitable only individual varieties, for example, "Rokoto" (it is not so high).

In this species, the entire bush is densely covered with pubescence. And not only the stems and leaves, but even.

It has a sharp taste, consumed raw.

The best conditions for pepper

Regarding the capriciousness and unpretentiousness of pepper and care for it at home, the opinions of lovers of decorative fruit plants are divided. Some people think that it is easy to care for the crop, others say that the plant is capricious and it is difficult to care for it.

Important! During the flowering period, pepper must be periodically shaken to increase yield.

Let's understand in detail the conditions of detention and features of care.

Humidity and temperature

Room pepper is a heat-loving plant. It will grow well in spring and summer at about 25 ° C. In winter, the temperature should be lower: 15-18 ° C will be fine for him. In addition, he likes night and day temperature drops, so in the summer it is better to keep it on the loggia or balcony.
  Humidity requires moderate. Perchik loves to swim (more on that later).

Lighting

In the care of decorative pepper in the pot to follow the lighting is necessary. For good development and fruiting, you need to place the plant on a south, south-west or west window-sill.

The culture is very light-loving, in spring and autumn it needs up to 3-4 hours of open sunlight. Only no more than 4 hours, otherwise burns on the fruits and leaves may occur. In the summer you need pritenyat, because the sun is very active. If the lighting is not enough, then you need to apply artificial.

With a lack of lighting is rare, there are few leaves on it; besides, there will be no good harvest.

Cultivation substrate

Used for growing light neutral type. You can buy ready-made in a specialized store, you can make the mixture yourself.

For pepper, a mixture of sod land, leaf humus and sand in a ratio of 2: 2: 1.

Did you know? In botany, the fruits of capsicum are defined as berries.

Planting seeds and grafting

Most often, the plant is grown from seeds, but it is also possible grafting.

Growing from seed

To grow pepper from seeds, it is necessary to purchase seeds, prepare a container and soil, plant seeds, wait for germination and provide them with proper care.

Peppers need to plant in February.

There are two approaches to growing pepper from seed. They differ in the fact that in one the reckless and direct method is used, in the second - with the cultivation of seedlings and subsequent transplantation.

1st method:

  1. Potted pepper is not grown by seedlings and is not transplanted from one pot to another as it grows. Immediately you need to pick up the capacity in which the adult plant will grow. Its volume should be 4-6 liters.
  2. Before planting seeds in a pot pour the soil, providing a good one.
  3. Soak the seeds for 1 hour in water and place in a damp cloth for a day.
  4. Plant seeds and sprinkle with soil 2-4 mm. Moisten well with a spray bottle and cover with a film before germination.
  5. Be sure to place the pot in a warm place. After sprouting with the advent of four leaves pinch to form the crown.

2nd method:

  1. Prepare a small container, about 200 ml, for planting seeds.
  2. Make a drainage and pour into a pot of earthen mixture. Having placed the prepared seeds, cover them with soil 2-4 mm.
  3. To prepare the seeds, they must be soaked in water for 1 hour and left in wet gauze for one day.
  4. Well moisten the soil, cover with food film and place in a warm place for germination.
  5. Shoots of pepper appear in 2-3 weeks.
  6. With the advent of two pairs of leaves, pepper requires transplanting, diving and pinching.
  7. The capacity for further cultivation should be about 4-6 liters, with good drainage.
  8. A sprout with a large earthen clod is poured into it by transshipment, it is plentifully watered.
  9. Top pinch.

  More often choose the second method, but, as practice has shown, the first is not worse.

Whatever method of germinating seeds - 1st or 2nd - you choose, then pepper care is the same.

How to propagate the plant cuttings

Pepper cuttings can be done in spring and summer. To do this, cut the side shoots and put them in a container with a sandy-earth mixture for rooting.

First pour abundantly, then - as the soil dries.

The tank should have good drainage. This is necessary both for the cutting and for the rooted plant, because it will continue to grow here. Replanting rooted cuttings is not necessary.

To root rooted faster, it is necessary to pinch.

Care culture

Caring for pepper type "Spark", which grows on your windowsill, is special.

Prior to that, we did not mention the brand "Spark". But the fact is that ordinary housewives call any sort of indoor decorative pepper.

How to water

Sprinkle in the spring and summer should be plentiful as the land dries. In addition, be sure to "bathe" the plant, sprinkling it 1-2 times a week, on hot days - every other day.

Watering should be done at room temperature.

Important! Plants placed on window sills, under which there are batteries, need more frequent watering.

In the fall to reduce, in the winter - to minimize, water moderately.

