When to sow pepper for seedlings in 2017?

5.03.2015 Pepper The calendar

Sweet pepper is one of the most popular crops grown by summer residents and gardeners in their areas. Peppers are in demand in the summer for the preparation of delicious fortified salads and other dishes, and in the fall, housewives prepare with them a variety of preparations for the winter. Therefore, the question of when to plant pepper in order to grow seedlings of this useful vegetable does not lose its relevance every year, especially for beginner gardeners. If the more experienced have already developed their tactics in this matter, then for beginners, based on my own practice, I can give some advice.

We can say that the first sowing work for summer residents begins with sowing peppers, except for sowing seedlings of garden flowers that have a long growing season. Pepper is a heat-loving culture and grows slowly, which is why it is necessary to sow it before other cultures. However, excessive rush in this matter can also hurt. So how to choose the right time for sowing sweet pepper seedlings?

The timing of sowing pepper, like other crops, depends primarily on the climatic and weather conditions of your particular area, on where you are going to grow pepper (in a greenhouse or in the open ground) and, of course, on the variety of pepper. Growing different vegetables has its own characteristics.

Living in the south of Siberia, in the conditions of a short summer, we try to grow on our site only the early varieties of sweet pepper, which quickly yield a crop and do not require the formation of a bush. Although we have unheated greenhouses made of glass and polycarbonate, it seems to us inappropriate to take a place under pepper there. In greenhouses, we prefer to grow large-fruited tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and in early spring - radishes and various seedlings. And early ripe and mid-ripening sweet pepper varieties are usually grown in open ground, planting seedlings on beds in the month of June, when there is no longer any threat of the last frost. Since pepper does not like transplants very much, almost the entire period from sowing to planting in the garden plants grow on the windowsill in seedling boxes. Only in May we transfer boxes to the polycarbonate greenhouse so that the plants harden and grow stronger before planting on the beds.

Wanting to make a bigger run in time, in order to get the crop early, I tried to do pepper crops in the first half of February. I did not apply additional illumination. But the results of such too early crops did not please: the peppers either sprouted for a very long time and developed very slowly, or did not sprout at all. It happened that the March crops of sweet pepper caught up and overtook the plants sown in February and as if frozen in their development. And those peppers that were sown in March in the summer still managed to give a good harvest.

Based on this experience, we can conclude that very early pepper crops in Siberia are justified only if there is the possibility of additional illumination of seedlings, and in the future it is planned to grow pepper in a heated greenhouse. But for the majority of summer residents who do not have the time and opportunities for such troubles, it is easier to make sweet pepper crops a little later, at the end of February or at the very beginning of March, when there is already enough natural daylight for the plants, and ready seedlings can be planted in early June right in open ground.

So for those summer residents and gardeners who still have little experience in growing sweet pepper, and the climatic conditions are close to our Siberian ones, when asked about when to plant pepper for seedlings in 2017, I can definitely advise you to choose the early varieties of this crop and produce pepper crops not in February, but in early March. In this case, without any extra hassle with seedlings, you can still get a decent crop of sweet pepper.