Good seedlings are the beginning of everything. All about sowing and growing

I remember my first experience of growing seedlings, it was both exciting and joyful at the same time: a new exciting hobby appeared - vegetable growing. In the first year I raised good seedlings tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, leeks.
In the article I collected my observations as a beginner; I hope it will be useful for beginning summer residents to read.

Preparing the land for seedlings

Preparing the land for seedlings begins in the fall. Don't be afraid to stock up on too much land, there's no such thing as too much. If you prepare 10 buckets for seedlings, you certainly won’t go wrong. It is convenient to prepare the mixture in buckets, and to transport it home, pour it into double tightly tied bags. You can store the soil on an unheated balcony or loggia; Siberian frosts below -40 will disinfect the soil in this way; I’m too lazy to warm up the soil in the oven.

Ingredients: well-ripened humus 2 parts (determined visually - black, like black soil, without the remains of unrotted plants), simple garden soil 1 part (best taken from beds where legumes or green manure grew). For peppers you can take more humus, for eggplants even more, they are the most demanding of soil fertility. Add a glass to the bucket of mixture wood ash and about 1 kg of clean sand. Instead of half the dose of ash, you can add 25 g of superphosphate; if there is no ash at all, you can add 50 g of superphosphate instead. It is important to check if there are earthworms in the ground - they are useful only in the country, and in small containers they can spoil delicate roots. Ideally, you can sift the soil.

Grab some clean sand; it will be useful for sprinkling around drooping stems in case of overwatering of seedlings and the first signs of blackleg disease appearing.

If you didn't have time to cook soil mixture yourself, then purchased soil and sand are also suitable. I tried and special compounds for every type of vegetable, and universal soil - I liked everything.

The soil must be brought from the balcony 5-7 days before the start of work so that it thaws well. When weeds begin to sprout in the soil, it is considered ready for sowing. 4-5 days before the sowing date, you need to spread the soil in containers and pour hot water with potassium permanganate, proportion approximately 2 g per 10 liters of water.

Prepare containers of different sizes in advance. Many people buy peat pots, but I read that the soil in them often dries out. I use containers 8-10 cm high for leeks, for peppers with eggplants and tomatoes before the first pick - disposable 200 ml cups and 250 g plastic sour cream containers. It is better to put transparent cups in an opaque box, since it is better for plant roots to be in the dark. I experimented with the sizes of containers and came to the conclusion that both large ones - 7-8 cm in height, width, length - and regular 200 ml cups are suitable for peppers and eggplants; for tomatoes from the first picking to the second, 200 ml cups are also suitable, but after the second picking, large containers are needed so that the roots have room to grow, for example, trimmed 1 liter milk tea bags.
It is very advisable to pierce the bottom of the containers: you can use an awl, 2-3 punctures. Regarding drainage: I tried growing both without it and with expanded clay drainage, I didn’t notice any difference.

What else can be useful for seedlings?

An opaque film for covering the drawers and a container for settling the water are required, or a watering can can be used. Specially measured the rigidity of our tap water- it turned out to be very hard, it leaves stains on the surface of the earth. A spray bottle with a regulator for two positions turned out to be convenient - one stream and spray. Old trays will come in handy so that you don’t have to carry cups one at a time to the loggia and back, and so that the cups drain onto pallets and not onto window sills. I also found a room thermometer useful - for a beginner it is difficult to determine by eye the air temperature on a windowsill or loggia, but for plants it is very important to observe the temperature regime.

If the windows do not face south, you will need a lamp daylight for illumination, or better yet several.

If you intend to feed and are not against mineral fertilizers, then you will need potassium permanganate, “Ideal”, superphosphate, urea, nitrophoska, boric acid. To prepare Bordeaux mixture for the prevention of late blight in tomatoes: copper sulfate, slaked lime or soda ash (100 g copper sulfate dissolve in 1 liter of water, bring the volume to 5 liters, dilute 100 g of slaked lime or soda ash in another container in 5 liters of water, mix slowly, pour the first solution into the second, not vice versa; Bordeaux mixture cannot be stored).

How can a beginner decide on seed varieties?

The most reliable thing is to consider vegetable plantings from experienced neighbors in the country, ask them about the characteristics of the varieties, and also read the advice of experienced summer residents in your region. The image on the seed packaging is always beautiful, but you need to know how the crop will behave in the conditions of its native land. Don’t forget to write down the names of varieties after excursions to neighboring plots.

To be on the safe side, it is better to choose not one or two, but several proven varieties - with good germination, uniform ripening, and resistance to many diseases. Read seed packages carefully.

Select mid-ripening and early-ripening varieties of peppers, eggplants and tomatoes to treat yourself to your first fruits at the end of July, and maybe earlier. If you have greenhouses, garden passion and time, buy late-ripening varieties of tomatoes. Late-ripening peppers and eggplants in Siberia do not have time to ripen, so if there is no heated greenhouse, then there is no need to risk it.

