Proper and timely feeding of seedlings of tomatoes and peppers is the basis of the future harvest of these crops.
At different periods of the growing season they need specific trace elements, so they need to be fertilized according to a certain pattern.
Today we will find out how to feed tomato and pepper seedlings? Types of fertilizers for tomato and pepper seedlings. How to fertilize seedlings of tomatoes and peppers at home: folk recipes.
General rules for dressings
Even when using a special soil for tomatoes and peppers, enriched with fertilizers, plants may lack nutrients. Growing in boxes of these crops takes place over two months, and the plants lack food for the entire period.
Young plants are especially sensitive to this deficiency, and a nutritional deficiency immediately affects their condition.
However, feeding any seedlings need not lose a sense of proportion. Large doses of fertilizer applied for seedlings of tomatoes and peppers, as well as too frequent top dressing will not help the plants, but most likely will harm.
When choosing a drugpreference should be given to liquid species. If you purchased a dry mix of minerals, be sure to dilute it with water before use. The fact is that the root system of the seedlings is not able to independently use dry mineral substances introduced into the soil.
For better distribution of minerals in the soil fertilizing seedlings of tomatoes and peppers should be carried out after watering the plants. It is necessary to carry out the procedure in the morning hours, so that in the evening, when the air temperature drops, do not provoke the development of fungus in the soil.
Apply ready-made mixture of fertilizers, watch out for their purpose.. If the fertilizers purchased by you are intended for adult plants, then for seedlings it is necessary to reduce their concentration in the solution by half.
Top dressing will bring more benefits if around the plants you will regularly loosen the ground. Just do it with utmost care, loosen the topsoil only an hour or two after watering.
Fertilizers for tomato seedlings
Tomatoes - culture is particularly demanding on nutrition in all periods of development. Proper and timely fertilizing allows you to get strong, viable specimens for subsequent cultivation in greenhouses or open ground.
During the cultivation of tomato seedlings need to feed her three times:
- The first feeding is carried out 10 days after picking the plants. The roots were already well accustomed to this time in the new soil and are able to absorb all the introduced elements from it. At this stage, the tomatoes need nitrogen and phosphorus, so the best use of the drug "Nitrofos". 1 tbsp. spoon diluted in a liter of water. Fertilizing is applied after a slight pre-moistening of the soil, then the bushes are sprinkled with fertilizer until all the soil is evenly moistened.
- The second feeding is carried out in 2 weeks. The composition of fertilizers during this period depends on the state of the plants. If they are stretched from lack of light, then nitrogen should be excluded from the fertilizer. The mixture is prepared from double superphosphate and potassium sulfate. Each mineral is taken in a tablespoon per liter. Of the finished liquid fertilizers, Uniflor Growth, Effecton, and Signor Tomato are the most suitable during this period.
- A week before planting tomatoes in a permanent place, a third dressing is conducted.. For it uses a solution of Nitrophoska.
What and how to feed the pepper?
Top dressing pepper start in the earliest terms of development.
Already in the phase of the first two true leaves, seedlings should be shed with a mixture of ammonium nitrate (0.5 g), superphosphate (3 g), potassium sulfate (1 g).
All ingredients must be diluted in a liter of pre-settled water.
IMPORTANT! When applying fertilizers, make sure that they do not fall on the leaves, and in case of accidental contact, wash them off with warm water.
The second time, pour pepper with the same composition., but double the dose. Make it necessary in two weeks after the first feeding.
A few days before the pepper is planted in the ground, a third dressing is carried out.. The fertilizer solution is prepared from 15 grams of wood ash, diluted in 1 liter.
Top dressing of seedlings of tomatoes and pepper folk remedies
Adherents of natural fertilizers can be advised to conduct fertilizing folk remedies:
- Bird droppings. Diluted 100 g in 1 liter, infused for 10 days. Before use, it is recommended to add copper sulphate or potassium permanganate.
- Banana peel. It is a source of potassium, especially recommended for tomatoes. Peel from 2-3 pieces insist in 3 liters of water for 3 days.
- Eggshell. This is how to feed the seedlings of peppers and tomatoes after picking, as the shell is recommended for laying out as a drainage when picking. It is possible to cover half a bucket of water with water and use it for watering after three days.
- Onion Husk. 10 g are filled in with liter of water, and insist 5 days.
- Yeast. 1 g per liter.
The appearance of plants - an indicator of lack of nutrients
The need for extra fertilizing seedlings and the composition of fertilizers can be judged by its appearance:
- Brightening lower leaves - lack of nitrogen.
- The location of the light bands along the veins - lack of iron. Seedlings should be sprayed with a solution of copper sulfate.
- Withering leaves They say about the lack of magnesium. It is possible to fill its lack with introduction into the soil of wood ashes.
- Pronounced purple veins on the leaves of tomatoes - lack of phosphorus. 5 g per liter of water is infused per day, then diluted with another liter, and this composition is irrigated by seedlings.
Observing the simple rules of fertilizer application, you can grow strong and healthy seedlings of peppers and tomatoes, which in the fall will give you a rich harvest.
Useful materials
Read other articles on pepper seedlings:
- Proper cultivation of seeds and whether to soak them before sowing?
- How to grow black pepper peas, chili, bitter or sweet at home?
- What are growth promoters and how to use them?
- The main reasons why the leaves are twisted at the shoots, the seedlings fall or are pulled out, and also why the shoots die?
- Terms of planting in the regions of Russia and especially the cultivation in the Urals, in Siberia and the Moscow region.
- Learn yeast based fertilizer recipes.
- Learn the rules of planting Bulgarian and hot peppers, as well as dive sweet?
