Mistakes when growing seedlings of peppers and eggplants: what are our main mistakes? Proper transplantation of pepper seedlings Diseases should not be.

Most summer residents apply. Although some experienced gardeners consider this activity a waste of time and unnecessary stress for seedlings.

But sometimes this technique helps to save strongly elongated plants. And some types of seedling picks help increase both early and overall yields.

Classic pick

When growing seedlings in peat pots, plants usually do not need picking.

In traditional picking, plants are planted in pots with an area of ​​10 × 10 centimeters, with the main root shortened by 1/3-½ of the length.

Tomato plants are deepened to cotyledon leaves. Peppers weakly form additional roots, so they dive a little deeper than they grew before. And eggplants do not dive at all - the seeds are sown immediately in separate pots. The fact is that the roots of eggplant plants have a weak ability to recover.

Tomato seedlings before picking

In the usual picks, I would highlight the following advantages:

• Pruning the main root stimulates the formation of lateral roots on the upper part of the stem. After that, the main volume of plant roots is located in the fertile topsoil. And this helps to increase the yield.
• In areas with cold summers, by the time peppers are planted, the soil at a depth does not yet have time to warm up well. In this situation, deep roots do not provide seedlings with water and nutrition. All hope lies on the side roots.

The disadvantages of picking with the removal of part of the main root include:

• The central root is the main supplier of nutrients, so its shortening never goes unnoticed for the plant.
• If your beds are equipped with a system of subsurface irrigation and top dressing, plants can easily get their own food and water. And the long main root helps them a lot in this.

Transshipment of seedlings

When transshipping seedlings, the soil clod is not disturbed and the plants quickly take root

This type of seedling picking is devoid of the shortcomings that are characteristic of ordinary picking. Therefore, if the seedlings clearly do not have enough lighting and space, use it.

For transshipment, moisten the soil abundantly in a container with seedlings, on which 1-2 true leaves have already taken shape. Then carefully pick them up with a fork and, together with a lump of soil, transfer them to cups with earth. It is important that the cups are filled halfway or slightly more with the substrate.

Multiple transshipment is even more useful for seedlings. In this case, the plants are transplanted into increasingly larger cups not once, but two or even three times.

After picking, seedlings need to be watered

Summer residents with experience actively use this method - according to experience, it provides a yield increase of at least 30%. But this result is achieved only in relation to tomato seedlings.

I also advise you to take a closer look at the following technology for transshipment of seedlings of indeterminate tomato varieties:

• At the second transplant, which is done two weeks after the first, the seedlings are planted in larger containers, half filled with nutrient soil. At the same time, the plants do not deepen much.
• The stems are laid in a spiral on the substrate, leaving only the tops of plants with 4-5 leaves.
• Twisted stems are sprinkled with soil, which is slightly compacted.
• This stacking of the stems is carried out one or two more times or until the cup is filled to the top with soil.

Thanks to this simple technique, a powerful root system develops in tall tomatoes. And this guarantees the rapid development and abundant and long-term fruiting of tomato plants. Besides, it can be used to rehabilitate overgrown seedlings of any tomato.

Picking seedlings "roots up"

An original way that allows you to slow down the growth of seedlings with initial signs. For this, plants are planted in pots filled with a fertile substrate.

Deep and wide holes are made in the soil mixture, into which the U-shaped curved roots of the seedlings are lowered so that their ends are located slightly below the level of the cotyledons. Then the seedlings are sprinkled with soil mixture to the lower leaves.

On the main stem strongly recessed into the soil, more and more new roots grow. I am sure that by planting such seedlings will surprise you with a powerful look, and they will “grab” the ground faster.

Just keep in mind that plants dived "roots up" develop more slowly at first than their counterparts. Therefore, try to sow seedlings early, otherwise the plants will not be ready to move to permanent residence by the scheduled date.

Here, watch the video clip, which shows in detail and step by step the entire picking process.