For myself, I wrote out the following most praised varieties, but for the sake of experiment, I also bought 1-2 varieties of each crop simply according to the label I liked.

Peppers: Red Knight (aka Red Knight), Belladonna (aka White Lady), Swallow, Atlant F1 (the prefix F1 means a hybrid, usually high-yielding, not requiring pre-sowing treatment, but subsequently the seeds from hybrid fruits are not used to obtain their own), Star of the East, Shanghai, Aristotle, California Miracle (although the latter has low germination rate). These varieties are thick-walled.

Eggplant: Epic F1, King of the North F1, King of the Market F1, Mirabella, Black Beauty.

Tomatoes for salads and general purpose: Bull's Heart (similar to Ox Ears), Miracle of the Earth, Mazarin, Orange, Malachite Box, De Barao, Scarlet Candles, Golden King. These are all greenhouse varieties.

Tomatoes for pickling: Intuition, Cascade, Nocturne, Kostroma, Icicle, Parsley Gardener, Black Moor, Red Giant, Labrador, F1 Jury (aka Bipop), F1 Intrigue. Most are greenhouse.

Tomato for long-term storage : Marfa - for open ground.

Tomatoes for open ground, early ripening: Wonder of the World, Early 83, Golden Heart, Red Banana, Russian Apple Tree, Snowdrop, Little Red Riding Hood, Zolotnik, Brawler (Fighter).

Leek: the most win-win variety is Tango.

Sowing dates, influence of the lunar calendar, folk signs

The very first, in mid-February, they sow peppers, since they rise up slowly. Then eggplant- they can be sown in mid-late February and in the first ten days of March. By the time fruiting begins, the height of the plants will still be approximately the same, I checked.

Peppers sown in mid-February are on the right, in mid-March - on the left.

Eggplants in early May, sown in mid-February (in the middle among the peppers).

Eggplants in early May, sown in mid-March.

All eggplants and peppers are in the greenhouse in July, growth is the same.

Seeds tomatoes divide into three piles: sow late-ripening interdeterminate ones (with unlimited growth) in early March, mid-ripening ones - in the first ten days of March or even in mid-March, i.e. 60-65 days before planting in the greenhouse, early ripening determinate (their height is limited to 40-70 cm, they do not grow higher) for open ground - in early April, 45 days before planting in open ground, usually such tomatoes are planted after the last frost, i.e. in early June.

If you want to experiment with tomatoes and achieve a tall trunk, which can then be deepened into the ground when transplanted into a greenhouse and achieve many shoots from the trunk (there are such intensive methods), you can sow at the end of February, but be prepared for the seedlings to outgrow and difficulties during transportation tall plants to the dacha. I tried to grow the tomato varieties Bezdimensional and Golden Rain using intensive methods; only Golden Rain was successful, despite the fact that it is not large-fruited. But it took a lot of time for gartering and pinching in the greenhouse, as well as hassle with lighting and worries due to the paleness of the seedlings. Of course, if the top of a tomato breaks off, it can be easily revived by placing it in water for several days; the trunk of the tomato easily sprouts roots, but these are all unnecessary worries.

The broken off top of a tomato will quickly sprout roots in water.

Sow the leek at the end of February; anyway, it will not overgrow much and is not so demanding of light.

If you believe in moon calendar, then the basic rules are as follows: plants whose fruits ripen above the ground are sown on the growing Moon, and those ripening underground - on the waning Moon; on the full moon and new moon, as well as 1-2 days after and before them, the earth and plants are given rest.
But our grandmothers followed one simple rule: plantings are done on Wednesday, Friday or Saturday. It was believed that plants planted on these days would bear fruit well, since the names of the days of the week are feminine nouns, such days of the week were called “women’s days.”

It is also useful to take a closer look at the weather outside the window: if it is still cold and cloudy, there is a snowstorm - it means that nature is “not feeling well”, it is too early to sow, wait a couple of days.

Determining the number of seedlings

Plan in advance how many cups and boxes with seedlings you can place on the window sills; maybe you will need to make an additional “window sill”, under which you will need another lamp for illumination, and place the table near the window. Nowadays, shelving is popular, especially among gardeners who grow several hundred roots. beautiful flowers. For vegetables, greenhouses will also be needed in the country, especially in Siberian conditions, but an unlimited number of roots will not fit there, this must also be taken into account.