Of all the types of pepper, Tyumen residents (as, indeed, other Russians) liked sweet pepper most of all, which is also called Bulgarian (apparently, because it was originally brought from there to our country).

This plant is characterized by numerous bright colors (pepper is yellow, red, orange, green) and can decorate any dish. In addition, it is juicy, tasty, filled with many vitamins and nutrients.

Most of the gardeners have already planted peppers in the greenhouses, so the rest of the seedlings can be planted directly into the soil, ”advises Professor GAU of the Northern Zauralie Lyudmila Lyascheva. - In order to not lose the useful properties of the culture during cultivation, but to multiply, follow the following rules.

Landing algorithm

Place the seedlings in the wells at the same depth at which the peppers grew in the seedling box, in no way exposing the roots and not dropping the root collar.

Pepper belongs to the heat-loving crops. He doesn’t like the cold ground, so pamper him: build high beds for his place of residence, which you want to raise 25-55 centimeters above the ground.

Interesting is the experience of growing peppers in straw bales (as they used to do at the Prigorodnoye state farm).

Do not forget: the pepper is subject to over-pollination, so if you like to grow several varieties on the plot, try to locate them at the maximum distance from each other. Well, if you divide the varieties of "hedge" in the form of tall tomatoes, corn or sunflower.

Pepper care

It includes regular watering, garters, weeding and feeding. The first “recharge” must be carried out in the phase 1-2 of these foxes; for this purpose, 0.5 g of ammonium nitrate, 1 g of potash fertilizers and 3 g of superphosphate are mixed in a liter of water. The second feeding - two weeks after the first, while the dose of mineral fertilizers in the "recipe" must be doubled.

  • Pepper contains much more vitamin C than, for example, lemon. It is also rich in vitamins P, A, vitamins of group B. In addition to them, pepper contains quite a lot of minerals, compounds of zinc, iron, phosphorus, even iodine is present in small amounts (so necessary for Siberians and northerners).

A Bulgarian friend will be very grateful if you pamper him with nettle infusion (10 parts of water for one part of nettle, we can take the infusion for a couple of days).

Before harvesting, it is advisable to make three additional feeding of pepper with chicken droppings (1:10), alternating such dressings with foliar. For the latter, use mineral fertilizers. Perfectly suitable nitrophoska (st. L on a bucket of water).

If it is hot outside and it rains frequently, steppe the pepper (remove side shoots), especially in the lower shoots. Conversely, if the sun burns inexorably, but it is dry, the plants do not stepchild, as the leaf mass perfectly protects from moisture evaporation.

During the growing season, peppers must be cut several times, trying to shorten the longest shoots so that there are no shaded branches. Be sure to remove all processes of pepper below the main fork of its stem, as well as the branches inside the crown. Pruning arrange every seven to ten days and after picking the fruit. Simultaneously with pruning produce and tillage. Lure insects pollinators in the garden, for this during the flowering sprinkle peppers with a sugar solution: 100 g of sugar and 2 g of boric acid are taken per liter of hot water. The plants respond well to fertilizing with liquid organic fertilizers.

If you are not in awe of frequent watering, their number can be reduced: chambered pepper with overheated straw. In this case, you will need a watering can no more than once every 10 days.

Do not forget about the garter plants, which is carried out after hilling and mulching.

Pests and diseases

To ward off a Medvedka, about an hour before placing the seedlings of pepper in the wells, fill them with water.

For a season at least 3 times the vegetable must be pollinated with wood ash - better in dew.

Aphid does not tolerate whey: dilute one and a half liters per bucket of water, then sprinkle the pepper with sifted wood ash.

Sometimes gardeners complain that pepper does not give buds. This comes from overfeeding plants with nitrogen fertilizers: not necessarily mineral, but organic, including manure or infusion of nettle and other weeds. By the way, fresh manure is generally contraindicated to peppers.

workshop

  • With a lack of potassium, the fox points of the pepper roll up, and a drying border appears on them.
  • If the plant lacks nitrogen, its leaves become dull and, acquiring a grayish tint, gradually shrink.
  • When there is little phosphorus, the underside of pepper leaves becomes saturated purple, and the leaves themselves are pressed closer to the stem of the plant and rise up.
  • If there is a lack of magnesium, the leaves become marble in color, and the excess nitrogen in the soil leads to the shedding of ovaries and pepper flowers.

Another nuisance: pepper blooms, but does not form ovaries. Warm peppers suffer from this most often, because the high temperature and high air humidity interferes with normal pollination. The same can be with a strong cooling. In this case, help to improve pollination, for example, Bud or Ovary.

Adjust the temperature mode: depending on the weather or air the greenhouse or, on the contrary, turn on the heating.

