Early peppers and tomatoes in boxes - my method reviews and tips
HOW TO GET A HARVEST OF TOMATOES AND PEPPERS ONE MONTH BEFORE?
The spring lockdown, when everyone was "locked" in the city, helped me figure it out.
Peppers I have not grown for the first year, and thought that I knew how to get a big and early harvest from them. But it so happened that part of the seedlings ended up in the country, and there were 3 bushes of sweet pepper left in the city apartment - to enjoy fresh fruits, even if the vegetable garden will be inaccessible in the summer.
Plants were transplanted into boxes of fruits and vegetables, two pieces diagonally. Outside, I wrapped the boxes in polyethylene. The surface of the soil was covered with sphagnum and the peppers were placed on the balcony. They started growing together, and under the juicy green leaves a mass of flowers appeared. By the way, the boxes are also convenient in the sense that they have holes in the corners where you can install supports to tie up growing bushes.
CROWN BUD I haven't pinched it off for a long time - it is here that the earliest pepper ripens. And if the plant receives enough nutrients, and even the variety (or hybrid) is capable of simultaneously pouring several fruits, then such an operation only delays fruiting.
When I managed to go to the dacha, I saw the difference between peppers in boxes and in seedling cups. All of them were sown in one day, but ... even plants of the same variety varied in size by at least half.
See also: Why do vegetables (peppers, tomatoes, eggplants) grow ugly, clumsy?
PLANT INTO THE GROUND large, 50 cm high peppers with ripening fruits would be difficult ... if it were not for the boxes. The mesh bottom and root walls are not an obstacle. So I just removed the plastic and buried the boxes in the garden bed. To my surprise, both the flowers and the peppers themselves held tight and did not fall off when accidentally touched. After planting in the greenhouse, the plants did not hurt, they seemed to have not noticed what had changed in their life.
FINALLY FIRST RIPE PEPPER ate in early June. And in the summer, from each "box" bush, I took off several ripe fruits every weekend. I didn’t even notice the “waves” of fruiting, the plants bloomed continuously and tied new peppers. However, it should be noted that last year the first serious frost in our area happened only at the end of September.
Thus, the main problem when growing seedlings is cramped conditions. If the peppers, tomatoes or eggplants - crops that have been in "home" cultivation for the longest time, stand too close to each other, then the aboveground part of them will be elongated, and the leaves are small. Especially if for some reason it is impossible to plant seedlings on time. In such conditions, buds, flowers and even ovaries do not hold tightly and at the first opportunity they fall off - both from the breeze and from the touch.
WELL AND IF IT IS CLOSE TO THE ROOTS, then they are tightly intertwined, and the plants, even in the garden, cannot gain strength. This means that there will be no early or abundant harvest. What to do? Divide. Divide seedlings for early harvest and for main harvest. Sprinters can be sown earlier. You need few of them, 3-4 peppers, 2 eggplants, 5-6 tomatoes are enough. They can be sown a month earlier than the seedlings of the main crop, under phytolamps, so that there is no shortage of light. In the Moscow region, the ideal sowing date is early February. When the time comes, the plants need to be cut into separate containers with a volume of at least 1 liter, and they will develop in comfortable conditions.
Seedlings of the main crop can be sown a month later. In this case, it will not stretch out - it simply will not have time.
Also, in boxes, I think you can grow express cucumbers. Unless you can sow them later, and 2-4 plants will be enough for an early harvest.
See also: Earliest pepper seedlings
WE SEED TOMATOES AND PEPPERS FOR EARLY HARVEST - VIDEO
© Author: Yu. FINOKHINA, agronomist
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