The seeds are soaked in fabric bags in a pale pink solution of potassium permanganate for 15-20 minutes, removed, washed for 2-3 seconds in running water. You can soak it in the “Ideal” solution for a day, or in water obtained from melted clean snow, it is called “live”, but it is better to soak it in damp gauze so that the seeds “breathe”. Then it is useful to harden the seeds by putting them in the refrigerator at a temperature of +2+4 degrees for five nights, maybe less (you need to take them out during the day and keep them at room temperature). Don't forget to label the seed varieties. There are also methods for heating seeds - using a battery, in a thermos, etc. But I think this is a bit difficult for a novice summer resident, you can forget to check, overheat the seeds, “burn” them, the preparation methods described above are sufficient.

Sowing seeds

It is necessary to sow each type of seed in a separate container, since varieties germinate differently. The earth is compacted a little, shed, wait for the water to be absorbed, make holes with a pencil, put the seeds, cover with dry loose soil on top to a height of 0.5 to 1.5 cm, depending on the size of the seeds. The smaller the seeds, the lower the height of the backfill, Golden Rule planting - the depth should be three times the width of the seed.

Since I'm growing peppers and eggplants without picking (this is transplanting plants into a larger container with pinching the roots), as crops with delicate roots that are easily damaged when picking, I sow 2 seeds in one cup, then discard the least developed ones. And the germination rate of seeds is not 100%.

Tomatoes picking is needed, this gives impetus to the development of lateral roots, the more of them, the better food fruits Also, picking (more precisely, two pickings) gives a little respite to tomato seedlings; they do not stretch as much as without picking. Therefore, tomatoes can first be planted in boxes - containers about 8-10 cm high.

Don’t forget to sign the names of the varieties on the containers with an indelible marker, you can use a code so as not to write the full name of the variety on each cup; mark the sowing date for subsequent monitoring of seedlings.

Labeled cups with pepper seedlings:

Next, the crops are covered with an opaque film and put in a warm place, where the temperature is about 23-25 ​​degrees for tomatoes, and for peppers and eggplants it can be higher - about 25-28 degrees. You can spray it once with a spray bottle if the soil is dry. The spray mode is spray. Do not water with a stream, as this may accidentally dislodge the seeds that have begun to germinate. After this, do not close the drawers immediately, let them ventilate better.

Leek You can spread it out on clean snow laid out on compacted earth, put it in a cold place, and when the snow melts, sprinkle it with a layer of about 0.5 cm of earth, cover it with film.

Light for seedlings

Before seedlings emerge, you need to ventilate the plantings for several minutes once a day. Tomatoes sprout quickly, on days 3-5, as soon as you notice the first shoots, they look like a thick loop - place them on window sills, under lighting. You can use a temporary relay, turning on the lamp in the morning from 7 a.m. to 8-9 a.m., in the evening after sunset until 21-22 p.m., and more in cloudy weather. With increasing daylight hours, in the first ten days of March, the lamp may no longer be used. Also, to increase light, wash the window with at least inside.

Tomatoes are especially demanding of light. I have only one fluorescent lamp, so at first the peppers and eggplants grow under it, then, closer to mid-March, I move them to the windowsill without lighting, they will no longer be drawn to the light much. And I put newly sprouted tomatoes on the windowsill with a lamp, because tomatoes are planted starting in early March.

Light for peppers and eggplants

Watering seedlings

Watering should be moderate, as soon as the top layer of soil becomes dry, only warm water, to avoid illness, about once a week. Ideally, it would be good to water so that the water does not touch the stems of the plants. To do this, use a spray bottle, place the nozzle in the stream position, direct the stream away from the plant stem, for example, onto the walls of a glass.
When overwatering and drooping stems, carefully sprinkle sand around the stem, as if “salting”. Check that all cups have drainage holes.

If it is not possible to water the seedlings in a timely manner, use hydrogel; it is mixed with the soil during planting.

Temperature for seedlings

The temperature for peppers should be around +16-18 degrees during the day in the first week after germination, for eggplants +17-20 degrees. At night - up to +10 degrees. Further, the temperature can be increased: during the day - up to room temperature, and at night up to +15-18 degrees.

After the emergence of shoots in the form of a “loop”, tomatoes can be transferred to the windowsill, gradually removing the film, and as soon as you see the cotyledon leaves, we put them in the coldest and brightest place; at night temperatures are not scary even +5+10 degrees, during the day +13- 15 degrees. After 3-4 days, the temperature can be raised to +17-20 degrees during the day and up to +15 degrees at night.

Leeks can be grown in a cool place, like tomatoes, but you still need to make sure that the sprouts do not look depressed.

You can regulate the temperature by simply moving the boxes with cups towards and away from the window, or by opening the window briefly in calm weather. You can cover the trays with cups (loosely) with something, especially in the first couple of weeks after emergence. Don’t forget to fold back the cover after closing the window. You shouldn’t be particularly zealous about opening the windows; the seedlings are easy to freeze. Control the temperature.