With prolonged chills (which often differs Siberian summer) dramatically reduce watering: then the peppers do not get sick. In addition, in cool weather, plant the foliar top dressing on the leaves with any available preparation (Sprout, Epin-extra, Zircon, etc.).

Shoots of peppers will appear in 7-12 days if the temperature under the film is 24-26 ° C or higher. If it keeps below these values, then shoots will appear later.

Pepper seeds will not germinate at all if the temperature in the room is below 20 ° C, the optimum temperature is 25 ° C. If the seeds do not germinate from the earth after a certain period, they will have to be thrown away. Deadline for pepper - 12-13 days.

Every three days you need for a short time to slightly open the landing for airing. With the emergence of seedlings, the transfer boxes should be immediately transferred to the lighted place, where the temperature is slightly lowered, and the film removed. Such a place could be a windowsill. Since the pepper is not drawn out, the temperature of 20-22 ° C will be optimal for it. Seedlings need to be regularly ventilated, but not allowed drafts.

Seedlings of pepper, which rose in February, need to be additionally highlighted from 8 am to 8 pm. In the remaining hours, young seedlings up to the age of 30 days should preferably be covered with an opaque material. This technique helps to increase its resistance to low temperatures. In addition, the seedlings earlier enter into the phase of fruiting.

If you sow the seeds closer to mid-March, you will have to artificially finish the seedlings grown from the moment of the first germination and before the pick in the pots for a whole month. During the first three days after the emergence of shoots it is better to cover them around the clock, and then you should switch to the mode of 16-18 hours a day, in the morning and in the evening. Conventional incandescent bulbs are suspended at a distance of 60 cm and more from sprouts to prevent burns. To highlight it is best to take economical (fluorescent or energy-saving) fluorescent lamps, they illuminate the seedlings well, but do not overheat the seedlings, so they can be located close to the plants. Fluorescent lamps (40 or 80 W) should be suspended horizontally, so that they are located about 8-9 cm above the plants. On a cloudy day, the lamps turn on from 8 am to 8 pm On a clear day, use depending on the light situation in the room.

It is desirable to keep the seedlings on the bright window: the pepper is a light-loving plant, and it will develop worse in the shade. For better lighting, you can use mirrors or foil; you should also wash windows as often as possible, then the plants will be better lit.

Such light and temperature conditions are kept for 6-7 days so that the seedlings give strong roots. Then the temperature is gradually increased: in the daytime in sunny weather - up to 23-25 ​​° С, in overcast weather - up to 19-22 ° С, at night - at the level up to 16-17 ° С.

It is important every 2-3 days to rotate the boxes with seedlings, then one or the other side to the window frame. Then the illumination of seedlings will be uniform.

⇒ The root system, pepper is located, superficially, so it needs frequent and abundant watering. Especially often you need to water the plant during flowering: when the soil and the air are dry, flowers and ovaries can fall off.

At first, the seedlings do not need to be watered, just sprinkle the dried soil lightly. Irrigation of pepper is carried out 1 every 3-4 days, only in the morning. For irrigation use warm, settled water. Watering seedlings with magnetized water is very effective. To do this, water for irrigation must be passed three times through the magnetic nozzles, which can be bought in the store.

Seedlings of pepper can grow in a box until two true leaves appear on them. This usually occurs at the age of shoots of 30-35 days. During this time, seedlings should be watered moderately, not more than 1 time per week. Excessive moistening can provoke the defeat of plants with a “black leg”. For irrigation use only warm distilled water with a temperature of 26-28 ° C.

Pepper seedlings pick

Pepper seedlings are ready for picking, i.e. transplanting from a small container to a large one, as soon as they have 2-3 true leaves. At this age, seedlings take root easier. When picking, each pepper plant can be transplanted into an individual box or container.

Before the start of the picking, the seedlings need to be fed once with a solution of calcium nitrate (1 tbsp per 10 l of water), and 2-3 hours before it is done - be sure to water it. When transplanting dry seedlings, the soil will fall off from the roots, which is very harmful.

Seedlings can dive into any suitable container - hollow peat pots or plastic cups of any size. The optimal pot size is 10 x 10 cm.

The selected container is filled with the same soil mixture that was used when sowing, then watered with a nutrient solution to choose from:

1 tsp wood ash or potassium sulfate per 10 liters of water;

1 tbsp. l liquid fertilizer "Effecton", or "Agricola Forward", or sodium humate in 10 liters of water.

If, after watering, the soil has noticeably dropped, then you need to fill the soil mixture, make a depression in the middle of the pot and land the dive-plant to the cotyledon, i.e. up to the two lowest leaves. Between the soil surface and these leaves should not be a bare stem. After 3 weeks, deciphered plants need to be fed again.