TOMATOES according to the rules
After potatoes, tomato, or tomato, is the most popular vegetable in our beds. Why is this so? In addition to excellent taste, tomato has many useful properties, and growing it is not as difficult as many other vegetables.
Tomatoes contain a huge amount of useful substances: their fruits contain sugars (fructose and glucose), mineral salts and a whole set of vitamins: A, B, B2, B6, C, E, K, PP and beta-carotene. Due to the high content of phytoncides, these fruits have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. As a dietary product, fresh tomatoes and tomato juice are prescribed for diseases accompanied by metabolic disorders, especially water-salt metabolism, cardiovascular diseases and disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, a ripe tomato is an excellent antidepressant, which, thanks to serotonin, quickly improves mood. If a gardener wants to be healthy and cheerful, let him grow tomatoes in his dacha.
SEED PREPARATION
This is one of the most important steps. First, the seeds are treated in a strong solution of potassium permanganate (1 g per 1 glass of water). To do this, the seeds are placed in a cloth bag and immersed in a solution for 15-20 minutes, and then washed with water. Such treatment is necessary against diseases, it also contributes to the nutrition of seeds and friendly germination.
After treatment, the seeds are soaked for 12 hours in a nutrient solution, for the preparation of which you can take 1 tbsp for 1 liter of water. l. wood ash, or 1 tsp. nitroammophoski, or 1/4 tsp. sodium humate powder. The temperature of the solution should be around 25°C. After soaking, the seeds are dipped in clean water for 24 hours. You can also harden the seeds by putting them in the refrigerator for a couple of days in the same wet bags. After cooling, the seeds are immediately sown in the soil. From my own experience I can say that the seeds treated in this way germinate just fine. The main thing here is not to confuse the sequence of actions.
When can you sow? Seedlings for planting in the ground should be 2 months old, based on this, the sowing dates are calculated. Much depends on the variety. But in any case, you need to keep in mind that tomatoes are a light-loving culture. And this means that high-quality seedlings can only be obtained on the southern and western windows. It should be remembered that the conditions of the window sill for tomatoes are extreme: during the day, both the soil and the plants themselves are overheated by direct sunlight, and at night the temperature can drop below 10 ° C. Because of such differences, the root system works worse, and root rot develops. Most often, the “black leg” disease begins, which is characteristic of premature sowing of seeds for seedlings, when frosts outside the window are still strong. So it’s not worth rushing with crops, mid-March is the start time for this crop.
SOIL
Each gardener gets used to a certain soil mixture over time - maybe he succeeds best, or maybe it’s easier to make it. Here are the most famous, long-tested soil recipes for seedlings.
1. A mixture of peat, humus and sod land (1:1:1). Add 1 tbsp to a bucket of this soil mixture. l. wood ash and 1 tsp. superphosphate and potassium sulfate.
2. Peat and humus in a ratio of 1: 1, but in this case, 1 liter of river sand and 1 tbsp are added to 10 liters of this mixture. l. wood ash.
You can also take ready-made universal soil, but then it is better to loosen it a little with coarse sand, since the soil is not always permeable enough - it all depends on the manufacturer.
It is better to mix the prepared mixture well a week before sowing and leave it to stand, and actually on the day of sowing it is poured into boxes or boxes no more than 5-7 cm high, leveled and slightly compacted. Before sowing, it would be nice to water the soil with a warm solution of sodium humate (35 ... 40 ° C) - this is both useful and nutritious. Then grooves are made every 5-7 cm, with a depth of 1.0-1.5 cm. The seeds are sown in grooves with a distance of about 2 cm. After sowing, the seeds are sprinkled with the same mixture in which they were planted. There are craftsmen who sprinkle with sand, but much depends on the conditions of germination. Boxes with crops are placed in a bright place at a temperature of 22 ... 24 ° C. There is one tricky trick: it is better to place the box on some kind of stand, so that air access to the root system is not limited. Then the likelihood of fungal diseases will noticeably decrease.
SEEDLING CARE
After 6-7 days after sowing the seeds, the first shoots may hatch. After that, for 7 days, the temperature is maintained at 16 ... 18 ° C during the day, and at 13 ... 15 ° C at night. Then it can be increased to 18 ... 20 ° C during the day and 15 ... 16 ° C at night, and this mode must be maintained until the seedlings grow to 2-3 true leaves (within 30-35 days). During this period, seedlings are watered only 2-3 times, if necessary - this is done so that the seedlings do not stretch too much. The last time they are watered on the day of picking seedlings (3 hours before the operation).
Seedlings usually dive into pots 8x8 cm in size, at the same time culling diseased and weak plants. If the seedlings are slightly stretched out, then the stalk can be half deepened when picking into pots, but not to the cotyledon leaves. Water the seedlings in pots once a week until the soil is completely wet. Before the next watering, the soil should be slightly dry, do not get carried away with frequent watering. It is better to water under the roots, avoiding contact with the leaves. Containers with seedlings must be turned almost every day with the other side to the window so that the seedlings turn out to be even and not stretched in one direction. You can feed the seedlings already 12 days after picking: for 10 liters of water, take 1 tbsp. l. nitrophoska or nitroammofoski. Further manipulations should be carried out, focusing on the appearance of the seedlings. For example, if the seedlings are stretched out and have a pale green color, it is necessary to feed with urea (1 tablespoon per 10 liters of water), and if it grows slowly, feed with sodium humate.