If you don't like some plants appearance, don’t rush to throw them away, just mark them (I drew pluses and minuses on the cups with a marker). Sometimes seemingly weak hybrids grow better than beautiful strong ones with increasing daylight hours. Watch them, write down the results of your observations, next year it will be interesting to check the results of the last sowing season.

Feeding seedlings

You can start feeding peppers and eggplants a couple of weeks after two or three true leaves appear, at the first picking. The proportions are always written on fertilizer packages. For example, for the first feeding it is approximately 1.5-2 grams of superphosphate and 1-1.5 grams of potassium salt per bucket of water, 1.5-2 grams of urea. Feeding is done after regular watering with warm water. Two weeks after the dive, another feeding is needed. And a week before planting, you need to fertilize with potassium salt, as well as foliar (spraying on the leaves) fertilizing, one liter for about 100 plants: half a gram of potassium permanganate, 0.3 grams of copper sulfate, 0.3 grams boric acid for 1 liter of water.

Tomatoes are fed 7-10 days after picking, and also as soon as the first flower bud appears. Proportions for the first feeding: 1 teaspoon of urea, 40 grams of superphosphate, 15 g of potassium salt per 10 liters of water, this is enough for about 200 plants. Fertilizing is done on damp soil, after fertilizing you need to water it again, if the soil becomes waterlogged, spread the fertilizing for 2-3 days. Second feeding: potassium and phosphorus are doubled, nitrogen (urea) is added only if the leaves are pale green and the lower ones have not turned yellow.

A general rule for fertilizing: it is better to do it in warm weather outside the window, so as not to provoke plant diseases.

A day before planting, you can spray peppers and eggplants with Epin solution. If the tomatoes already have flowers 4-5 days before planting, the plants should be sprayed with a solution of boric acid - 1 gram of boric acid per 1 liter of water, and spraying is carried out only in cloudy weather, in the morning, since in the sun the leaves may appear sunny burns.

Also, for prevention, you need to treat the seedlings 1-2 times with 1% Bordeaux mixture, the preparation is described above, and immediately before planting, spray with skim milk, proportion 1:10 with water.

Leeks are fed with complex mineral fertilizer 2-3 times.

Stretching out seedlings turns them into thin-stemmed, pale green ones; subsequently, the fruits will not receive enough nutrition from the soil, so it is important to ensure that the seedlings do not stretch out.

Picking peppers and eggplants I don’t produce, I wrote the reasons above, but it is still necessary to ensure that the seedlings do not stretch. To prevent plants from stretching due to lack of light, you can pinch some of the seedlings of peppers and eggplants after the fifth or sixth true leaf (we don’t count cotyledons), the plant will stop growing for a couple of weeks and produce more fruit, albeit a couple of weeks later. Seedlings that are not pinched will produce, although fewer fruits, but earlier, so we do not pinch all the peppers, but some, if we want to try the harvest earlier. If we pinch the seedlings after planting them in the ground, there may not be enough time for the development of side shoots.

It is absolutely necessary to pick tomatoes. The first picking is carried out in the phase of two true leaves, watering is carried out two hours before the process.

A depression is made in the new cup with a finger or a pencil, the size is so that the spine does not bend. The lower part of the root is plucked off with nails or scissors by about a third. We hold the plant by the leaves, and not by the stem, as you can break the thin stem. We transfer it to the recess, deepen it almost to the cotyledon leaves, carefully fill it in, lightly tamp it around the stem.

For two days after this, we do not expose the plants to the sun, we maintain the temperature at +18-20 degrees during the day, at night +15-17, if it is hotter, the plants will outgrow. On the second day after picking, carefully loosen the soil - with a toothpick, fork, and lower the temperature again.

The second picking is done when the roots become crowded in the cup; we simply transfer the plants without clearing the roots from the soil; we do not touch the roots anymore.

On the left are 8 cups of tomatoes between the first and second picking, on the right are tomatoes immediately after the second picking.

I “trim” the leek by 3-4 centimeters a couple of times so that the bleached stem grows.

Trimmed leeks in mid-April:

Plants need to be tied up as soon as they begin to droop. I liked tying it with twine to wooden skewers for homemade shish kebab; the skewers are cheap. The twine is wrapped in a figure eight so that the barrel does not touch the skewer.

Garter for skewers.

A couple of weeks before planting, the seedlings must be hardened, both in the sun and in the cold, as well as in the wind.

First, they simply open the windows not only during the day, but also at night. Then, in warm weather, they take it out onto the balcony for a period of 2-3 hours, and after a couple of days they leave it for the whole day. But for the first few days they cover it with film at night.

To adjust the temperature, use a thermometer; the door to the room can be left open if it is very cool on the balcony or loggia on any day.

Before hardening, the soil should be spilled with warm water, so the seedlings will be warmer, but under no circumstances should the plants be watered at night! Also, watering is not carried out in cloudy weather.

