Many like eggplants for their original taste, slightly reminiscent of mushroom, and unusual appearance. Cultivation of this crop in the open ground is not very difficult. But to get healthy and robust eggplant seedlings is not so easy. Many gardeners, even experienced, do not always get it right, and seedlings often turn out to be substandard. However, it is possible to grow seedlings of eggplant quite strictly, strictly following certain rules. Let's study them in more detail.
Correct planting of aubergine on seedlings
First, let's talk about the timing of planting the seeds of eggplant for seedlings. Here you need to focus on a period of 50-70 days. This is the time that must pass between the planting of aubergine in seedlings and planting in open ground, and seeds are planted for this purpose in late February or early March.
When the seeds are purchased, carefully examine the packaging and determine if they require pre-sowing preparation. A necessary minimum for any edible crop is the disinfection of the seed with a solution of hydrogen peroxide (3 ml per 100 g of water). Heat the solution to 40 ° C and soak seeds for 8-10 minutes. By the way, peroxide can be replaced with a solution of potassium permanganate, increasing the soaking time to 30 minutes. After such a procedure, the seeds can be sown immediately, and can additionally be placed in a nutrient solution of wood ash with Nitrofus.
Hardening - stratification - is required for aubergines, which will be grown in regions with a cool and short summer. Their seeds should be placed for 2 days in the refrigerator, in a compartment for vegetables and fruits. Then the seeds need to be gotten, the day to stand under ordinary room conditions, and again to repeat the 48-hour stay in the refrigerator. After the seizure, the seeds are immediately planted in the soil. This procedure positively affects the germination of seeds.
As for the substrate for planting eggplant on seedlings, such requirements as ease, looseness, fertility and a neutral pH level are put forward to it. In practice, most gardeners do this: mix fertile chernozem with purchased soil for seedlings, add sand and vermiculite.
Place the prepared soil in the container you have chosen. These can be cassettes for seedlings, disposable cups, etc. A popular method today is the planting of eggplant seedlings in snails - rolled strips of laminate in strips. Humidify the soil can be either water (rain or stagnant), and snow, if it is available. It is believed that the snow has the correct crystal lattice, and the short-term exposure to cold makes the seeds more resistant to diseases, stimulates their vitality and active growth.
If you use pre-germinated seeds for planting, then you can not moisten the soil with snow, instead, instead, warm the soil to a temperature of + 25 ... 28 ° С. Containers with seeded seeds should be covered with a film. Light and oxygen are not needed now - only heat.
But after the first shoots appear, special attention should be given to the temperature regime:
- first, the room temperature is reduced to + 16 ... 17 ° С in the daytime and + 13 ... 14 ° С at night;
- after about a week it is again raised to + 25 ... 27 ° C, while at night the temperature remains at the same level (+13 ... 14 ° C).
Thanks to such daily fluctuations in temperature, you temper the seedlings, imitating the natural conditions of the open ground.
Eggplant seedlings need to be lightened , usually it is done from 7 am to 19 pm, providing the plant with a 12-hour light day.
Seedlings, ready for transplanting to the bed, has a sturdy stem, a powerful root system, more than 5 large leaves, buds and flowers. Transplantation of eggplant is, as a rule, tolerated very well, well established and even tolerated by a small cold snap (up to 0 ° C), but in this case the plant needs to be covered with a spunbond or a film.