When to plant seedlings. When to plant seedlings

It's no secret that tomatoes are one of the most beloved vegetable crops, which are grown with pleasure in summer cottages. Therefore, it is impossible to allow such a responsible event as planting tomato seedlings in open ground to go by chance.

Depending on the climatic features of your region of residence and current weather conditions, the timing of planting tomato seedlings in open ground may vary.

So, as a rule, in the Middle lane (Moscow region) - this occurs in the second half of May, in the Urals and Siberia not earlier than the end of May - the beginning of June, at about the same time tomatoes are planted in the ground in the North-West (in the Leningrad region) , and in the southern regions, of course, much earlier - in the second half of April.

Advice! The main reference point for planting tomatoes and other vegetables is soil temperature, which by this time should warm up to + 8-10 degrees, and even better up to +12 degrees. Moreover, the depth of heating should be almost the bayonet of a shovel (20 centimeters), in other words, this is the depth of the landing hole. That's about how deep you should put a thermometer in the ground to find out its temperature.

If you are going to plant seedlings of tomatoes under a covering film or other material, then you can do this a little earlier, about a week.

The procedure for processing seedlings with an open root system (if your seedlings grow in a common container) is as follows: simply immerse the roots of the plants in the solution for 1 hour.

With a closed root system: water each cup or pot with seedlings with 30-50 ml of solution. In this case, the solution is prepared at a lower concentration.

Video: preparing tomato seedlings for planting in open ground

Soil preparation and beds for tomatoes

It is advisable to prepare a bed for growing tomatoes in the fall, adding humus to it and then dug it up well. Optionally, you can add bio-humus, deoxidized high-moor peat and river sand.

To improve the structure and nutritional value of the soil, you can plant winter crops in the future bed before winter, for example, oats or vetch. Actually, if you plant in the spring, the effect will be similar.

Advice! It will not be superfluous to check the acidity of the soil, for the successful cultivation of tomatoes, the acidity should be neutral, about 6-7 pH. If the acidity is below 6-5.5 pH, then you should use one of the deoxidizers, for example, or add more.

If you are preparing the bed immediately in the spring, then you should be careful about fertilizing before planting. So, right into the hole before planting the seedlings, you can pour a little (about 1 tablespoon), or a handful of humus and 1 tbsp. spoon, or a handful of biohumus, and then mix thoroughly with soil.

Advice! To disinfect the soil, add 1 tablet of Trichocin or Gliocladin per 1 plant.

Concerning crop rotation, then the best predecessors for planting and growing tomatoes will be onions, carrots, beets, cabbage and any legumes.

The worst, after which it is undesirable to plant - all nightshade (eggplant, pepper, potato and tomato itself).

Thus, if you want to get a good crop of tomatoes, then every year you must either find a new place for planting tomato seedlings, or carefully remove the entire top layer of soil and cover it with new fertile soil.

By the way! After tomatoes, it is recommended to plant only those vegetables that enrich the soil with nitrogen: legumes (peas, beans); pumpkin (pumpkin, zucchini, cucumbers); root vegetables (carrots, beets); cabbage (white and red, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kohlrabi), onions and garlic.

Video: soil preparation for planting tomatoes in open ground

Planting tomato seedlings in open ground: step by step instructions

As for the time, it is best to choose either cloudy weather for planting tomato seedlings, or in the afternoon in the late afternoon when the sun sets.

The optimal size of the beds for planting tomatoes: if you want to make a high bed, then its height should be about 15-25 centimeters, and its width should be 0.9-1.2 meters.

The optimal scheme for planting seedlings of tomatoes: the holes are made in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other in a row and 50-70 cm between rows. If you have tall tomatoes, then the distance between seedlings should be increased by 20-25 centimeters.

Advice! In order for the roots of the seedlings of the seedlings to remain completely intact, the earthen ball should be watered about an hour and a half before planting the seedlings in the garden. If you can’t get the plant, then a cardboard or plastic cup can be easily cut with scissors. And if your seedlings grew in peat tablets, then you do not need to take them out.

Step-by-step instructions for planting tomato seedlings on a garden bed in open ground:

Further care for tomatoes in the open field

Landing in the ground was successful, it's time to consolidate the work done ...

Overgrown stepson

Tomato seedlings will have more prospects to grow, develop, and then bear fruit in the open field, if you correctly determine the timing of its planting, and also take into account all the information about preparing the soil, beds and the rules for planting seedlings in the garden.