If the first signs of wilting of the top (black leg disease) appear, sprinkle sand around the stem, as if to “salt” it.
Make sure that the plants are not broken by the wind and that the soil does not dry out - this happens faster in the wind and sun than in a warm apartment.

We temper it on the loggia, not forgetting to control the temperature with a thermometer.

Peppers and eggplants before planting, they should be no more than 20-25 cm high, with a thick stem (3-4 mm at the soil surface), there should be about 12-14 leaves, several buds.

Before planting, tomatoes should be no more than 30-35 cm, the smaller the better. Well-hardened seedlings have a slightly purple trunk. Buds are also welcome.

Peppers and eggplants before planting:

Leeks before planting:

1. Very shallow or, conversely, deep seed placement.
2. Leave plants that have hatched with a “cap”; they will not give an excellent harvest. If it’s a pity to throw away such plants, then you need to remove the cap, after wetting it.
3. If the seeds are placed too often in the box, they should be placed so that they can be easily picked, that is, at a distance of 2.5-3.5 cm from each other.
4. Insufficient lighting, warm air - contributes to the stretching of seedlings. This also includes sowing too early, when all nature is still “sleeping” (January - the first half of February for peppers and eggplants, all February for tomatoes).

1. Excessive watering or, conversely, irregular watering.
2. Do not protect the plants from a strong draft, so the plants “get cold” from the hypothermia of the soil.
3. They often touch the plants and dig up those that have not sprouted to see if they have all sprouted. You can control the crops, but then sow taking into account the percentage of germination. This is approximately 50-90% for different varieties and cultures.
4. Watering with unsettled tap water will result in an accumulation of salts in the soil and a deposit on the surface.
5. Excessive or insufficient hardening.
6. Closely spaced cups prevent the foliage from receiving enough sun. The crowns of plants should not be in close contact.

Plant marigolds in a beautiful pot at the beginning of March; 4-5 seeds will be enough. The flowers will grow quickly and will delight you while caring for the seedlings.

You can also dabble in growing indoor tomatoes. The container after the second pick should be large, about 3-5 liters. Of course, there won’t be many fruits, but this is just to lift your spirits. Sowing can be done in early February or March, picking and everything else is done in the same way as for ordinary tomatoes. There are different varieties of indoor tomatoes, I found only “Florida Petit” on sale, I liked the results.

Florida Petite tomatoes in mid-May (planted in early February):

I also tried to grow a cucumber on a windowsill, but I didn’t get any fruit from those planted in December, the plant only produced flowers and 1-2 cm of fruit bud, then everything dried up. But from the “Libelle F1” planted in March, cucumbers grew, although they were very small, about the size of an adult’s little finger, and there were only 5-6 of them.

Libelle cucumbers in mid-May (planted in early March):

At the end of February last year, I decided to try my hand at growing and selling seedlings. I had no experience in this matter until that moment. My father was always in charge of seedlings for the dacha; every spring he planted tomatoes, cucumbers, petunia, godetia and sometimes Bell pepper and other flowers.

First of all, I proposed the idea to a friend; together it would be easier and more fun. But he refused, despite the fact that he had the desire, but did not have time for it. It was decided to act alone.

What were the main resources I had:

Part of the room is by the window, on the western side, where I sowed the seeds in common containers and germinated the seedlings until picking. And a greenhouse, which was located in the country, 4 km from the house. And of course there is a great desire to do this business.

I started by drawing up a plan for the event:

Determining the price of seedlings

The question arose, how to determine the price of seedlings? Through a friend, I found out that his mother-in-law has been buying seedlings for several years now, we talked to her, but she didn’t remember the exact numbers. I thought that the seedlings should cost 40-50 rubles per piece, but she assured me that it was very expensive. It was decided to talk to the woman who was directly involved in selling seedlings and find out everything from her. Said and done, a week later my friend and I came to see her. Beforehand, I made a list of questions that I wanted to ask so as not to miss anything. After talking with her, I received another boost of confidence that the seedlings will be in demand and that you can make good money from this, but this requires a lot of seedlings. She named the approximate average price for seedlings at about 20-25 rubles per piece. And you can only find out the exact price in the spring by calling a greenhouse farm that sells seedlings in large volumes or by checking with other seedling sellers, as well as with private traders (grandmothers in markets, etc.).

Determining the required number of seeds

When determining the number of seedlings needed, I relied on three things:

1. The profit from seedlings should be 50,000 rubles
2. Average price for 1 piece of seedlings = 25 rubles
3. Type of seedlings: tomato, sweet pepper, basil, cucumber, white cabbage, petunia, marigolds

The number of seedlings was distributed as follows:

• Tomatoes – 400pcs
• Sweet pepper – 200pcs
• Cucumber – 100pcs
• Basil – 500pcs
• Petunia – 400pcs
• Marigolds – 300pcs
• Cabbage – 200pcs

The total number of seedlings is 2100 pieces. We subtract 5-10% for various circumstances - the seedlings have not grown to marketable condition, have dried out, broken, etc. As a result, we get 2000 x 25 rubles = 50,000 rubles.