By the way, many gardeners believe that the seedlings of peppers do not need to dive, it can grow before planting in the ground where it was planted at the beginning.

Pepper does not tolerate a pick very well due to the fact that its roots are located close to the soil surface. They are weak and break easily, so it is advisable to grow the seedlings of pepper without picking. It is better to immediately put it in individual pots. Since the roots of the pepper grow slowly, you can use pots 8 cm in diameter.

Pickled Pepper Seedlings Care

After diving, seedlings in pots are preferably placed on the window sill, but it is better to close the window glass for 1-2 days with paper, which will give moderate lighting.

The whole complex of care for picking seedlings consists of watering, feeding, hardening and observing the correct temperature conditions.

At this time, the plants need regular watering: 1 time in 5-6 days they need to be moistened so that the entire soil mixture in the pot was well moistened, but the water did not stagnate. To prevent stagnation of water at the bottom of the pot should be holes. If you accidentally allow the overflow of seedlings of pepper, it is possible to stop growth. The first time after picking, the plants are usually watered after six days, using distilled water with a temperature of 25 ° C.

For better rooting of plants after picking for 3-4 days, you need to provide them with moderately warm air: the temperature is 20-22 ° C during the day and not lower than 14 ° C at night. In the following days, the daytime temperature should be maintained at 23–25 ° C during the day and not lower than 18–20 ° C at night.

Feeding seedlings pepper

Being engaged in the cultivation of pepper seedlings, you need to combine watering with dressings. As an easy dressing, you can use such an affordable tool as a sleeping tea brewing (black tea). To do this, you need 1 cup of such a brew to pour 3 liters of hot water, insist 5-6 days, then strain the infusion and water the seedlings. You can also cook an egg-dressing dressing: Pour the chopped shells from 10 eggs with hot water and insist also for 5-6 days; during infusion, you should regularly stir the medium, then strain and water the plants. Excellent results are obtained by feeding pepper seedlings with infusion of nettle in a ratio of 1:10.

Since the peppers have a great need for potash-phosphorus fertilizer, the seedlings can be watered once with water and ash extract. For its preparation you need 1 tbsp. l wood ash pour 1 liter of hot water, insist day and strain. When a seedling reaches two weeks of age, you can feed it with a solution of complex fertilizer.

Mineral fertilizer is better to make under the seedlings pepper feedings. It is best of all to carry out the first top dressing of seedlings when it has 1-2 true leaves. For top dressing, 0.5 g of ammonium nitrate, 3 g of superphosphate and 1 g of potash fertilizer should be diluted in 1 l of water. After 14 days, a second feeding is carried out, twice increasing the dose of mineral fertilizers.

The last feeding is carried out 2 days before transplanting to a permanent place. At the same time, the dose of potash fertilizer should be increased to 8 g per 1 l of water.

In cases where the seedlings develop slowly, and the color of the leaves is light green in color, the plants need additional feeding more effective than nutrient solutions from improvised means. Then you can apply a solution of fertilizers from the following components: 1 tbsp. fertilizer "sheet" in combination with 2 tbsp. l fertilizer "Effecton" diluted in 10 liters of water.

If the beautiful green plants of pepper do not develop roots well, it means that they need feeding. In this case, in 10 liters of water can be diluted 1 tbsp. superphosphate or 1 tsp potassium sulfate. You can prepare a dressing from a mixture of fertilizers "Agricola Forward" and "Effekton-U": take 1 tbsp. each means and dilute in 10 liters of water. All liquid dressings should be included in the general water rate when watering the seedlings so that there is no excess liquid.

❧ All watering and dressing pepper seedlings is desirable to carry out only in the morning. Such a routine will help to prevent the disease of seedlings "black leg". If you water the seedlings in the afternoon, the young plants will not have time to absorb moisture.

Pepper seedlings respond very well to wood ash: it can be poured 1-2 times into pots at the rate of 1 tsp. 2-3 pot. But you need to add ash so that it does not fall on the stems and leaves of plants.

Hardening pepper seedlings

The temperature in the room where the pepper seedlings are grown must be maintained at: during the day - 25-27 ° С, at night - not lower than 11-13 ° С. Before planting seedlings at a permanent place, it should be hardened.