Video: when and how to plant tomatoes in open ground

In contact with

Find out from our article the exact timing of planting seedlings of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. If you plant seedlings in small pots before planting them in the ground, no special preparation is needed.

Uniform irrigation is required, which will allow you to simply pull the plant along with the earth out of the pot.

In the case when seedlings are prepared without pots, everything becomes much more complicated. Before removing the plant from the ground, abundant watering is necessary.

Seedlings are removed only with an earthen clod and placed in a special container. The measles system is treated with means that stimulate the rooting of the plant. Try to keep the time between cutting and planting seedlings to a minimum.

It is better to plant plants on a gloomy day or in the evening, as the seedlings are not used to bright sunlight.

The soil should be well watered before planting. Make the rows straight, plant the seedlings so that there is an equal distance between them.

Plants in pots are well received. If you use plastic cups for seedlings, then the soil, together with the seedlings, can be easily removed and placed in a prepared hole ahead of time.

When using peat-mucking cups, seedlings are planted directly with them.

The initial sowing of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers is carried out in February-March for heated greenhouses, seedlings are transplanted into permanent soil in the last days of April - the beginning of May. Then the plants need additional light so that the daylight hours are at least 12 hours.

When and how to plant tomatoes in open ground video

In the same way, peppers and tomatoes are planted if an early harvest is required, or late large and hybrid varieties. You also need not only good lighting, but also a large area. These conditions must be provided for plants grown in 10x10 cm glasses. This will allow you to win 7 days of time that seedlings need to get used to after transplanting into open ground. These seedlings can be transplanted to the same depth as before, deepening only the earthen clod. When planting seedlings in open ground, you must definitely find out, otherwise your crop will be in jeopardy.

We wish you a successful landing!

What is the best way to grow seedlings? This question comes to the mind of every novice gardener and, paradoxically, finding an answer to it is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Let's try to figure it out together and still find out in which container it is better to grow seedlings and why?

It would seem that the answer is obvious and simple: in pots. Why? Yes, becauseseedling potsmake it possible to do without picking seedlings - when transplanting, you simply transfer them to the ground. Due to this, the probability of damage to still young immature roots of plants becomes almost zero. The probability of damage to plants by root rot is also minimized, which, you see, is important.

But here's the bad luck - placing pots on the windowsills is extremely inconvenient, and there are few of them.

seedling boxesmake it possible to significantly save precious space. Plants are easy to care for, and the boxes themselves are easy to carry if necessary. But even here, not everything is so rosy.

Some gardeners, to which, until recently, I confess, I also belonged, prefer to grow seedlings in boxes, the size of which is the same as the size of the window sills. Boxes can be made of wood and plastic, ready-made and homemade, but the main thing is that they be as convenient as possible.

The easiest option for growing seedlings is an ordinary wooden box. It will not be difficult to put together this container from ordinary boards. Having built a box, do not forget to make a plywood stand under it and line it with plastic wrap from the inside, otherwise it will let water through. Everything seems clear, but...

Despite the obvious advantages of a wooden box for growing seedlings: ease of manufacture and relatively low cost, there are also disadvantages. So, it is quite difficult to extract seedlings of plants without injuring their root system from such a box. A box of boards weighs quite a lot by itself, and if it is still filled with earth? .. So think about it, is it worth making it at all?

How it used to be: paper honeycombs

Just a few years ago, seedlings were massively grown in paper honeycombs, an invention of a team of Finnish scientists. The meaning was as follows: the seeds were sown in paper cells, pre-filled with a nutrient soil mixture, and when the time came, the seedlings were planted in the ground along with these cells. Thanks to this “cunning” technique, the root system of plants was not damaged, which means that the seedlings continued to grow quietly, without getting sick and, most importantly, without losing time to take root.

Finnish paper honeycombs had a standard size of 60x40 cm, while the number of cells in them could be different: 48 cells of 8x8 cm, 130 cells of 5x5 cm or 238 cells - the size and choice depended on which crops were going to be grown in them.

Over time, their use has become inappropriate, and it is very difficult to find paper honeycombs for sale today. At least I didn't succeed. But new, more convenient to use and durable containers for growing seedlings have appeared, which we will talk about in more detail now.

Growing seedlings in peat pots is very convenient and efficient.