It was planned to plant the cucumbers in the greenhouse, but they were never planted because... There was not enough space even in the greenhouse for all the planned plantings.

Studying the technology of planting and growing seedlings

Internet to the rescue. First of all, I started learning how to grow sweet pepper seedlings, because... it needs to be planted before everyone else, it has a very long period before the fruits ripen. In second place in importance and ripening are tomatoes. I read articles, watched videos on YouTube, and asked my father how, what and when to plant.

Purchasing and selecting seeds

Here I was guided by the following criteria:

1. Selection of early ripening varieties
2. Minimum price
3. Popular varieties
4. For tomatoes - small size fetus This is due to the fact that the smaller the fruit, the faster it ripens. We have a very short growing season and tomatoes often don’t have time to ripen, so we have to pick them green.

The only incomprehensible point for a beginner is that it is not known how many seeds are contained in the package. Usually on the package with seeds they write not in pieces, but in grams. Having asked the seller approximately how many seeds were contained in the bags, she could not answer exactly and, as it turned out, she subsequently greatly underestimated the number. But here, for those who are interested in how many seeds are contained in a pack, I give a summary table of the crops and varieties that I planted and the seeds were specially counted.

In a garden store, I asked the seller for advice on varieties and said that I needed to choose the cheapest seeds. The seller turned out to be a woman with experience, we selected suitable seeds, she asked me why I needed so many seeds, and having learned that I was planning to grow seedlings for sale, she advised me also to have lobelia and salvia flowers, and supported me that the seedlings were in great demand. As a result, 600 rubles were spent on seeds. But most of the seeds were never planted due to lack of space in the room.

Determining the timing of planting seeds and planting in a greenhouse or open ground

Also, based on Internet materials and the descriptions on the bags of seeds, the following table was compiled:

Dates in columns sowing seeds And planting time in the ground I determined it myself and some of them turned out to be incorrect. For example, petunia, lobelia and salvia flowers had to be planted at the end of February so that they would bloom in time for sale. It would also be better to plant marigolds about two weeks earlier, the same can be said about basil, and it is even better to plant it a month earlier than the specified date.

The date of planting in the ground on June 5 was not chosen by chance, this is due to the fact that after June 5-10 the possibility of return frosts is reduced by 90%. Cabbage tolerates temperatures below zero degrees, so slight night frosts are not so scary for it. Marigolds are also less sensitive to cold weather and at temperatures close to zero, the likelihood of death is not so high. Cucumbers are heat-loving plants, so it was planned to plant them after May 25 in a greenhouse where there is heating.

More details about choosing the time to plant seeds can be found in the article.

Preparing the room for planting seeds

Having determined the planting dates, I went to the dacha and brought containers and soil for sowing. I had prepared the soil since last fall (a mixture of forest soil + peat + sand) and stood in bags in the greenhouse.

At home I made a small shelving unit and placed some of the seedlings on the floor. I had several lamps with fluorescent lamps, I slightly re-equipped them for additional illumination of seedlings. In addition, in the part of the room where I placed the seedlings, I have a 150W metal halide lamp installed, the main purpose of which is to illuminate the flower greenhouse.

Greenhouse preparation

The dimensions of the greenhouse are 3x6m.

Material: wooden frame, upholstered with reinforced film.

Placement of the greenhouse relative to the cardinal directions: from east to west

It was decided to install a metal stove in the coldest corner of the greenhouse, north side insulate from the inside with geotextiles, and sheathe on top of it fiberboard sheets. Place barrels of water between the stove and the wall of the greenhouse, which perform two functions. The first is to protect the walls of the greenhouse from the heat emanating from the stove, the second is that the water, when heated by the stove and the sun, is a heat accumulator. This heat is given off to inner space greenhouses when there is no sun or the oven has already cooled down.

In addition to the stove, the second source of heat was the installation of infrared film, the so-called “warm floor” with temperature control using a sensor.

The third option for obtaining additional heat was planned to be biological heating using “burning” rabbit and chicken manure located on the floor under the shelving. But it didn’t work to “ignite” it.

To install the seedlings, shelving was made in two tiers on both sides of the greenhouse, each about 3 meters long. The racks were separately covered with a second layer of film. Also, the greenhouse along the perimeter of the walls (except for the insulated ones) was covered with a second layer of film from the outside. This was a mistake, because... It would have been better to fasten the second layer of film on the inside so that it would not be blown away by the wind, but by that time I had already made the shelves, and it was too late to fasten the film on the inside because... the racks were in the way.