Hardening pepper seedlings should begin no later than 2-4 weeks before its landing on a permanent place in the ground - it all depends on local weather and climatic conditions. The hardening process is expressed in gradual habituation of the seedlings to natural weather conditions, sunlight, relatively low temperature (compared to room temperature) and fresh air. Hardening can be started only at above zero temperature, when the outside air is already warming up to 15 ° C. Carrying out this procedure, it is important to closely monitor the weather conditions so that the seedlings do not get frozen or the temperature drops to 13 ° C, which is biological zero for pepper.

First you need in the room where the seedlings, open the window or window frame - depending on the air temperature outside.

As the air temperature outside the window rises, you can take out the plants on a balcony, a veranda or even outside on clear days.

The residence time of seedlings in the fresh air should be gradually increased, starting from 20 minutes a day. According to experienced gardeners, hardening of seedlings gives the best result compared to hardening pepper seeds heated in warm water.

However, hardening in any form (at home or when carried out on the street) can be carried out only when there are no drafts in the room and there is no strong, gusty wind outside.

Wind and drafts are destructive for young plants. A weak warm breeze will only benefit the rather grown seedlings.

Signs of good pepper seedlings

Good seedlings can be distinguished by many external features that speak of the health of young plants. The first indicator of healthy strong plants - large leaves of a saturated green color. The total volume of leaves should visually exceed the volume of the stem, and this difference should be significant.

The stalk should be thick, not lignified, well fitting into the circle. It should not have a bend around the root collar. In a healthy plant, the stem is always strong, consisting of compact internodes.

Leaves and stems should not be stained, any plaque and deformation, as well as signs of starvation or an excess of individual nutrients.

The plant ready for planting can be carefully removed, turning the pot over, and inspected without harming the roots. In a healthy seedling, the roots, before planting in the soil, branch well and have healthy white tips, and also twist a clod of soil in a pot. If a plant has small and weak roots, the ground will easily fall off from them, and you will have to wait for it to land on a permanent place.

Plants at the time of planting seedlings should have about 8-12 leaves and single buds. If it is expected to get an early harvest of pepper, then the seedlings should have 9-12 leaves and buds ready to open. If the crop of pepper is needed in the second half of the summer, you can use young seedlings with 7-9 leaves.

Planting seedlings in open ground

Under normal conditions of the middle band, the pepper normally matures only in a greenhouse or under a film in open ground. Without a film, it can reach maturity only in a very hot summer.

The greenhouse where the pepper is planted should be aired regularly, but remember that the plant does not tolerate drafts. The best greenhouse neighbor pepper - cucumber.

A clear sign of the readiness of pepper for planting in a permanent place is the presence of 16-17 true leaves, or at least 10-15, and single buds. The optimal age of seedlings is 55-65 days. Seedlings at two months of age should not be below 20-30 cm tall.

If the deadline for planting is missed, overgrown seedlings are ill for a long time. The leaves on it often turn yellow and even fall off, together with them the flowers and the first ovaries may fall down.

If the seedlings ready for planting have blossomed, then the first flowers should be removed, otherwise the ovary will not form on the bush. It happens that plants transplanted into the soil do not bloom at all. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that, being in a close space of a pot and a small volume of soil, the seedling gave all his strength to the formation of flowers and ovaries. When the plant transplanted into the open ground, received a large area for food, it sent all its strength to the formation of the underground part, ie, roots. But with the further formation of aboveground organs there was a delay.

When planting pepper seedlings in open ground

Peppers, which are supposed to be grown in the greenhouse, can be planted starting from May 10. In open ground, seedlings are recommended to be planted in periods from 1 to 5 June. It is dangerous enough to start planting before these dates, it would be wiser to wait until the last frost. This is usually the beginning of June. Many years of experience in growing peppers shows that open ground is intended only for the southern regions of Russia, since the plant develops well at 27 ° C.

Pepper practically does not tolerate a sharp temperature drop, wind and direct sunlight - these are arguments against growing peppers in open ground. In addition, the desired humidity can only be maintained in a greenhouse.

However, if necessary, you can plant seedlings of pepper after May 25, only with the obligatory cover of plants with a film - this is a compromise option. In hot weather, temporary film covers must be opened up. Still, the peppers even under the film is better to plant after frost.

Soil preparation

Sweet pepper is very demanding. He prefers light and rich soils. Therefore, the estimated planting site should be well fertilized with organic matter (compost, peat, humus) in the fall and add a complex mineral fertilizer. For 1 m 2 it is desirable to make 5-10 kg of organic matter. Best of all, if it will be made under the predecessor of pepper. In the fall, 60 g of phosphate and potash fertilizers are added to the same area for deep digging. In the spring, when preparing the soil, 40 g of ammonium nitrate per 1 m 2 are introduced into the top layer of the soil.