There are several reasons for this:

peat pots are very easy to use: just fill them with lightly moistened nutrient soil, place them on trays, moderately compact the nutrient mixture and sow-plant: seeds, cuttings and bulbs;
thanks to the porous walls of the pots, an optimal water-air regime is ensured inside the pots themselves, which means that the seedlings grow and develop rapidly;
when planting in the ground, the tender roots of plants are not injured, because they are transplanted together with a pot, through the walls of which the roots freely germinate into the ground, which ensures almost 100% survival rate of seedlings;
the peat pots themselves are strong enough, made from environmentally friendly material, therefore they do not contain various toxic substances and pathogens;
over time, the pots simply decompose in the ground, serving as an excellent fertilizer for planted plants; finally, due to the fact that seedlings grown in peat pots quickly take root, we get an earlier harvest, which, you see, is also important.

Despite a lot of obvious advantages, peat pots havea number of significant shortcomings, which should be taken into account, especially if you are sorely lacking time to monitor seedlings:

seedlings in peat pots should not dry out even occasionally, otherwise the soil in them will become like a lump, fall behind the walls and literally turn to stone;
it is equally impossible to overdo it with watering, otherwise the walls of the peat pots will quickly become covered with mold, and the soil mixture itself will become like jelly.

Conclusion:it is possible and necessary to grow seedlings in peat pots, but so that your labors are not in vain, do not sow seeds in them, but dive already grown seedlings, with a developed root system capable of regulating the water regime.

Peat tablets for growing seedlings are small-fraction peat pressed into a tablet with the addition of micronutrients, wrapped on the outside with a thin, strong mesh.

The diameter of peat tablets can be different: from 2.5 to 4.5 cm, and the height changes as they swell. So, peat tablets about 8 mm high, laid in a pallet and flooded with water, swell after some time, increasing in height by about 5-7 times, after which seeds can be planted in the recesses from above. Due to the convenient form of tablets and the unique qualities of peat - its water and air permeability - the root system of plants develops freely and quickly.

Despite a lot of advantages, peat tablets have andlimitations:

a fairly high cost, which is important, especially when it comes to a large number of seedlings;
the need, as in the case of peat pots, to constantly monitor the humidity, preventing the peat from drying out.

Peat cassettes are called sections, consisting of a large number of shallow cells. In appearance, peat cassettes are very reminiscent of an egg tray.

Peat cassettes, as well as peat pots, are made from 70% peat and 30% cardboard, so there is no need to remove seedlings from them when planting plants in the ground. When transplanting, simply separate the cells from the cassette and plant them in the ground.

The cell must be completely buried in the soil - otherwise the part of the cassette remaining above the ground will dry out and begin to dehydrate its "underground" part. A cell of a peat cassette completely buried in the ground will dissolve completely over time, serving as an additional organic fertilizer for planted plants. The disadvantage of peat cassettes is that they get wet and moldy too quickly.

PVC and polystyrene cassettes

PVC and polystyrene cassettes are portable and very lightweight nurseries.

Such containers for growing seedlings have a lot of advantages:

they are very comfortable;
they are inexpensive, which means they are quite affordable;
they are durable: they can be operated for more than ten years;
they are compact: in order to fold them neatly, you do not need a lot of space.

Cassettes made of polystyrene, unlike polyvinyl chloride, do not contain toxic substances. In this case, we are talking about chlorine, which is contained in polyvinyl chloride and can cause irreparable harm to human health.

Polystyrene cassettes usually come in a standard size, but the material is easy enough to cut and you can customize them to fit your needs. The number of cells in the cassettes is different: 18, 30, 50 and so on. Moreover, each of these cells is perforated, which ensures the optimal water-air regime necessary for the normal development and growth of the plant root system.

Benefits of using cassettes:

seedlings grown in cassettes have a well-developed root system; various nutrient solutions and water do not stagnate in them, so the roots of plants, which receive the right amount of moisture, grow well, are ventilated and do not rot;
seedlings are easy to transport without removing from the cassettes;
seedlings are very easy to remove from the cells, they are practically not injured during transplantation, due to which they quickly take root, which means they begin to grow faster. This is achieved due to the fact that the roots of the seedlings, as it were, "fit" into the cells in the form of springs. During transplantation, these springy roots easily unwind and lie in the ground as they like, and the plants grow quickly.

By the way, if you are worried that seedlings in cassettes will shade each other due to the small size of the cassettes themselves, just plant them in a checkerboard pattern.
Cassettes should be installed on special pallets, the main task of which is to maintain the necessary soil moisture inside the cassettes.

How to make pallets

If the size of your cassettes is non-standard, you can make pallets yourself. To do this, a sheet is cut out of an ordinary polyethylene film, each side of which should be 5 cm larger than the side of the cassette. Then a cassette is installed on this sheet and, bending the edges of the film upwards, fasten them (you can use paper clips, or you can use an ordinary stapler).

