How often and correctly to water peppers in open ground

Peppers are considered heat-loving plants, so most often they are grown in a greenhouse. But even in central Russia, many gardeners plant peppers in open ground and get a good harvest. The secret of success lies in proper watering of the pepper, which takes into account the fact that its roots are located close to the surface of the bed, so they require special conditions. How often to water peppers and how to do it correctly. We will answer these questions in this article.

General rules for watering peppers

For watering peppers in open ground, there are several general recommendations that should be followed to obtain a rich harvest:

• Use hole watering to ensure the roots receive the maximum amount of moisture.
• Water for irrigation should be at a temperature of +22 to +25 °C. Too cold a liquid can provoke the appearance of rot and fungus, while a hot liquid will slow down metabolic processes and become a favorable environment for the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria.
• When watering peppers from a hose or watering can, you need to use special nozzles. A powerful jet can damage the delicate root system.
• When watering, it should be done only on one side. On the other hand, it is necessary to carry out loosening. The next time you water, you need to change sides.
• Watering peppers in open ground is carried out in the morning so that some of the moisture can reach the root and the excess liquid has time to evaporate. If you water the crop during the day, drops of water that fall on the leaves can cause sunburn. Evening watering can cause waterlogging of the soil, as a result of which the lower part of the root will rot and the plant will die.

Well-loosened soil is important for peppers, so loosening is an integral procedure for moistening the beds. Gardeners advise watering the crop more often, but in less volume.

Important! In high humidity and rainy season, when the ground is always damp, the amount of watering should be reduced.

How to care for peppers when shoots appear

Now the seedlings need to be provided with appropriate “home” care.

It's actually quite simple. You just need to be attentive to peppers and use common sense.

Seedlings should not be placed close to a window (frostbite is possible) or radiators (they dry out the soil and air).

The most important thing is watering. It is necessary to water with moderately warm, settled water. Use a watering can with a spout. A few hours after watering, loosen the soil so that the water does not stagnate.

The seedlings will probably need spraying. You can humidify the air around you. Place a saucer of water among the glasses. This will also increase air humidity.

Feeding will be needed only after picking.

If the seedlings begin to stretch, treat them with a growth regulator. It's a good idea to rearrange the cups of peppers so that each plant gets enough sunlight.

The right water for watering peppers in open ground

For peppers, as for many other vegetable crops, cold water for irrigation can be disastrous. Beginning gardeners often take water for irrigation directly from a well or water supply, without taking into account its low temperature. Such a mistake could cost you your harvest. This does not mean that the water must be heated. It is enough to first leave it in a barrel or any other container for some time until it reaches an acceptable temperature, which should not be lower than +18 °C.

To increase the yield of sweet peppers, it is recommended to add additional nutrients to the water for irrigation. This can be done already 21 days after transplanting the seedlings. To prepare a nutrient solution, add urea (10 g) and superphosphate (5 g) to a bucket of water (10 l).

Plants with buds that have appeared need a cocktail with other ingredients - 3 tbsp. potassium per 10 liters of water.

After the first fruits begin to ripen, the plantings are fed with superphosphate (1 g) and potassium salt (1 g) diluted in 10 liters of water.

Frequency and abundance of watering peppers in open ground

During normal summer weather, peppers are watered a couple of times a week, but if weather conditions change - it becomes too hot or rainy - the amount of watering should be optimized.

Important! Per square meter of bed, the average liquid consumption is about 10 liters of water.

During the heat

Summer weather does not always please gardeners with stability. When the average daily temperature rises and the heat sets in, the peppers will need additional watering every two days. Before watering, it is imperative to loosen the bed, and in very dry weather, also the soil between the furrows. This measure will help the roots more easily take water from the adjacent soil in case of severe deficiency. How to determine the required volume of liquid? To do this, you need to carefully monitor the condition of the soil when watering - if a puddle begins to accumulate in the hole, the liquid no longer goes into the ground and is not absorbed, then you should stop watering.

Important! At air temperatures above +30 °C, before irrigation, the soil must be loosened throughout the entire bed where the peppers are planted.

In the rain and cold

Rainy weather, on the one hand, makes the work of gardeners easier, on the other hand, it increases the risk of fungal diseases. If precipitation is heavy and frequent, then additional watering of peppers in open ground will not be required.

How to determine whether a crop has enough moisture for good growth

To determine how often to water pepper seedlings on the windowsill, you need to learn how to determine whether the seedlings have enough water.

If the seedling box has a large volume of soil, then the water from it does not evaporate so quickly, so frequent watering is not required. Small containers dry out faster and require constant monitoring.

Daily check of seedlings on the windowsill:

• if the soil mixture has dried to a depth of 2-4 cm, then it can be moistened;
• There is no need to water the wet soil mixture.

You can also take some soil from the pot and roll it into a ball. If the soil is rolled up, there is no need to water; if not, it is worth moistening the soil.

Features of watering at different periods of pepper development

Peppers go through several stages of growth and development during the season, each of them has its own requirements for watering and feeding. To get a good harvest, you need to monitor what stage the pepper is currently going through in order to provide it with the most comfortable conditions for growth and abundant fruiting.

Shoots (at planting)

Pepper seeds, as a rule, are planted in separate cups and are not watered at first, as they are covered with film to retain moisture. When seedlings appear, they are watered as the soil dries. If the seeds were planted in a common container, then the sprouts are carefully moistened before picking.