If in the fall there is no possibility to prepare the soil intended for planting pepper, in the spring you can dig it up and add a small amount of organic matter in the form of humus and superphosphate. However, before planting the pepper, the soil will need to be dug up again.

Technique of planting pepper

The best time for planting sweet pepper is cool weather, preferably evening. To do this, dig up holes that are suitable in size, put some peat or compost in them, mixed in advance with a fertile layer of earth, and pour them with warm water.

Immediately before planting, seedlings should be well shed with water so that when it is removed from the pots, the soil clod is preserved. Some gardeners pour pepper seedlings with melt water at room temperature, which is specifically frozen on the street or in the freezer. When extracting seedlings from crates, the ground is not shaken off in order not to damage the root system.

When planting pepper seedlings to a permanent place, the plant is not deeply buried - a deep planting is not suitable for it. But at the same time, the peppers do not tolerate a fine landing - they die off their roots. The ideal option would be to dip the peppers into the ground half of the stem, i.e., from the roots to the first true leaves.

Between the plants of medium-sized peppers in a row, it is necessary to withstand a gap of 20-30 cm - in rare plantings the pepper grows poorly and develops. The optimal distance between the beds should be a distance of 50- 60 cm. When planting peppers in the greenhouse, you should immediately install garter pegs, so as not to injure delicate plants.

Experienced growers believe that in order to increase the yield when planting plants it is necessary to remove the central flower that grows from the first branch.

❧ The leaves and stems of the pepper are fragile and fragile; therefore, special care should be taken when planting seedlings, caring for plants and harvesting. Pepper flowers are located in the fork of the branches, one by one or in a bouquet, in connection with which it is not stepson and is not cut.

Care of transplanted seedlings

In the process of growing the roots of transplanted seedlings should receive a sufficient amount of air. Provide roots with air will help wide aisles, which periodically should be loosened along with beds. However, the roots of the pepper are located close enough to the surface of the earth, so you can loosen the soil to a depth of no more than 7 cm.

Peppers are plants that are very demanding of moisture. They prefer fairly frequent, but not too abundant watering. At any stage of plant growth, watering should be done only under the root and only with warm water.

After watering, mulch the soil surface to ensure the desired level of moisture. Therefore, peat or straw, or any other mulch material that does not allow moisture to evaporate from the soil, can be poured around the pepper stalk.

It is advisable to feed the planted seedlings with complex and organic fertilizers once a week or 10 days. It is best to feed with irrigation. If the plants in the garden a little, you can add dressing planted seedlings of peppers through spraying.

In order for the sweet and bitter pepper to please you with its harvest, you need to properly care for it. This culture is rather capricious, so for a start, plant a small bed and learn all the tricks of growing pepper. Having mastered the basic methods of plant care, next year, plant a lot of pepper - it is very healthy and tasty. And still from pepper fine winter preparations turn out.

  How to care for pepper - planting seedlings

Growing peppers begins with planting seedlings in open ground. Before that, it is necessary to determine the predecessors, i.e. those plants that grew in the garden last year. Pepper will grow well and bear fruit after zucchini, beans, cabbage, cucumbers, onions, carrots. In the autumn, it is recommended to lay a bit of rotten compost in the future bed (1 bucket per 1 sq. M) and add phosphate and potash fertilizers (read the dosage on the package). Dig up the beds for the winter well, but do not break the clods of earth. In the spring, when the snow melts, they will disperse on their own. 2-3 days before planting, loosen the ground to a depth of 15-20 cm.

Plant the pepper in rows - keep the distance between them 25-30 cm. Provide the same distance between the individual bushes in the row. When planting in the ground do not deepen seedlings - it should be at the same height as it grew in cups or drawers.

Immediately after planting, each bush pour warm water (20-22 degrees) and grumble the soil.

  How to care for pepper - watering

  • Pepper - southern culture. It tolerates drought quite well, but at the same time its fruits do not pour and grow thin-walled. To prevent this, water the pepper as the soil dries. Watering produce 2 times a week. So that the moisture does not evaporate, after the water shower, mulch the ground with mowed grass or rotted compost.
  • Water only pepper with warm water. To do this, pre-fill the barrel and keep it on a sunny place. When watering a vegetable crop with cold water, the pepper will develop poorly.
  • Pepper loves watering infusions of grass. This watering at the same time moisten the soil and feed the plants. For this infusion, fill a large bucket with mowed grass or torn weeds. Press the grass a little and add water to the top of the bucket. Cover the bucket with a lid and put it in partial shade. After 10 days, strain the infusion and dilute it with warm water from the barrel. Observe the concentration of 1/10 (1 part of the infusion / 10 parts of water). Watering homemade fertilizer produce 1 time per week.
  • After the pepper begins to ripen massively, reduce its watering to 1 time per week. If, after harvesting in the bushes, you see new flowers, resume more frequent watering. If the weather is favorable at the end of summer, young fruits may start to grow on the bushes, although they are unlikely to have time to mature. This little pepper will not be suitable for salads, but it is possible to make seasonings from it.