It is not difficult to make a tray for cassettes from ordinary fiberboard. Cut the fiberboard sheet to the required dimensions and make a countertop, the dimensions of which depend on the dimensions of your window sill and cassettes. The sides of such a tabletop should also be about 5 cm, and from the inside it must be covered with plastic wrap, fixing it with a stapler.

Containers for seedlings from improvised materials

Whatever gardeners come up with to facilitate their work and make it as productive as possible. Seedlings were not left without attention - or rather, containers for growing them.

How to make seedling trays yourself

Take thin plywood, cut it into strips according to the size of the planned cells. The length of the strips should be a multiple of the number of these same cells. That is, if you intend to make 5 cells in a row, the width of which is 5 cm, the length of the strip will be 28 cm, 3 cm of which will go to the connections.

We cut the required number of strips and every 5 cm (the figure is given for example - this is the distancedepends on cell size!) we make cuts in them, without cutting to the end of the strip about 1 cm. Then we insert the slot into the slot, connecting the strips together, and we get cassettes - containers with cells.

The pallet for such cassettes can also be made from fiberboard using the technology described above. Naturally, this kind of construction is less convenient than ready-made cassettes, but it will still greatly facilitate the cultivation of seedlings, and its root system will be well developed and will not suffer during transplantation.

Plastic bags

As it turned out, seedlings are grown even in plastic bags.

And from a large package you can make a kind of cassette for seedlings. Take a tight plastic bag, pour the pre-moistened soil mixture into it and, putting the bag on any convenient pallet, seal it with tape. From below, pierce many holes with a thick needle, and from above, with a sharp knife, make cross-shaped cuts through which you plant the seeds. The soil in the bag remains moist for a long time, it will need to be watered once every two weeks. Well, when it's time to plant seedlings, just cut the bag and transplant the sprouts into the ground.

Nutritious Cubes

If you do not have the desire or the opportunity to purchase ready-made containers for growing seedlings, you can make nutrient cubes. The technology of their manufacture is extremely simple, and the process itself will not take you much time.

You will need:

5 parts humus
1 part of sod land

3 parts peat
1 part humus.

The components are thoroughly mixed with each other, adding for every 10 kg of the mixture:

15g ammonium nitrate
50 g superphosphate
15g potassium sulfate
some water.

The mass should have the consistency of thick, thick sour cream. Nutrient cubes are formed in a special form, but in the absence of such, they are made by hand. For this purpose, I use a plastic tray from an old refrigerator, but you can take any other rectangular or square container with a flat bottom.

Having thoroughly mixed the nutrient soil mixture, we fill the pan with a layer of about 8-10 cm with it. Without letting the soil mixture dry out, we take a sharp knife and cut the mixture in the pan into even cubes of the size you need. We install the cubes on a pallet, for convenience we separate them from each other with the help of ordinary cardboard and proceed to planting the seeds.

Cups and boxes of sour cream and other dairy products

Such containers are also used with pleasure by many gardeners.

The only thing is that when using containers from under dairy products for growing seedlings, do not forget to wash them thoroughly, because lactic acid bacteria can harm the roots of plants. And make small holes in their bottom for drainage, otherwise the roots will simply rot.

foil containers

By foil containers, I mean juice bags that are foil-wrapped on the inside. To turn such a bag into a convenient container for seedlings, rinse it well, lay it on its side and make cuts on three sides, bending one of the sides up. Thus, you will get a convenient container with a reflective wall that will perfectly reflect heat and light, which means that the aerial part of your seedlings will be in excellent conditions.

paper cups

They make paper cups for growing seedlings from ordinary old newspapers. By the way, this method came to us from Europe, where it is so popular that there is a special device for making such cups on sale, which is called a “potmaker” - a small cylinder made of wood with a lid to form the bottom of the future container.

Well, to make a paper cup, we take an ordinary glass bottle of small diameter and simply wrap it with a piece of newspaper from the bottom - a strip of about 15 cm in height and 30 cm in length. From below, we leave a small allowance to make the bottom of the cup, and fasten the edges with ordinary stationery glue or a simple paper clip. The whole process is well shown in this video:

Ready-made cups, filled with soil mixture and installed in a container, are ready for sowing. When it's time to plant your seedlings, simply open the cup or remove the bottom, allowing the plant roots to grow freely. But keep in mind: ordinary paper can lie in the ground for a long time.

