Sweet bell pepper contains many vitamins. It is considered an antidepressant and serves as the prevention of many diseases. To have this vitamin on your table at any time of the year, you can plant it in your own greenhouse. And in order for the crop to be rich, it is important to know the features and subtleties of caring for this fragile plant.
Preparing the soil for planting
Since pepper is very thermophilic, it is necessary to plant seedlings when the average daily air temperature is 10 degrees Celsius. A polycarbonate greenhouse is well suited for growing peppers. It protects against temperature extremes.
Planting seedlings is best done in late spring - early summer. Do not plant pepper in cold soil, it should be warm, for this you can place manure on it.
It is best to start preparing the garden for planting from the autumn period. To prevent the soil from freezing, in the fall, hay or grass should be buried to a depth of about 30 centimeters. Thanks to this method, it is also possible to heat the ground in spring.
Before planting pepper, the soil must be properly prepared. First you need to dig it up well so that it is loose. After that - add fertilizer. For this, a mixture of the following ingredients is made:
- 1 glass of ash;
- humus;
- 1 cup double superphosphate;
- 25 grams of saltpeter per square meter meter of soil.
Fertilize the soil 24 hours before planting the pepper, and right before planting, dig the ground again.
Pepper soil should not be acidic. Dolomite flour can help remove acidity. Using it is very simple: sift 15-20 days before planting 100 grams of flour per square meter. meter of beds prepared under pepper.
If you do not know what soil acidity is, this can be easily determined. Take a teaspoon of soil, but not from the topmost layer, lay it on a dark even surface and pour 9% vinegar. If foam appears, then there is more alkali in the soil, if there is little foam, then there is a sufficient amount of both alkali and acid, and if there is no foam at all, the soil is acidic.
Pepper planting
Before planting, seedlings need to be well watered (2-3 hours before planting). It is best to plant pepper in the evening. During landing, you must consider the following rules:
- Do not plant pepper in the place where tomatoes were grown before. The best soil for pepper is after cabbage.
- Do not plant different varieties of peppers nearby: sweet and bitter, as all pepper can become bitter.
- When planting, you need to ensure that only the root of the plant is in the soil. If there is also a stem there, then this can slow down the growth of pepper.
- Before planting, add peat to each hole in the greenhouse, it will help the roots to be healthy.
- Peppers should be planted at a distance of at least 30 centimeters from each other. If the pepper is stunted, then 20-25 cm will be enough.
- The distance between the beds should be about 80 centimeters.
- After planting, the soil surface, and especially the place of planting of each bush, fertilize with humus. This will help the pepper get used to new conditions faster.
More information on how to properly plant seedlings of bell pepper in a greenhouse can be seen in the video clip:
Top dressing
Immediately after planting the pepper, it is recommended to feed the earth with minerals so that the pepper grows faster and the stems are strong. To prepare this fertilizer, mix:
- 10 grams of ammonium nitrate;
- 30 grams of superphosphate double;
- 20 grams of calcium nitrate.
This proportion is designed for 10 liters of water. Pour all planted plants with this product.
In addition to such top dressing, you also need to use organic, because it approximates the ripening time of the pepper. To prepare it, mix the mullein with water in a ratio of 1: 4. Let it brew for about a week. After that add the same amount of water and mix. It is advisable to use such top dressing in the evening when watering.
Care
The temperature in the pepper greenhouse should be at least +16 degrees. Sweet pepper is a heat-loving plant, but you can not exceed a temperature of 35 degrees. In this case, you need to create a shadow for the pepper.
Pepper should be watered often with a small amount of water. Do not pour too much - the roots may begin to rot.
Pepper is unpretentious, it grows and ripens at room temperature and does not require special growing conditions. However, he needs competent care: garter, top dressing, weeding and mulching.
After the first top dressing described above, the second is carried out after 2 weeks. It is made from the same ingredients, but the minerals in the composition double.
It is also very useful to feed pepper with nettle infusion. To cook it, mix the nettle with water 1:10 and let it brew for two days. During the season, it is necessary to feed chicken manure 4 times, mixing it with water 1:10. This type of fertilizer should be alternated with foliar, for example, with a mineral fertilizer such as nitrophoska. 1 tablespoon should be diluted with a bucket of water.
In hot, humid weather, you need to remove the side shoots, especially in the lower stepsons. If the weather is dry, then this is not worth it. It is also worth removing the flower from the bush, which is located in the center and grows from the first branch. This will help to get more crop.
During the growing season, the pepper must be cut to remove the longest shoots - the shoots located below the main fork of the stem and inside the crown. Hold this event every 10 days.