SHIPMENT
22-25 days after picking, the seedlings are transferred from small pots to large ones (12x12 or 15x15 cm in size). What is it for? Some gardeners immediately dive seedlings into large pots, but in vain. Firstly, the tomato loves to stretch towards the light, and each transplant slightly slows down its growth - with the help of transshipment, you will get more stocky, strong seedlings. Secondly, in small pots, with normal watering, seedlings develop a good root system and do not get sick, since water does not linger and there is more air access. Thirdly, during a short daylight hours, small cups will take up less space on the windowsill, but there is always not enough of it, and when the stronger cultures go to the dacha in the first place, the tomatoes left on the windowsill will be expanse.
What happens in the big pots? It is difficult to regulate watering there, which means that the water stagnates. As a result, the root system stops growing due to lack of air, and the seedlings get sick and stretch.
So it is possible and necessary to transfer more often. Experienced amateur vegetable growers sometimes transfer seedlings up to 4 times into ever larger containers. This method increases the yield of tomatoes by 30%. By the way, this is not innovation at all - this is what pre-revolutionary gardeners did. 2 weeks after transshipment, seedlings are fed with this solution: 1 tbsp. l. superphosphate and wood ash per 10 liters of water, and after another 2 - nitrophoska.
TRANSFER INTO THE GROUND
In April-May, the seedlings are hardened: start simply with an open window, and on warm days (from 12 ° C and above), the seedlings are taken out to the balcony for 2-3 hours for 2-3 days. By the appearance of seedlings, it is easy to determine whether it is hardened enough: well-hardened seedlings have a bluish-violet hue.
By the time of planting in the ground, the seedlings should be 25-35 cm high, have 8-12 well-developed leaves and well-formed inflorescences (one or two). 4-5 days before planting, it will not be superfluous to spray the seedlings with a boric solution (1 g of boric acid per 1 liter of water), this will help preserve the buds during transplantation. 3a 2-3 days before planting seedlings, you can cut off 2-3 lower true leaves - this way you can reduce the risk of disease from poor ventilation.
In May, seedlings are planted in a greenhouse (depending on what kind of spring is set, it can be the beginning, the middle, and the end of May, and sometimes the beginning of June). If you prefer an early May planting, then insulate the greenhouse with an additional layer of film, which can be removed in late May - early June.
The best predecessors for tomatoes in your beds are legumes, root vegetables, greens. It is often recommended to plant tomatoes after crops that have been organically fertilized (cucumbers, early cabbage, zucchini, etc.), but recently it has been found that cucumbers can serve as a source of fungal rot on tomatoes. Therefore, if you use a greenhouse after cucumbers, then first remove the top layer of soil by 10-12 cm, spray the entire greenhouse along with the soil with a solution of copper sulfate and fill in the new soil. Tomatoes grow very poorly if planted year after year in the same place, and they often get sick if they are planted after or next to other nightshades (eggplants, potatoes).
It happens that, due to lack of space, both cucumbers and tomatoes are grown in the same greenhouse. This is wrong: compared to cucumbers, tomatoes require more ventilation, lower humidity and lower air temperature. If there is no other way out, block the greenhouse with a film to create different conditions in it.
When preparing the soil for planting seedlings, humus, rotted sawdust and coarse-grained river sand are introduced. It is especially important to do this if the initial soil is loamy or clayey. In addition, you need to add superphosphate and potassium sulfate, and then dig well. Ridges should be formed 5-10 days before planting seedlings. The standard height of the beds is 35-40 cm, the width depends on the size of the greenhouse (usually 60-90 cm). Between the beds make a passage of at least 60-70 cm - this will improve ventilation and facilitate plant care. To prevent diseases, immediately before planting seedlings, the soil is watered with a solution of potassium permanganate.
Hybrids and tall varieties are planted in the middle of the beds in one row or in a checkerboard pattern 50-60 cm apart. Non-overgrown seedlings (25-35 cm) are planted vertically, at the same level that they grew in a pot. If the seedlings are stretched out for some reason, you can do it in different ways. The first way is to deepen the stem into the soil when planting, and it will give additional roots. But not everything is so smooth here: while the stem takes root, the growth of the plant stops, and this contributes to the fall of flowers from the first brush.
The second way is for those who want to keep all the flowers. It is necessary to make a hole 12 cm deep, and in it the second hole is deeper, to the height of the pot. Seedlings are planted in the lower hole, falling asleep flush with an earthen clod. After a couple of weeks, when the seedlings take root well, fill the top hole with earth to the level of the bed.
If the soil is sufficiently moist, after planting, the plants are not watered for 12-15 days, this prevents the seedlings from stretching. 10-12 days after planting, the plants are tied to a trellis.
S. Gorbunov
Newspaper "GARDENER" №11, 2011