The advantage of using paper cups for growing seedlings is not only their meager cost, but also the ability to choose the size. So, for tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, they make cups about 8 cm in diameter and 10-14 cm high, and, for example, for cabbage seedlings, it is better to make cups about 7 cm in height and 5 cm in diameter.

Polyethylene containers

Plastic film cups are made in almost the same way as paper cups, only they are folded into a cone, fastening the edges with a very hot knife blade - as if soldering them together. When the time comes for planting seedlings, the cups are simply torn and thrown away.

Plastic bottle pots

You can build such pots by cutting the bottle across into 2-3 parts. The pots are obtained without a bottom, but this does not matter: so that the soil mixture does not spill out, place the containers in low pallets, filled in advance by 2 cm with the same soil substrate.

Self-humidifying containers

Like the container for seedlings in the previous version, self-humidifying containers are made from plastic bottles. A plastic bottle is cut in half, a hole is made in the cork with an awl, through which a thick woolen thread is threaded so that it hangs 10 cm on each side. The bottom of the bottle is half filled with water. A cork with a thread is put on the upper part, turned upside down and lowered into the lower part of the bottle, as if inserting one container into another. Then the resulting pot is filled with a nutrient soil substrate and seeds are planted. Such containers will be especially beneficial if you have a catastrophic lack of time for watering seedlings.

Eggshell

Yes, yes, it didn’t seem to you: you can use an ordinary eggshell to grow seedlings.

Of course, it makes no sense to grow seedlings of tomatoes or, for example, peppers in an eggshell - it is too big. But it is quite possible to sow some small flowers. Just collect the shell in the autumn-winter period - during cooking, do not break the egg completely, but break its crown, take out the contents and use a sharp knife to make the sharp ends of the shell even. Then take a sharp awl or knitting needle and pierce the bottom of the shell with it, thus making a hole for water to drain. Place the finished, thoroughly washed or boiled shells before planting the seedlings in a container (a regular cardboard egg tray is best).

Fill the eggs with the nutrient mixture and safely sow. By the time of planting in the ground, the seedlings in the shell will grow strong and stocky. In order not to damage its roots, gently squeeze the shell in your hand so that it cracks and calmly plant the plant in the hole. The eggshell itself should not be thrown away - with it the plant will additionally receive fresh fertilizer, because the shell contains lime, which, as you know, is simply necessary for the normal development of plants. And also the acidity of the soil will decrease, its structure will improve.

For the avid gardener, growing seedlings is an amazing and exciting process.

Solving the most important questions, what kind of crop to plant, what soil to choose as the basis of the planting mixture, at what time to stop the grown sprouts and many other issues, give the gardener great pleasure.

What plants to sow in seedlings?

As we know, seeds can be planted in open ground or seedlings can be sown with further transfer of seedlings to open ground.

Strong seedlings.

Seeds planted in open ground have a significantly lower percentage of germination than seeds sown for seedlings. They are in more danger. This is the unpredictability of the weather, and insects eating seeds, weeds and many other dangers.

Horticultural crops grown through seedlings allow harvesting at an earlier date. In regions with a harsh climate, horticultural crops with a longer period of development and growth can be grown exclusively by sowing seedlings. These include tomatoes, various varieties of peppers, demanding eggplants, and other crops.

In addition, through seedlings, you can reproduce the variety of crop you want, which is difficult to find in specialized stores.

auspicious days

Even ancient gardeners found a relationship between the lunar phases and the rate of plant development. Modern science has confirmed the dependence of plant growth on the lunar phases and the ability of plants to attract or repel water molecules while in certain phases of the moon.

The period of revolution of the Moon around our planet is divided into four phases. The gravitational force of the moon on the earth during the new moon and full moon is the same. It is on these days that the lunar attraction contributes to the intensive growth of plants.

There is an abundant influx of nutrients to the tops of plants. But note that Plants receive more light during the full moon.. Therefore, the process of photosynthesis does not stop, which contributes to the development of the terrestrial part of plants.

The process of planting in peat tablets.

The basic rule is that after the new moon period we plant horticultural crops with terrestrial fruits, and after the full moon we plant crops with underground fruits.

For gardeners who make a sowing plan taking into account the lunar phases, there is a basic rule: do not plant anything on the full moon itself and the two days closest to it. Also, on the new moon and the next couple of days, it is not advisable to plant root crops for it.

Dependence of landing time on the region

Vegetable crops for the most part come from countries with a mild climate, where the frost-free period lasts all year round. In such a climate, plants in the open field go through the entire cycle of their development.