Planting seeds

In order not to get confused in the planting of seedlings, numbers, varieties, I started a notebook where I tried to record all the work done with the seedlings.

I planted seeds in three ways:

1. Immediately in a container with soil
2. With pre-soaking
3. With pre-bubbling

Landing in the ground

Soak

Bubbling

Sparging is the treatment of seeds (placed in water) with oxygen or air. I used an aquarium compressor and melted snow water.

I will give two tables on the timing of the “first stage” of planting seedlings (in the room).

Table 1.

Planting without using methods to accelerate seed germination

Also, to speed up seed germination, experiments were conducted with soaking and bubbling seeds.

Table 2.

Planting using methods to accelerate seed germination

From the tables we can draw some conclusions, for example, that soaking sweet peppers does not save time. Although the seeds germinate faster, the time spent on soaking compares with the overall number of days before germination. But tomatoes sprout much faster if germination methods such as soaking and bubbling are used. Of course, it would be wrong to conclude that soaking is ineffective for sweet peppers; there are many factors influencing germination and my experience does not prove anything.

Transporting seedlings to the greenhouse. Work in the greenhouse.

April 21st was the first day of the greenhouse launch. The first batch of seedlings was delivered to the greenhouse. Also on this day, flower seeds were sown - nasturtium, lobelia, marigold, salvia, viola. Then, over the course of another week, I gradually transported the remaining seedlings at home and cabbage seeds were sown and sweet peppers were picked. Next, tomatoes were picked, then cabbage, marigolds and petunia. The picking was carried out in milk containers, disposable plastic cups 0.5 l and 0.3 l. I agreed to pick up milk containers from kindergarten, and I bought disposable cups in a wholesale store at a price of 0.5 l = 1.01 rubles per piece and 0.3 l = 0.36 rubles per piece

before the pick

after the pick

By the time the greenhouse was launched (April 21), the temperature was outdoors did not fall below +3+5°С. Every evening at about 21.00, I went to the dacha and lit the stove for the night. The sensor for turning on the infrared heating was set to a temperature of +15°C, i.e. when the temperature drops below this level, heating
turned on automatically. It was noticed that infrared film is capable of keeping the temperature in the greenhouse 5-6°C higher than in the open air. I installed two IR films with a total length of 6m, 3m on each side and a power of 220W/m (220x6m=1320W or 1.3kW)

IN sunny days, in the morning, I had to go and open an additional shelter for the seedlings so that they would not burn, and in the month of May I already had to open the windows and the door in the greenhouse for additional ventilation, because... the temperature in the sun rose to +40°C.

Over time, the seedlings began to rise and grow; soon there was not enough space in the greenhouse and some of the seedlings had to be moved to special beds with additional shelter.

Posting advertisements. Sale of seedlings.

Before the sale, the following prices for seedlings were determined:

• Tomatoes – 30 rubles per piece
• Sweet pepper – 30 rubles per piece
• White cabbage – 15-20 rubles per piece (depending on size)
• Petunia – 10-20 rubles per piece (depending on size)
• Marigolds – 15 rubles per piece
• Nasturtium – 30 rubles per piece

As soon as it got warmer and the size and type of seedlings seemed attractive to a buyer, I took a photo of the seedlings and posted an ad on 3 boards on the Internet.

But there weren’t enough calls, and I additionally made two posters and installed them on the road, where, in my opinion, a large flow of summer residents passes, and I also found local groups with advertisements in Odnoklassniki.ru and posted mine there. But this turned out to be not enough, there were a little more buyers, 1-5 people a day, and sometimes not even one at all. It was decided to try to place the seedlings on the road ring when leaving the city, where many summer residents pass. I was surprised, a sufficient number of cars stopped and almost everyone bought something. So in the end, in two days I sold out almost all the seedlings; petunia flowers and sweet peppers remained unsold, and the frailest, small and unattractive ones.

I decided to postpone the sale of the remaining seedlings until Saturday, because... On this day, many summer residents have a day off and demand will be high. I left early for the dacha, loaded the remaining seedlings and at 8.30 in the morning I was already standing at the ring. Almost no one stopped, and if they did, they didn’t even get out of the car and asked if I had cabbage or tomatoes or something else that I no longer had in stock. And then at 10 o’clock two cars with competitors arrived; they had a lot of seedlings - flowering petunias, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini, powerful sweet peppers. Many cars began to stop near them and buy seedlings. I realized that I needed to take advantage of such a great opportunity, because they attract customers with their diversity. I moved my frail seedlings closer, and decided to reduce the price of my seedlings to the very minimum. I ended up selling out thanks to this. most my “leftover” seedlings. By one o'clock in the afternoon I decided that I needed to end this “epic” with seedlings, no one came to me anymore, everyone was buying from competitors.