Transshipment of peppers (2015)

25.02.2015

Lifting the bag for ventilation, accidentally pulled out 1 pepper sprout "Taiga", planted on February 14, 2015

I had to immediately put him in a large glass:

in a large (0.5 l) transparent glass at the bottom and 1 row on the side at the bottom of the glass, holes were made with an awl,

poured earth mixture (ready soil + coconut),

poured water with the addition of the drug "Energen",

made a hole in the ground

carefully placed the spine there,

pressed down with wet soil from all sides,

sprinkled with dry soil,

covered with a transparent lid

put under an energy-saving lamp 25 W, 6500K.

09.03.2015

The peppers from small cells were transferred (planting on February 14, 2015) and those that ascended one at a time (landing on February 22, 2015):

• Taiga- 3 pcs. in cassettes,
• venti— 7 pcs. in cassettes and 1 pc. into a glass
• Tiflis— 7 pcs. into glasses
• Charm- 1 PC. into a glass
• Treasure Island- 5 pieces. in cassettes,
• Romantsev's firstborn- 1 PC. into a glass
• Lilac glitter- 1 PC. into a glass
• Yellow bull-Nk F1- 1 PC. in a glass (for a sample earlier than the rest).

They sifted the garden soil from our site,

what was left of the clearing was poured onto the bottom of the cassettes and glasses (0.5 l),

mixed 2:1:1 sifted earth, coconut and prepared soil "Mikroparnik" CJSC "Trading House" Antey ",

covered with dry earth mixture,

the glasses were placed in deep trays and covered with transparent lids,

The cassettes were not covered.

15.03.2015

Passed:

• Chinese- 1 PC. in a glass (landing 02/22/2015),
• Mirage- 4 things. in cassettes (landing on February 14, 2015) and 3 pcs. in glasses (landing 02/22/2015)
• Winnie the Pooh- 1 PC. in cassettes (landing 14.02.2015).

Pour 2 cm coconut on the bottom of the containers,

mixed 1:1 coconut and prepared soil "Microparnik" CJSC "Trading House" Antey ",

poured into containers and compacted,

spilled water,

carefully put the pepper sprouts and lightly pressed into the wet earthen mixture,

03/21/2015

Passed:

• Gourmet F1(landing 02/22/2015) - 5 pcs. in cassettes, 3 pcs. in glasses, 1 pc. in a rectangular container (0.5 l),
• Treasure Island(landing 02/22/2015) - 2 pcs. in cups (0.25l), 7 pcs. in pots 0.4 l,
• Charm(landing 02/22/2015) - 9 pcs. in pots 0.4 l,
• Donut(landing 02/22/2015) - 2 pcs. in cassettes,
• Yellow bull-Nk F1- 3 pieces in glasses.