The time of planting seeds for seedlings depends on the duration of the frost-free period in the region, because the plant should preferably finish its development in open ground.

In the Ural and Siberian zone the frost-free period is only 65 days. The beginning of the frost-free period falls on the beginning of June. Frosts begin in October.

As for the more southern regions, for example, Belarus, then here the number of frost-free days reaches 180. The beginning of the frost-free period occurs at the beginning of April. In this region, it is possible to transplant seedlings into open ground much earlier than in areas located in the northern and central parts.

What and when to start planting at home?

The date of planting seeds is directly related to the period of development of a particular plant. The moment of planting seeds in the soil is the beginning of the growing season. In our latitudes, the number of warm days necessary for the full cycle of development of many plants is limited. Therefore, for most crops, the growing cycle begins on the windowsill of our homes.

Before landing in open ground.

The duration of the development period is different not only for different types of crops, but also different for different varieties of the same crop. Now breeders for gardeners of northern latitudes have bred many early ripening varieties, with a shortened period of development. The period of cultural development is usually indicated in the attached annotation to the planting rules.

Terms of sowing vegetables: schedule

For greater clarity, we present a table indicating the timing of planting for seedlings of the most common vegetables. The periods are indicated for planting vegetable seeds in the middle part of Russia. To determine the exact time of planting seeds in other parts of Russia, the table is subject to adjustment for the corresponding climate.

Terms of sowing seedlings of vegetables:

Table of sowing annual and perennial flowers

Seeds of flowering plants are subject to sowing for seedlings in their time periods, which differ from the periods of planting vegetables. The sowing dates for some flowering plants are shown in the table below.

Scattered seedlings.

Terms of planting seedlings of flower crops:

Name	Planting period	Emergence of the first shoots (days)
Begonia evergreen	December - January	20
verbena garden	March, April	10-12
Carnation	January February	5-10
Heliotrope	January February	15-21
Dahlia summer	March	10-12
Sweet pea	February	5-115
Calendula	April May	5-15
Cosmos doubly pinnate	March, April	10-12
matiolla	February March	3-6
Lobelia Erinus	February March	5-7
mimulus	January February	10-12
Nasturtium	April May	10-14
forget-me-not Chinese	March, April	12-14
Petunia	March	7-10
Rhodochiton	March, April	20-30
Rudbeckia	March, April	12-14
fragrant tobacco	March	15-20
Marigold	March	7-10
Zinnia	April	8-10

It must be understood that the germination of sprouts is directly related to many factors. This, temperature, planting pattern, the size of the selected container for planting and many other factors.

How to grow pepper?

We start sowing seeds for seedlings around March 10-20. Before planting, the seeds are disinfected in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Seed sprouts must start up before they are buried in the soil. To do this, the seeds are left in a well-moistened tissue for 7-14 days in a warm and dark place.

Plants planted in the garden.

The planting container must be disinfected. The soil can be used both purchased and made independently. Sprouted seeds should be laid out carefully with tweezers at a distance of 2 centimeters from each other.

After cutting through the sprouts, we shift the container to the windowsill, the pepper loves light and heat. Before transplanting pepper into an open space, it is stopped without deepening twice. Pepper seedlings are fed twice one and a half or two weeks after picking.

tomato seeds

You need to plant in the twentieth of March. It is advisable to soak the seeds in water before planting. To do this, you can take an ordinary saucer. Pour water into it, spread the seeds, cover with a clean cloth. Seeds must be soaked for 10-12 hours, but no more than 24 hours.

Then we fill the disinfected container with the previously prepared special rational mixture for tomatoes. The mixture must be sufficiently moist. Seeds are planted at a distance of two centimeters from each other. Planting depth is not more than one and a half centimeters. Cupping is done when the plant has two leaves. Buy without deepening.

Remember, tomatoes love light and heat, but do not like excess moisture.

eggplant

belong to a very demanding culture. Seeds for seedlings are planted in the twentieth of March. The soil should be neutral, loose and fertile. The container is filled with soil mixture approximately 20-24 hours before planting. The soil mixture is well moistened.

Before planting, the seeds are disinfected. Then wrapped in two layers of moistened napkins. For seven days at night we store in a cold place, such as a refrigerator, during the day at room temperature.

Illumination of seedlings on the window.

After seven days, soak for twenty minutes in melted water with the addition of a growth stimulator. Dry to a crumbly state and plant in the soil to a depth of 1.5-2 centimeters. We buy at the stage of development of two leaves. We water the seedlings in 5-6 days.