  How to care for pepper - loosening the soil and removing weeds

For the pepper to develop well, its roots need oxygen. Usually this is achieved by frequent loosening of the soil near the plants, but for pepper it should be done very carefully. The fact is that pepper has a shallow root system and, when working the land with a normal hoe, the roots can be damaged. For loosening, use a small tool with three teeth. Try to loosen the soil not too often, but rather use more mulching agents - they protect the soil well from drying out and the formation of earth crusts.

Do not forget to remove all weeds from the beds with pepper by manually pulling them out. If you do this all the time, then the land will become loose because of excess grass torn from the root. These same weeds, if they are removed before their flowering and seed ripening, can be used as mulch.


  How to care for pepper - dressing

In addition to the herbal supplement, which can be produced continuously, the pepper requires a three-fold mineral supplement. Most of all vegetable culture needs nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Buy any complex fertilizer and feed the pepper in such terms:

  • 1st time - 15 days after transplanting.
  • 2nd time - during the mass fruit set.
  • 3rd time - 20 days after the second feeding.

You can produce fertilizing with mineral fertilizers both by watering under the root and by spraying the leaves with diluted solution. Instructions for the breeding of fertilizers in water, read on the packaging of the purchased product.


  Pepper Pest Control

Pepper, especially its young bushes, is subject to attack by aphids. You can suspect her invasion by sluggish leaves, from which the aphid sucks juices. In order not to miss this harmful insect, once every 3-5 days lift the leaves and look at their bottom. If aphid appeared, it is easy to wash it off with soapy water or destroy it with the help of special insecticides - they are sold in garden stores.

It is very easy to make soapy water from aphids: dilute 20 ml of liquid soap or dishwashing liquid in 1 liter of water. Fill with a solution a special spray tank and treat the bushes below. After 2 hours, repeat the procedure, but with plain clean water.


  How to care for pepper - protection from strong sun and frost

No matter how much pepper loves the sun, but its too active rays can damage the plants. In a very hot summer, cover the beds with pepper “Lutrasil” nonwoven fabric. The same material, but more dense, use for early frosts, when ripening fruits are still hanging on the bushes. To do this, in the corners of the beds, install the stakes and stretch the covering material on them.


Do not leave ripe pepper on the bushes - immediately remove it. Extra fruit can weaken the plant and even green peppers will not ripen.

Pepper is a real pantry of nutrients and vitamins and one of the most beloved vegetables in the world. However, if in the midst of the summer season it can be bought in any market literally for a penny, then by the beginning of autumn the sellers are asking for much more money for it. It is for this reason that all those gardeners and gardeners who have already managed to grow delicious cucumbers and juicy tomatoes in their own greenhouses, proceed with great pleasure. Moreover, in this lesson there is nothing difficult. Of course, planting and caring for pepper have their own characteristics, but, having read the following recommendations, you can easily grow a tasty and healthy sweet pepper by yourself.

Pepper contains a huge amount of useful vitamins, so it is so often found in the gardens of summer residents.

Secrets of growing sweet pepper: the choice of varieties

Growing peppers is not such a difficult task as it may seem to unprepared summer residents. However, before it is started, it will be useful to familiarize yourself with the variety and characteristics of varieties of this vegetable.

Peppers of various varieties are quite different in color and shape of the fruit.

Thus, the fruits of pepper can be elongated or broad cuboid, cone-shaped, prism-shaped, curved or spherical in shape. Fruit weight can also vary (usually from 0.5 to 200 g), as well as length (usually from 1 to 30 cm). The color of the pepper can vary depending on the ripeness of the fruit: from light green to purple hues, and already ripe fruits can be painted in red, brown, yellow and other colors.

Most often for growing in the greenhouse choose the following varieties of pepper:

Before planting pepper in the ground it should be watered so as not to damage the roots during transplantation.