In the end it was earned about 18,000 rubles . The amount was not large; it was the first experience with many mistakes and doubts.

conclusions

• I planted the seeds of petunia, lobelia, and viola late. They did not have time to gain green mass and bloom, the petunia lost its marketable appearance and the price had to be reduced in order to sell it. And viola and lobelia have not grown to the point of being marketable at all.
• I planted basil too late and didn’t have time to grow enough to sell.
• You need a wide variety of seedlings, the most popular is White cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, petunia, marigolds, nasturtium
• Sweet peppers remained unsold, they are not so popular, you need to grow a little, just to maintain the diversity of seedlings
• Marigolds and nasturtiums need to be planted a little earlier, then they will have time to bloom and the price can be raised higher
• The most effective sales are in places where there is a large flow of target buyers. Many people buy seedlings because they see them while driving by. Signs with telephone numbers or advertisements on the Internet work much worse than live sales, but they complement well, because a client can call (as it happened with me) and order a large number of seedlings.
• It is necessary to make a special greenhouse with efficient and cheap heating, automatic ventilation in sunny and hot weather.
• To earn a more or less tangible amount of money, you need large volumes of seedlings. Starting from 3000pcs and above

Video about growing tomatoes for sale

A lot is written about tomatoes, and this is not surprising, because, probably, there is no person indifferent to these wonderful fruits. From early spring to late autumn, the buyer's eye most often looks for tomatoes among the vegetables offered on the market. You always want to plant more tomatoes, but how can you calculate how many bushes you need to plant for a family of four? And this calculation depends on consumption, and what exactly you use tomatoes for:

1. Eat at least 2 kg of fresh food per day;
2. For preparing dishes - stew, pasta, borscht;

If these two points suit you, then you should plant at least 180-200 bushes. If you consume tomatoes more moderately, about 100 pieces may be enough. (especially if these are tall varieties). If you need preservation for the cold season, plant at least 380-400 pieces.

So, we’ve decided on the number of seedlings, but how much land will it take? 400 tomato bushes will occupy about 2 acres of land in the garden at rare landing(here we take into account the paths between the rows, which are very necessary).

Greenhouse or open ground?

Other headache gardener: where to get a greenhouse and irrigation system? Do you need it? Undoubtedly, a greenhouse and an irrigation system make it possible to obtain up to 15-20 kg of products from one bush. But not everyone has these opportunities, because even a tomato grown simply in the open air in your own garden will be environmentally friendly, aromatic and infinitely tasty. So don't despair at all.

In the leanest years, medium- and tall-growing tomatoes yield 1.5-2 kg per bush, while low-growing ones will modestly give up their 0.5 kg. Under normal conditions, harvests are much richer. Now the main thing is to critically evaluate the capabilities of the site with minimal investment.

What to plant

Correctly selected varieties are already 50% success. Today, tomato breeding has come a long way from its wild predecessor. A tomato is not just a red, round, sour vegetable. Now tomatoes come in all colors: orange, green, chocolate, violet-red, white, striped, lilac, lemon, pinkish-pearl, raspberry and even purple like eggplants. Moreover, their shape can be pear-shaped, spherical, icicle, pepper-shaped, ovoid, heart-shaped, horn-shaped, cream with a spout. The taste is also very different: classic with sourness, dessert with sugary pulp, with different aromatic and fruit flavors (grapes, melon, papaya, pineapples). You should not plant only the early group of tomatoes or only large-fruited varieties. While the bush is late ripening large-fruited variety is working on cultivating a huge fruit - varieties with medium-sized fruits such as Midas, Tsy-yu, Trace of the Flying Dragon, Pink Icicle are already pampering the whole family with their different and very tasty tomatoes. Year after year does not happen, and what more variety plant varieties of tomatoes, the greater the chance of reaping a decent harvest.

Early low-growing varieties

They have such advantages as early fruiting, uniform yield of the crop, they avoid late blight, and you can perform high hilling instead of garter. But they also have disadvantages: the entire harvest ripens en masse in two weeks, and what to eat then? At the same time, the taste of undersized early varieties does not have such a wide range as the later, tall ones. Usually it is classic, with sourness, sometimes you come across sweet varieties, but they are still less aromatic. In 50% of early ripening varieties, the fruits crack during preservation.

Mid-season

Among these tomatoes there are many canned varieties; they are the most productive, have a varied taste, shape and color of the floors, and bear fruit until frost. Disadvantages - regular protection against fungal diseases, garter, and fertilizing are required.

Mid-late and late

There is no point in growing these varieties without a greenhouse (no matter how some authors embellish in their articles), since short-term frosts are possible in September, and bushes of late-ripening varieties are in the midst of fruiting during this period. In more southern regions, late-ripening varieties give an excellent harvest, and almost every year it manages to fully ripen before the onset of frost.