Of all the vegetable crops grown in vegetable gardens in Russia, eggplants are considered the most difficult. These plants are very capricious: eggplants need a lot of light, constant high air temperature, a certain level of humidity, nutritious and loose soil. It is quite difficult to create ideal conditions for the growth of eggplants, besides, it requires a lot of time and effort for farmers.
You can increase the chances of harvesting a good harvest of eggplant by growing your own seedlings of this crop.
These fragile plants need to be transferred from one soil to another in the shortest possible time, which is almost impossible when buying seedlings, but it is quite feasible as part of their own summer cottage.
About when to plant eggplants for seedlings in 2019, how to do it right, and how to care for these complex plants - in this article.
Eggplant Requirements
To understand when to sow eggplants on seedlings, you need to know all the weak points of this culture and the requirements that it makes.
So, for normal growth and development, the eggplants need:
- As much as possible sunshine. In cloudy weather, plants do not develop. Eggplants do not like thick plantings and shaded places - each bush should receive its own dose of sunlight.
- Constant air temperature at +25 degrees. If at night the temperature drops below 20 degrees, the plants will not develop as they should. And at 15 degrees, eggplants die at all.
- Light and loose soil rich in nutrients and oxygen. This requires a gardener to take additional measures: the ground between the bushes of eggplants should be regularly podpushivat, loosen, these plants like hilling and mulching the soil.
- Regular watering - the land under the blue should never be dry. Watering eggplants is necessary based on weather conditions. On average, this is every five days. At the same time, water for irrigation should be warm (about 23-25 degrees), and watering plants is better early in the morning.
Landing dates
Calculating the time of planting eggplants for seedlings is one of the most difficult tasks. Here you need to consider several factors at once, each of them should be discussed in more detail.
Vegetation period
The growing season is the time that passes from the moment of seed germination to the appearance of ripe fruit on the bushes. Eggplants have the longest growing season compared to other vegetable crops (tomatoes, peppers). This time is from 100 to 150 days.
You should also take into account that after this time, the eggplant will reach only the stage of technical maturity, that is, the vegetable can already be eaten, processed or preserved, but, in fact, the blue ones are still green during this period. From such fruits will not be able to collect seeds for the next season, for example. Before full biological maturing, blue ones need another 15-20 days.
In the greater territory of Russia, the climate is considered unfavorable for the cultivation of heat-loving crops. Namely, this is the eggplant. In general, farmers of the middle band and the northern part of the country grow eggplants in greenhouses, greenhouses or under film covers. But there are daredevils who get high yields, planting seedlings in open ground.
In this case, it is better to choose the seeds of early ripe or ultra-early varieties. As a rule, these eggplants are less fruitful, but the plants are more likely to have time to give their fruits in a short and cool summer. The maturation period of blue for the regions of Russia should be from 90 to 110 days.
Germination time
By the growing season it is necessary to add the time of seed germination. With a good seed this period is about 10-12 days. It is in this gap that the first fragile shoots appear from the ground.
Seed preparation includes the following activities:
- rejection;
- disinfection;
- nutrition;
- pre-germination.
To select the most "decent" seeds, all the seeds from the bag are poured onto the table and carefully inspected. Good eggplant seeds have smooth edges and are painted in one color. When immersed in water, such seeds should not float to the surface.
Choosing the best "candidates", they are placed in a canvas bag and dipped in warm (about 28 degrees) water for a day. After that, the bag is removed from the water and placed on a saucer, maintaining a constant moisture content of the fabric for 4-5 days.
After a specified time, the seeds should turn. If more than half of the seeds have slipped from the bag, the material can be planted on seedlings.
Now the turn of the second stage - decontamination. For this, seeds in a pouch are dipped in a strong manganese solution (1%). It’s impossible to keep them for long, just 20-30 minutes is enough. After that, the seeds are thoroughly washed with running water.
In order to strengthen the seedlings and accelerate the germination of seeds, a bag with them is immersed in a container with a nutrient solution. This may be a special mixture purchased, but you can save money by dissolving several beds of wood ash in a liter of warm water. To saturate the seeds with nutrients, it is necessary to hold them in the solution for one day.