  • The Orange Miracle is an early ripe hybrid. Characterized by fruits of a cuboid shape, painted in bright yellow color;
  • “Alyonushka” is a mid-early hybrid. It has truncated pyramidal fruits of red color;
  • "Winnie the Pooh" - one of the early ripe varieties of pepper. Fruits are red, have a shortened conical shape;
  • "Buratino" - an early ripe hybrid. Fruits are smooth, slightly ribbed, differ in elongated-conical shape and red color;
  • “Swallow” is a medium early pepper variety. Fruits are red, cone-shaped;
  • "California miracle" - refers to the mid-early varieties with prismatic, large bright red fruits;
  • "Tenderness" - an early ripe grade of pepper with very gentle pulp. Fruits are red, truncated-pyramidal;
  • "Negotsiant" - an early ripe hybrid. Fruits are red, prism-shaped;
  • "Night" - mid-seasoned hybrid pepper. Fruits are bright red, truncated pyramidal;
  • "Elephant trunk" - mid-season variety of pepper. Trunk and elongated cone-shaped fruits;
  • "Astrakhan" - refers to the mid-season varieties. It has drooping, cone-shaped fruits with coarse pulp.

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Growing and caring for pepper seedlings

Seeds for growing seedlings of pepper must be sown in late February. Before you start sowing in the prepared soil, pepper seeds are necessarily subjected to the following processing:

  • disinfection in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate for about 30 minutes, followed by washing with water;
  • treatment with special growth stimulants, which can be bought in shops for gardeners;
  • processing an appropriate antifungal agent to protect future seedlings of pepper from the fungus.

After the seeds are processed, they are sown in small individual pots to a depth of 6-12 mm. It is necessary to germinate seeds at a temperature of about + 25-30 ° C. The seedlings themselves usually appear on the 4th day. After that, it will be possible to lower the temperature to + 15-18 ° C for a whole week. This is done so that the plants do not stretch out into growth. A week later, the temperature rises again to + 22-28 ° C.

As for top dressing, the pepper grown in the greenhouse, for the first time, needs to be fed only when 3 true leaves appear on the seedlings. To do this, take the following: 30 g of potassium salt, 125 g of superphosphate and 50 g of urea. Mix all ingredients and dissolve in 10 liters of water. After feeding immediately pour clean water on the seedlings.

Experienced gardeners recommend that after a seedling has 2-5 true leaves, it is necessary to start highlighting it additionally, so that the plants are affected by radiation with a large share of the blue spectrum. The duration of such illumination is 12 hours a day.

The second dressing needs to be done after the pepper has 4 true leaves. And when a seedling has already 7-8 leaves, its nutrition and care should be especially good - it is at this stage that the organs of the flower develop invisible to the human eye, on which the quality of the whole future crop directly depends. In total, during the cultivation of seedlings, the ground will need to be poured into pots 2 times.

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Growing greenhouse pepper involves performing a procedure such as hardening. Hardening pepper seedlings is performed 2 weeks before it is planted in the ground. To do this, if the weather is warm outside, you must take out the pots of seedlings on the terrace or balcony. At night, seedlings are brought back to the closed room.

7-8 days before planting, for greater stability, seedlings can be fed with potassium salt. Experienced gardeners recommend the day before planting sprinkle seedlings with a solution of natural plant growth stimulant. This will allow the pepper to develop its own hormones, which are necessary for a particular growth phase. Such care will make the plant more resistant to various diseases. Pepper treated with a special solution is much more resistant to various adverse factors and the best fruiting. As a result, the yield of peppers is increased by about 40%, and the content of nitrates is reduced by more than 2 times.

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Planting and growing peppers in the greenhouse

Pepper seedlings can be considered ready for planting in the greenhouse soil, if it already has 12-14 leaves and development of buds is observed in the leaf axils. As a result, healthy seedlings have a rather thick stalk with a height of about 25 cm and a characteristic even green color. And in the unheated film greenhouse, it is necessary to plant seedlings of pepper when the soil in it warms up to + 15 ° C - usually it is not earlier than mid-May. And the age of the pepper seedlings should be at least 55 days.

The soil in which the pepper will be grown must be properly prepared. To do this, phosphorus and potash fertilizers are introduced into it, 40 g / m² each, and nitrogen fertilizers 30 g / m² each. Do not fertilize the soil under the pepper with fresh manure. Such processing can lead to strong growth of bushes and falling flowers. It is better to use compost or humus - enough for 1 bucket for every 1 m².

Planting seedlings in a greenhouse is necessary for ridges 1 m wide with a row-spacing of 50 cm. The density of planting in the case of pepper depends on the characteristics of the selected variety. Thus, for high-growing varieties of pepper and hybrids, the distance between plants in the 1st row is usually 35 cm, and for medium-grown varieties - 25 cm. For early-ripening short-growing varieties there will be 10 plants every 15 m². Seedlings should be grown in the wells, pre-watered with water - 2 liters of water per well. After planting, the soil must be thoroughly sealed with hands and grinded with humus or peat.