They sifted the garden soil from their plot,

what was left of the clearing was poured onto the bottom of the containers,

mixed 2: 1: 1 sifted earth, coconut and prepared soil "Garden Land" CJSC "MNPP Fart",

poured into containers and compacted,

spilled with water with the addition of the drug "Energen",

carefully put the pepper sprouts and lightly pressed into the wet earthen mixture,

covered with dry soil mixture.

03/22/2015

crossed

• Taiga(landing 02/22/2015) - 9 pcs. in cups (0.25 l), 2 pcs. in glasses (0.4 l), 24 pcs. in cassettes (4 cassettes of 6 cassettes).

Remaining 8 pcs. very small, suddenly some pepper will disappear after transplantation.

03/28/2015

Passed the last peppers "Taiga"- 1 PC. in a pot and 6 pcs. into cassettes.

One had to be thrown away, as it was completely empty.

Total transplanted peppers(13 items - 111 items) :

• Yellow bull-Nk F1- 4 things.,
• Gourmet F1— 9 pcs.,
• Taiga— 46 pcs.,
• Donut- 2 pcs.,
• Treasure Island— 14 pcs.,
• Mirage— 7 pcs.,
• Winnie the Pooh- 1 PC.,
• Lilac glitter- 1 PC.,
• Romantsev's firstborn- 1 PC.,
• venti— 8 pcs.,
• Tiflis-7 pcs.,
• Charm- 10 pieces.,
• Chinese- 1 PC.

Transshipment of peppers (2014)

03/01/2014

- prepared the soil for transshipment: 1 part of the coconut substrate, 2 parts of the sifted rotted compost from the barrel from your garden, 1 part of the prepared soil "Universal Soil", added 2 tablespoons of crushed eggshells.

- filled the cups from the Chudo yogurt with the prepared mixture, spilled warm water with Energen (30 drops per 2 liters of water) and planted sweet peppers " Albatros F1» (5 pcs.) and « Taiga" (3 pcs).

03/09/2014

– 7x7x7 cm cassettes were filled with previously prepared soil for transshipment.

- spilled with warm water with "Energen" (30 drops per 2 liters of water) planted sweet pepper " Albatros F1" (2 pcs.), " Taiga" (1 PC), " Rajah" (1 PC.), " Bagration" (1 PC.), " Chinese"(4 pcs.) And put in a greenhouse under the lamp.

03/16/2014

- in a cassette 7x7x7 cm prepared earlier, filled with soil for transshipment, carefully, together with a clod of earth, put a pepper on the ground " Bagration“, poured water with Energen and sprinkled with the remaining soil.

Good luck, last one!

Many gardeners complain that their pepper grows poorly, sets fruit late. One of the most important factors that affect the delay in its vegetation is the wrong transplant. Unlike many other crops, pepper reacts very strongly to root damage and excessive deepening during normal picking. Therefore, it is best to transplant the pepper by transshipment.

Transshipment involves extracting a plant from a smaller seedling container and transferring it without destroying the earthen clod into a large dish. So the roots of the plant are not injured, it immediately starts to grow, without getting sick, as with a normal pick. In addition, tomatoes, for example, when picking with deepening, form additional roots on the stem, but this does not happen with peppers. On the contrary, the probability of rotting of excessively buried plants is high.

A little about sowing

Transshipment of plants is very convenient when sowing pepper in separate containers or cells, when sowing seeds in a school, you need to keep a distance of three to four centimeters between them, so that you can then choose seedlings with a good soil lump. In separate small containers or cells, we sow two pepper seeds, then, if both sprout, we remove the weaker one.

We pour the mixture into seedling containers, use purchased peat soil for sowing, and moisten it. After shrinkage of the soil, lightly tamp it. We spread the seeds on a moistened and compacted surface. We fall asleep with a small, up to one centimeter, layer of dry soil. We cover the container with a transparent lid or film. We put the seedlings in a warm place, with a temperature of 25 degrees.
After the entrances, we transfer the seedlings to the window and provide additional lighting.

By the way, peppers themselves show when to turn off the light. Gradually, they begin to lift up and fold the leaves, reducing the light on them. At this time, you need to turn off the backlight.

