2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
The conditions in which young seedlings are found largely determine the quality of the seedlings. In addition to proper care of the seedlings, it is important to properly prepare them for new and unusual conditions, in which they will certainly find themselves at the final stage. In order to make this process as painless as possible, it is recommended to harden the growing seedlings - it will certainly help to adapt the long-awaited seedlings to the new environment
Seedling and seedling care
When tiny green shoots appear, containers with seedlings are freed from polyethylene and the fabric is removed if it was used to cover the soil. However, before that, you need to water the seedlings making their way through the fabric with a weak solution of fertilizers. The growing seedlings should be watered with these compositions until the very moment they are planted in the ground.
During the first two to three days, it is important for newly emerged seedlings to provide round-the-clock good lighting, and subsequently their exposure to the light should be an average of sixteen hours. In early spring, additional lighting will definitely be required: both in the morning and in the evenings. Yes, and in the middle of the day there is not enough light on the windows, especially when the weather is rather cloudy. It is possible to determine whether you need the help of friends-lamps in the daytime as follows: illumination is not needed if, when the lamp is turned on, changes in illumination are almost imperceptible; and in the case of a noticeable increase in light intensity, additional illumination will still have to be used.
The need for high temperatures, when the seedlings have already appeared, also disappears. It should be reduced, and in some cases the reduction should be significant. A suitable temperature regime is selected depending on the lighting.
Too high temperatures combined with poor lighting will be detrimental to tiny seedlings. The way out of this situation can be either lowering the temperature or providing proper lighting. However, in all cases, the temperature should be relatively low at night.
With good illumination, a denser placement of vegetation is permissible, but with an insufficient amount of light, the personal space of the vegetation should be of a more solid size. Otherwise, their competition for light may intensify, as well as weakening and gradual stretching, to which tomatoes are to a large extent susceptible. Shading of the lower leaves with large young leaves is evidence of the onset of accelerated growth of seedlings.
Periodic tearing of the lower leaves, which is carried out as new ones grow, will very effectively prevent unwanted elongation of the stems. The first two leaves should be removed a couple of weeks after the pick. And if after a couple of weeks this action is repeated, then you can get vegetation with stocky and rather plump stalks.
Hardening of seedlings
Before planting, it is advisable to adapt the seedlings to such new conditions for it as sudden daily temperature drops, wind, and also ultraviolet radiation. For this, hardening is carried out, which begins with the gradual transfer of the grown seedlings to balconies and balconies unfamiliar to them, provided that on fine days the temperature on them exceeds the street temperature by ten degrees. Cold-resistant plants are allowed to "walk" on balconies and loggias when the temperature reaches 5 - 7 degrees. And when in the shade the air warms up to 10 degrees, you can "walk" for several hours and the seedlings of thermophilic plants. It is permissible not to remove the seedlings from the balconies at all only if the night temperatures do not drop below 3-4 degrees, and the daytime temperatures reach 15 degrees. Such a measure will allow the vegetation to begin to get used to sudden daily temperature changes.
Hardening, which began at home, is often continued in personal plots - on tables set in the open air, seedlings are kept for at least two to three days.
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