Cultivation of cabbage

Seedlings for white cabbage should be planted in early April. Before planting, be sure to neutralize the seeds. Sown seeds must be well moistened before germination. After the emergence of seedlings, they are thinned out. The distance between the sprouts should be at least two centimeters.

Two weeks after the descent, the seedlings dive with deepening. Two weeks later they are transplanted again. The distance between the shoots should be at least five centimeters. There is little daylight for cabbage. Seedlings need to be illuminated.

The optimum temperature for growing cabbage seedlings is 18-20°C.

Cucumbers for the garden

Cucumber seedlings are planted within May 5-10. Seeds of culture before planting in the ground require pre-treatment. First, soak them in a solution of three percent common salt. You can plant those that remain at the bottom of the container.

The kaleidoscope of the January holiday holidays lasts almost a whole decade, at which time you have time to enjoy the holiday, have plenty of fun and get bored. And only gardeners know how to appreciate every free winter minute, so they put things in order in seed stocks, and also think about early planting seeds for seedlings. In this article - the pros and cons of early planting vegetables for seedlings, seed preparation, agricultural technology for growing vegetable and flower seedlings.

DIY seedlings: pros and cons

To begin with, I would like to talk about the need to grow vegetable seedlings with your own hands, because in the spring many firms and private nurseries offer an abundance of ready-made seedlings of various cultivars and ornamental species. So why suffer from the winter, lining all the window sills with boxes of plastic or peat cups, when you can safely buy the entire range of vegetable seedlings immediately before planting plants in open ground?

Despite the laboriousness, growing your own seedlings has significant advantages:

Compliance with the declared variety - when purchasing seed material in companies with a high reputation, you can be sure that in the end, exactly those cucumbers, tomatoes and cabbage that you have chosen according to certain positive signs will ripen in the garden beds.
Mandatory seed treatment before sowing - when seeds are prepared for sowing on their own (disinfection, soaking, stratification, scarification, stimulation, soaking, warming, bubbling), you can not worry about the health of seedlings in the future. Buying young plants from the hands does not give such confidence.
Hardening - gardeners carry out mandatory hardening of seedlings, which helps to form strong, squat plants that are resistant to returning frosts. When purchasing seedlings in stores or markets, one cannot be completely sure that the plants have undergone a hardening procedure and will withstand planting in open ground if a short-term drop in temperature occurs, and this is quite possible even in the middle of winter.
The timing of sowing seeds - experienced gardeners clearly observe the recommended timing of planting seed material in the ground for germination, so their own seedlings do not stretch and do not outgrow.

Now we have come to the main question of this article, when should garden plants be sown for seedlings?

When to plant vegetable seeds for seedlings

How to plant seeds for seedlings, and at what time is it preferable to do this? Not everything is so simple, the timing of sowing certain crops depends on many factors:

individual timing of seed germination;
growing time before picking;
ambient air temperature;
certain phases of the moon when planting vegetables in the ground is possible;
planting sites (greenhouse complex, greenhouse, greenhouse or open ground);
expected harvest time.

Dependence of seedlings on temperature

Vegetables are divided into cold-resistant and heat-loving, a feature of these groups are different temperature requirements when growing plants in open ground.

Cold-resistant crops (cabbage; radish; radish; parsnips; rhubarb; carrots; beets) can be sown directly into the ground before winter or early spring in garden beds, but it is allowed to grow vegetables through seedlings.

Heat-loving crops are often grown in seedlings. These include cucumber, tomato, eggplant, pumpkin, pepper.

Important! Seedlings of heat-loving vegetables should not outgrow by the time they are planted in open ground, otherwise they get sick for a long time, do not adapt well in the fresh air, such plants will yield a crop later.

The temperature regime that should be maintained when growing seedlings of different vegetables:

Name of culture	Temperature range	Name of culture	Temperature range
	From +10 to +11C		From +10 to + 12C
	From +13 to +15C		From +13 to +14C
	From +2 to +3C		From +8 to +13C
	From +10 to +12C		From +2 to +3C
	From +15 to +17C		From +15 to +17C

Subject to such a temperature regime, all seeds will germinate in due time, seedlings will be strong and friendly.