In the future, before transplanting, caring for pepper seedlings is not at all difficult. It is necessary to ensure normal air humidity by spraying from a spray bottle. It is also necessary to monitor the condition of the soil coma, if necessary, produce moderate watering. Top dressing at the stage of cultivation before picking is not required, the reserves that were in the seed and seedlings are enough.

Preparing for transplanting peppers

Peppers are transplanted three to four weeks after germination. At this time, the peppers should already have at least two true leaves, like in the photo below.

Photo 1. Seedling ready for transshipment.

This year, the seeds were planted on February 21, seedlings appeared on March 1, and seedlings were transshipped on March 26.

Before you start transplanting pepper seedlings, you need to perform some activities:

1. Prepare the desktop, lay out the tools on it and arrange the seedlings.
2. Pepper seedlings are well watered to bind the soil lump. It is best to do this in advance, two hours before the start of transshipment work.
3. Prepare the required number of containers for transplantation.
4. Mix the soil mixture.
5. Spread the mixture into cups and moisten it with water with the addition of potassium permanganate, so that the solution is slightly pink. This will help protect the plant from diseases, in particular blackleg.

6. The soil can be used purchased, or you can mix it yourself.

One of the mix recipes we use is the following:

One part of purchased peat;
- one part of garden soil from molehills;
- a glass of wood ash for every 10 liters of the mixture.

Pour the mixture into large cups and moisten it. The amount of the mixture should be poured so that the upper edge of the soil clod, taken out of a small glass, when installed in a large glass, was at the level of its upper edge.

Photo 2. Soil level in a large glass.

Plant transplant

The sequence of transshipment of pepper seedlings is as follows:

With your left hand, cover a small glass so that the seedling is between the middle and index fingers.
We turn the cup over with soil to the palm of our hand and begin to carefully remove the soil ball with the seedling. If necessary, slowly press on the bottom and walls of the seedling container.
If you moistened the soil well and took it out carefully, then you should have a dense, undestroyed soil lump in your palm. The next photograph shows a soil ball removed with white roots.

Photo 3. Soil ball in the palm of your hand.

Carefully, so as not to destroy the earthen cube, lower it into a large glass with a capacity of 500 milliliters. We align the lump with the seedling in the center of the container.

Photo 4. A plant in a large glass.

Gently sprinkle the earthen ball with a dry soil mixture with a small spoon or scoop.
Sprinkle with warm water. You should get a picture like in the next picture.

Photo 5. Sprinkled and moistened lump.

Then gently compress the filled soil around the earthen clod.

Photo 6. Compressed soil ball with a seedling.

We fill the resulting groove with dry soil. Transshipment of pepper is completed.

If everything was done correctly, then the peppers will not even notice the transplant, but will continue to grow as if nothing had happened. An example in the photo was taken four days after the transshipment of bell pepper, on March 30.

Photo 7. Pepper did not even notice the transplant.

If, when picking pepper from a glass, the earthy lump crumbled, measures should be taken to ensure that the roots are less damaged. To do this, pour the soil mixture into the cup, moisten it and make a hole in the form of a funnel. Then gently straighten the roots and, holding the seedling, pour dry soil into the funnel. After backfilling, you need to wash the dry soil in the funnel with a thin, gentle stream so that it tightly sticks around the bare roots.

Final seedling activities

After transplanting, the pepper must be put back on a light windowsill. However, if the next two or three days promise to be sunny, just in case, it is better to shade the seedlings to avoid burns.

With further growth of peppers, you need to ensure that the leaves of neighboring plants do not interfere with each other. It is necessary to timely push the containers with seedlings to the distance required for them.
Depending on how the seedlings will develop in the future, you can decide on top dressing. If you still decided to carry out top dressing, then it is best to use chelated forms of organic fertilizers or herbal infusions.

Attention! Do not destroy native nature with mineral fertilizers. Remember that nature is already doing its job well!

After a month has passed since the transplant, you can plant the pepper in a permanent place. If the weather does not allow or you are preparing pepper seedlings for planting in open ground, it is worth transshipping again. Now the container must hold at least one liter of soil mixture, otherwise the overgrown roots of the plant simply will not have enough space.