Pepper should be mulched with straw with a layer of about 10 centimeters. Thanks to this, the plant can be watered less often, and it will also be protected from diseases. Straw does not let the sun through, so use it in greenhouses that are not heated, only after frost. And if there is heating in the greenhouse, then you can mulch the pepper at any time after planting.
It is also necessary to tie pepper, as it is very fragile. This is done after mulching. It is best to tie it to a trellis installation, but it can also be simply pegs. Be careful not to damage the plant.
Pepper does not grow well on dense soil, so it is worth loosening it once a week. This should be done carefully, with a small rake, without touching the roots of the plants.
Pests and diseases
Common pests that infect peppers in a greenhouse include Colorado potato beetles, aphids, May beetle larvae, bears and ticks. For prevention, you need to regularly inspect plants.
If you find a spider mite on pepper, the Fitoverm and Lepidocide preparations are best suited for its removal.
The most dangerous parasite for pepper is aphid; in a day its number increases by 35 times. Aphid bait can be made independently. To do this, you will need:
- 1 teaspoon of boric acid;
- 1 teaspoon icing sugar;
- 1 yolk of boiled chicken egg.
Mix all the ingredients and make balls of them, arrange them in the greenhouse.
In order to prevent the harvest from spoiling the bear, one hour before planting seedlings, fill the wells with clean water. After planting, spray pepper from the spray gun. Each season, 3 times it is necessary to spray wood ash on plants. This will help pepper against diseases and pests.
Among pepper diseases, the most common are: macrosporiosis, vertex and white rot, black leg and late blight.
Bush formation
To form a bush is necessary in order to increase the yield. There are varieties of pepper that do not need to be formed, among them weakly branching varieties and hybrids of pepper: Swallow, Topolin, Zodiac, Florida, Barguzin, Dobryak and others.
If the pepper bushes are undersized - about 50 cm, then it is enough to cut off weak shoots. High - become heavy and large, and there is not enough nutrients for the development of the fruit.
Tall bushes are those whose height is more than a meter. In such conditions, diseases develop and pests appear. To avoid this, you need to make the bush less often, and also improve the conditions: lighting, temperature and humidity.
The formation of the bush occurs in several stages:
- If you grow seedlings yourself, then it is worth starting to form a bush when the stems are about 15 cm tall. At this height, the stem begins to divide into branches. A bud appears at their junction. It is best to remove it.
- When you transfer the seedlings to the greenhouse, plant it in such a way that the bush can be increased by several branches. Typically, these peppers plant 4-6 pieces per 1 square meter.
- To form a bush, you need to remove the extra sterile shoots and cut the plant. Shoots and leaves that are located below before the first branch should be removed.
- The branches that formed after branching are called lateral branches of the first order. They grow a stem with leaves. In the bosom of these leaves shoots, stepsons are formed. They should be removed with a pinch.
- The middle branch of the first order is divided into 2 shoots. You need to leave a stronger one along with leaves and buds. A weaker escape must be removed.
- The same thing needs to be done with third-order branches.
- When inspecting plants, always remove shoots without buds and yellow leaves.
All these actions must be performed until the growth of the bush reaches 1-1.2 meters. Then you need to trim the top of the plant, this will help redirect all the vitamins from the stem to the fruits themselves. And a month and a half before the harvest, you need to trim the tops of all orders.
Harvesting
You can harvest when the weather is cold. Frosting peppers in a greenhouse is not terrible, but in this case its development and ripening stops.
In order to increase the yield, pick the fruits as soon as they ripen. Do this at least once a week. However, it should be remembered that ripe peppers should be eaten almost immediately, and slightly immature ones are suitable for canning and freezing.
From the stage of technical maturity to biological, it takes from several days to several weeks. It depends on the conditions in which pepper grows and air temperature. It should be comfortable, then the pepper will ripen faster. Harvest should be done carefully, it is best to cut with a knife or secateurs along with the peduncle.
Pepper storage
If you want to save the harvest for some period, you must follow a few rules:
- Remove damaged fruit.
- Unripe peppers (stage of technical maturity) should be stored at a temperature not exceeding 10 degrees Celsius. To make the pepper ripen faster, put it in a warmer place.
- At the stage of biological maturity, store pepper at zero degrees. So you can use it for two months.
- It is best stored in wooden or plastic crates, laying paper on the bottom or wrapping each fruit separately.
- Red and orange pepper varieties can be stored longer than green ones.
Sweet bell pepper is not very whimsical, for its cultivation does not require special conditions in the greenhouse. However, some effort should be made. But if you follow all the rules, then you will be happy with the harvest, and on your table will be fresh, natural, delicious vegetables.