Individual timing of seed germination

Each vegetable crop has individual seed germination times, which can be found in the table below. Of course, these values are average, because old dried seeds can germinate much longer, but the given values \u200b\u200bshould be used as a guide when calculating the time for sowing vegetable seeds for seedlings indoors (greenhouse):

Name of culture	Term in days	Name of culture	Term in days

		eggplant

The best lunar days for sowing vegetable seeds for seedlings

You can believe or not believe in, but the old-timers claim that the mysterious planet is able to influence the rate of seed germination and the harmonious growth of seedlings. Therefore, I will give the best dates for sowing seedlings of vegetables in January (second half of the month) and February 2018.

vegetable plants	Sowing date	vegetable plants	Sowing date

		eggplant



		Spicy herbs, lettuce

Subject to the temperature regime of growing seedlings and additional illumination of plantings with special fluorescent lamps, it can be said with confidence that seedlings from seeds can be grown in January. However, it is worth noting that young plants will overgrow too much until May, when vegetables can be transplanted into open ground without fear of recurrent frosts. Therefore, seedlings planted in January are only suitable for growing in a greenhouse and obtaining early ripe vegetables. The only outdoor crop that should be sown for seedlings in January is celery. A vegetable plant has a too long growing season (up to 160 days), so it will just form by the time it is planted in open ground.

The optimal age of seedlings for planting in open ground

Each vegetable plant needs a certain time to form strong seedlings from seeds. Approximate terms of growing crops (in days) after sowing and picking before planting in open ground.

Early tomatoes - up to 45-50 days.
Mid-ripening tomatoes - from 55 days.
Tomatoes late-ripening varieties - from 70 days.
Cucumbers - 30 days.
Eggplant - up to 60 days.
Cabbage - from 35 to 40 days.
Pepper - up to 65 days.

Young seedlings easily tolerate transplantation, take root faster in open ground beds or greenhouse complexes.

Desired harvest time

This factor is very important, because if you wish, you can shift the timing of obtaining high-quality vegetable products by growing seedlings a little earlier or a little later. Usually in the southern regions several crops of cucumbers are obtained:

In the greenhouse (very early) - sowing seeds for seedlings in January-February.
Early open ground - seeds are sown from mid-February to the end of March.
Average harvest - sowing seeds in open ground or for seedlings in April.
Late harvest - sowing seeds in the ground or seedlings in June-early July.

Of course, this does not depend only on the desire of the gardener; a lot of factors influence the formation of the crop, one of which is climatic conditions. Sometimes it happens that the seedlings are grown on time, and their quality is excellent, but they cannot be planted - the earth has not thawed, and frosts are observed every night.

When seedlings are warm and when cold

Experienced gardeners divide the sowing time (planting seedlings into the ground) for cold-resistant and heat-loving plants into two indicators (terms):

Cold - at this time, cold-resistant plants can be planted without hesitation in open ground, and heat-loving vegetables - in greenhouses. To determine this period, measuring the temperature of the soil at a depth of about 8-10 cm will help. If the temperature in the depth of the vegetable garden is 8 degrees, then you can sow carrots and beets, onions, garlic, mustard, and plant tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers on greenhouse beds.
Heat - tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and seedlings of other vegetables that do not tolerate frost can be planted in open ground. This indicator can be found in the reports of meteorologists, and it also coincides with the end of the flowering viburnum.

Read the information on the seed packet

Each package of seeds, in addition to colorful pictures and descriptions, has a lot of useful data. To calculate the time for sowing seeds for seedlings, you will need such an indicator as the duration of the growing season, which is a different amount of time for vegetable crops.

This factor is taken into account when calculating the time for planting seeds for seedlings.

Calculation of planting vegetable seeds for seedlings by timing

Overgrown seedlings do not contribute to a bountiful harvest and improvement in the taste characteristics of vegetables, so you should not rush to sow seeds, unless the plants are intended for growing in greenhouse conditions.

An example of calculating the sowing of cabbage seeds for seedlings for growing in open ground.

Take for example the white cabbage variety Eliza F1. The plant belongs to cold-resistant species, therefore, in the south, cabbage seedlings can be planted in open ground as early as early April. The age of seedlings before planting should be about 30 days. This means that for the southern regions cabbage can be sown in mid-February - early March. Full-bodied crispy heads of cabbage can be harvested as early as June. For the middle lane, the time for sowing seeds for seedlings shifts by about a month and a half. This early maturing variety will have time to ripen even in a temperate climate.

In January, referring to the lunar calendar, cabbage can be sown on seedlings for growing in a greenhouse on January 24-26 and 28-30, transplanting seedlings to greenhouse beds - early March, the crop will ripen at the end of May.

Friendly shoots to all!

home > Mathematics