What's In The Seedling Pot?

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

The preparations for growing seedlings are in full swing! The seeds will soon hatch from the seeds and the first true leaves will appear on young plants. And this means that the hot season is approaching for picking seedlings into separate pots and cups. It should be borne in mind that the growth rate and health of the seedlings depends not only on the conditions in the greenhouse, temperature regime, lighting and feeding, but also on the quality and composition of the soil mixture with which the cups are filled. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for the transplant in advance and prepare nutrient substrates for plants in advance. What should be in a seedling pot?

What's in the drawers and what goes straight into the pots?

First of all, let's figure out which main vegetable crops are grown with a pick, and which seeds can be immediately placed in pots with a nutrient mixture:

• picking is required for nightshades - peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, physalis, as well as cabbage, lettuce, celery;

• in pots, cups are planted pumpkin - cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkin.

Seedlings, planted in the ground with a lump of earth from their pot, take root in the garden much better, get sick less and give an earlier harvest.

For the preparation of such "earthen pots" make small paper cups, which are filled with nutritious soil. To make them, you need to cut newsprint into strips 15-16 cm wide, about 25 cm long. The blank is folded along, and the resulting strip is rolled into a cylinder. The optimal diameter for such a cup is 6-7 cm. On one side of the cylinder, the edges are wrapped towards the center, forming a bottom. It is more convenient to do this procedure by putting a paper cylinder on a bottle, an aerosol can of a suitable diameter.

Such cups are beneficial in that they help maintain the shape of an earthen coma in which the seedlings grow, and the paper is hygroscopic and allows air to pass through perfectly, allowing the roots to breathe. If you are going to grow your seedlings in a plastic or plastic bag, you will need to make several holes in it to ensure aeration of the air. It will also allow excess water to drain off when over-watered and the roots will not be damp.

Soil mixtures for different crops

The prepared cups are placed in wide boxes in several rows and filled with a nutrient substrate. Previously, a layer of earth is laid on the bottom of the box. The lower soil is compacted and paper cups are placed on top of each other tightly. When they are full of substrate, the gaps between them are also covered with earth. It is convenient to keep the boxes on wide racks.

Which components to take for the mixture depends on both the culture being grown and the availability of the necessary components. Universal soil for various seedlings is prepared from compost and humus soil in a ratio of 1: 1. Add 2 glasses of ash to an 8-liter bucket of substrate. Mullein solution is added to this soil (in proportions with water 1:10). It will moisturize the substrate so that it holds its shape well in the pot, and will provide feeding the seedlings. A bucket of mixture should be enough for at least 30 cups.

For pumpkin crops, it is recommended to make up a mixture of the following components:

• decomposed peat or compost soil - 5 parts;

• humus - 3 parts;

• sod land and mullein - 1 part each.

Earthen pots from:

• humus - 7 parts;

• turf land - 2 parts;

• mullein - 1 part.

Cabbage and nightshade are grown in substrates from:

• decomposed peat - 7 parts;

• humus - 2 parts;

• sod land and mullein - 1 part each.

It doesn't hurt to add fluffy lime (half a glass) to a bucket of cabbage mixture. If the substrate turns out to be dense, sawdust will help to give it looseness (1:10). Before use, they are pre-moistened with a solution of mineral fertilizers or fresh mullein (3 liters of raw materials per 10 liters of water).