A week before planting bell pepper plants, you need to start hardening it. To begin with, take them out to a glazed loggia or terrace for a couple of hours, then increasing this period to eight to ten hours. A day or two before planting, if the weather permits, it is advisable to leave the peppers in the greenhouse on the table. This way, the peppers won't get too much stress after planting.

It is also necessary to plant pepper plants in a permanent place by transshipment, in no case burying them.

Have a good pepper harvest this year!

Surely, every amateur gardener and gardener has heard of such a thing as picking seedlings. The attitude towards this procedure is very ambiguous. Many consider picking one of the main conditions for a good harvest and confident development of young plants, while others, on the contrary, are of the opinion that transplanting seedlings violates the root system and serves as stress for seedlings.

What does the dive mean? how to carry it out so as not to harm young plants? In what cases is it simply impossible to do without diving seedlings? We will try to figure it out in this article.

Why do you need a pick?

During picking, young seedlings are transplanted from a less capacious vessel (in which the seeds were originally sown) into a more capacious one. A large container is filled with completely new soil, and when transferring, the main condition is the preservation of the already formed seedling root system.

The ideal time for transplanting seedlings is the period when the first few leaves (usually 2-3) have formed on the trunk of a young plant. So why not immediately plant the seeds in large pots?

The thing is that as soon as the seeds of plants begin to germinate, they do not require an impressive area for nutrition. The most important and critical factor for seedlings is oxygen. Ideal in volume for almost all types of seedlings are containers of 100 ml, with drainage holes made. Holes are necessary so that during irrigation the water does not stagnate and does not block the oxygen available in the soil. If the volume of the pot is too large, moisture will remain in the soil, which will significantly impede the access of young seedlings to oxygen. As a result, the development and growth rate of seedlings in large containers will be significantly lower than those planted in small cups in the same period.

Gradually, plants begin to form their own root system. There is a need for more trace elements, nutrients and space. The small pot becomes too cramped for the growing root system every day. The roots of the plant begin to get confused, make their way into the drainage holes, and development and growth gradually slow down.

The need to dive seedlings is to provide plants with more space for the development of the root system. The optimal volume of a pot or cup into which a dive should be carried out is 500 ml.

How to properly dive

There are two ways to dive seedlings: transshipment and transplantation.

Transshipment of plants

The main advantage of diving by the method of transshipment of plants is the lower "injury risk" for the seedling.

1. Stop watering a few days before transshipment. The earth ball should dry out a little so that you can then remove it along with the plant without damaging its roots.
2. Turn the cup upside down, gently grasping the stem of the plant between two fingers and gently press down on the bottom, squeezing out the entire earthen ball.
3. The extracted plants are immediately transplanted into a large container along with a lump.
4. Water the migrated seedlings generously and leave in the shade for several days.

Transplanting, according to gardeners, brings with it more stress for plants, but in the case when you planted seeds not in separate cups, but in a solid tray, it is the only option for picking plants.

1. 2-2.5 hours before transplanting, water the plants abundantly with room temperature water.
2. Prepare large pots by filling them 3/4 full with earth and compacting it.
3. Make indentations with your finger under the entire length of the seedling root.
4. Using a teaspoon, carefully remove the plant from the smaller vessel, holding it by the leaves (not the stem).
5. Remove excess soil.
6. Place the plant in the hole and cover with soil. Accept lightly.
7. After picking, water the seedlings and set aside for a few days in the shade.

When transplanting, much less land remains on the roots than when transshipment

Mandatory pick

Depending on the goals that you are pursuing, picking seedlings can solve several problems at once:

• in case, for certain reasons, it is required to slow down the growth of seedlings somewhat, and planting it in the garden is impossible due to adverse weather conditions, you can resort to diving and adult plants. Dive slows down plant growth.
• diving allows you to save healthy plants from infection with a fungus.
• picking allows you to select really the best seedlings, getting rid of weak and diseased plants.
• picking contributes to the development of a powerful root system of plants.

Despite a number of advantages of picking seedlings, there are plants that do not tolerate transplanting or transshipment. These include:

• eggplant
• mallow
• aquilegia
• cucumbers
• vegetable marrow
• pumpkin

Growing these types of plants is best done without picking, and when several leaves appear, they are immediately planted in the soil.