After that, the seeds are laid out on a moistened cloth and a few days wait until they proklyutsya.
Tip! Do not need to germinate too much eggplant seeds - enough pecking. If sprouts appear, they can easily be damaged during sowing.Growing eggplant seedlings
Growing eggplant seedlings is not so difficult, enough to know a few simple rules. From the day of sowing of blue to the time of their transfer to the ground should be about 75-85 days. This period includes the development of seedlings from the moment the first sprouts appeared to the day when the plants will have 7-8 true leaves and a few buds, and the height of the plants will be about 20 cm (65-70 days). Plus, this period should be added 10-12 days on shoots - from sowing seeds into the ground until the first greenery appears.
Total, it turns out that the seedlings by the time of landing in the ground should be about 75-85 days.
Eggplant seedlings need to grow in compliance with a number of rules:
- Before planting seeds in the ground, they need to be prepared.
- It is better to plant eggplants immediately in individual containers - the culture does not tolerate picks.
- Seeds do not need too deep - the groove 0.5 cm is enough. On top of the seed sprinkled with a 1.5-centimeter layer of dry loose earth. So, the seeds will receive the required dose of oxygen.
- The first 10-14 days pots with seeds to maintain at a constant temperature of 28 degrees for the emergence of seedlings.
- After the appearance of half of the seedlings, the seedlings are transferred to a cooler room - 21-23 degrees. This climate is maintained for 5-7 days. At this time, eggplant roots are formed, and too high a temperature will cause the plants to stretch up instead of rooting.
- Then the temperature should be increased to 25 degrees and maintained at this level, day and night.
- It is important to monitor the degree of light eggplant. A blue one, planted on seedlings in winter, risks losing the light, so the plants need to be illuminated with electric lamps, about 10-12 hours a day.
- It is necessary to water fragile sprouts only with warm water from a spray bottle so as not to erode the soil. Land in pots with eggplant seedlings should be constantly wet.
- When a seedling has 2-3 true leaves, it can be dived (if necessary). Before transplanting into individual containers, seedlings are watered abundantly with warm water.
- Strong seedlings of eggplants, about 20 cm high, with 7-8 sheets and the first buds are quite ready to be transplanted to a permanent place (in the greenhouse or bed).
The method of growing eggplants
Another point that is necessarily taken into account when calculating the time for sowing eggplants is the method of growing plants.
So, it is possible to plant blue ones in unheated greenhouses or hotbeds two weeks earlier than in open ground. At this point, the weather conditions should be such that the plants have enough sunlight and heat.
Therefore, growing them in greenhouses, it is necessary to open the greenhouses for airing in time so that the plants do not overheat, and in the evening to close the doors to keep warm air inside the greenhouse.
Climatic features of the region
An important factor is the climate in a particular region of the country. If in the south already in the first days of May, you can safely plant seedlings of eggplants on open beds, then in the rest of the country you will have to wait.
A gardener must independently assess the climatic features of his region by analyzing the weather over the past few years.
As a rule, in central Russia, eggplant seedlings are planted in beds in mid-May. Accordingly, the blue ones can be transferred to the greenhouse at the beginning of the same month.
For Western Siberia, the end of May (27–31 numbers) is considered a suitable time for the landing of blue ones in the ground. Residents of more northern regions will have to wait until the first decade of June, or plant eggplants in a closed greenhouse at the end of May.
Best sowing time
Considering all these factors, it is possible to calculate the optimal time for sowing eggplants for seedlings in a particular region:
- farmers of the southern part of the country can start sowing seeds in early February, and for greenhouses, even in January (after the 15th day);
- the middle zone of Russia begins planting eggplant seedlings in late February and early March;
- March is considered a suitable period for the north.
When growing blue ones in a greenhouse, it is necessary to subtract at least two weeks from the specified period.
Tip! For greater accuracy, you can use the lunar calendar for 2019. Eggplants are planted on a growing moon.
Determining the correct dates for sowing seedlings is of course important. But the process of growing eggplants is much more complicated and responsible. After all, only by growing healthy and strong seedlings, you can count on a good harvest.