You can pick seedlings when the seedlings, in addition to the cotyledons, have two more true leaves ranging in size from 3-5 mm to 2 cm; in the first case, the root system has not yet branched, but closer to the second it is highly branched. You need to constantly water the seedlings after picking and before planting them in the ground; the lump of earth should not dry out, but should not be soggy either.

If your seedlings begin to turn yellow, the most common reason for this is improper watering. The soil should have time to dry, do not overwater the peppers, water once every two days, not more often. Also, do not forget that the water should be warm, preferably melt or rain, but always separated from chlorine. If everything is in order with watering, check other aspects of caring for seedlings, namely, good drainage near the containers and draining the water accumulated in the pan. If this does not help, check the roots of the seedlings:

• Rotten - add Fitosporin or Trichodermin to the soil. Alternatively, you can pour it with an intense pink solution of potassium permanganate.
• There is no rot - feed with nitrogen. But be careful, nitrogen causes rapid growth, the seedlings should not overgrow.

We also recommend spraying pepper with Epin, it will boost immunity. It can be used one day before planting seedlings in open ground, this will increase their survival rate.

By the way, pepper seedlings can be grown using wick irrigation; it is done as follows: the plant is planted in the upper part of a plastic bottle cut in half, water is poured into the lower part and both halves of the bottle are connected with a wick from a clothesline.

Pepper seedlings should be planted in open ground during the daytime period when sun activity is minimal, for example, in the evening.
Cloudy or cloudy weather is also suitable for planting. Planting is carried out in several stages:

• Holes of the required size are dug in advance, and specialized fertilizer is added there in accordance with the attached instructions.
• Each seedling bush is placed in a separate hole, which is filled 75% with soil.
• Fill another 10% of the hole with fertilizer for peppers.
• The seedlings are watered.
• The remaining space in the hole is covered with earth.

Young plants need to be watered much less often than adults. After transplanting peppers into open ground, the next watering should be done no earlier than 2 days later. But you need to rely on weather conditions.

Before the first inflorescences appear, the peppers will need only once weekly watering. But if the weather is very hot outside, then you need to water more often, sometimes the frequency of watering increases to 3 times a week

Important! Whatever the temperature outside, the water for irrigation should always be a few degrees warmer than room temperature.

During and after flowering

As soon as the peppers begin to bloom, they need to be watered 3 times a week. Experienced experts advise using it for sufficient moisture per 1 square meter. m of plantings about 10 liters of water. But, again, you need to focus on weather conditions.

During flowering, it is very important to monitor the temperature of the water used for watering peppers in open ground. If you notice that the flowers develop poorly and fall off before they have time to form, then you need to check whether you are moistening the beds with too much cold water.

During fruiting

During and after fruit set in peppers, the volume of water for irrigation should be reduced. Irrigation of plantings is carried out no more than twice every 7 days. Experienced gardeners vary the taste of future peppers using water of different temperatures. For the peppers to turn out sweet, it must be warm. If you want to get a harvest with a piquant bitterness, you can take cool water.

Important! You need to water the peppers so that the stream from the watering can hits the base of the bush directly and does not injure the inflorescences and ovaries.

Caring for seedlings immediately after planting until emergence

After sowing the seeds, it is necessary to create conditions conducive to their rapid germination.

The two most important factors are temperature and humidity.

For pepper crops, the ideal temperature is +27 degrees. It is at these indicators on a home thermometer that the grains will sprout the fastest.

The lower the temperature, the longer it will take for seedlings to appear. And at temperatures below +18, the death of all crops is possible.

The appearance of sprouts is impossible without water. Therefore, crops must be constantly kept moist. But you can’t fill it either.

The third factor is access to fresh air. Periodically, the crops must be opened for an hour or two so that they do not turn sour and suffocate.

ON A NOTE. Some gardeners underestimate the importance of light. Therefore, crops do not need to be kept in the dark. The sprouts should reach towards the sun, even if it is artificial.

This regime must be followed for the entire 2 weeks before germination.

As soon as the sprouts hatch, the film cover is removed.

Features of watering peppers in combination with fertilizers

Peppers planted in open ground need not only proper watering, but also regular feeding. Nutrients are especially needed during the period of active flowering; peppers need calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium most of all at this time. These substances are also present in the soil in minimal dosages, but, as a rule, they are not enough for the normal development of the crop. Therefore, it is so important to additionally feed the plantings. They are carried out in the following sequence:

• Fertilizer for peppers is purchased in a specialized store and diluted in accordance with the instructions, after which it is placed near each bush.
• 30 minutes after applying the fertilizer to the soil, it should be watered with a small amount of warm water (from +22 to +30 °C).
• After 40-60 minutes, the bed is watered again, but this time abundantly.

Peppers do not tolerate fertilizers containing chlorine, which inhibits the root system of plantings.

During flowering, feed plants with nitrogen-containing fertilizers, and during fruiting, use fertilizers with potassium and calcium.

Important! To obtain a large number of juicy and tasty fruits, it is recommended to fertilize peppers once every 2 weeks.

A lack of nutrients has a detrimental effect not only on the amount of harvest, but also on the appearance of the plantings themselves. Numerous signs can signal a deficiency of various micro- and macroelements. We have listed them in the table below.

Green fertilizer for peppers! Take a 10 liter bucket, fill 1/3 with green grass (greens) with a small bunch of hay, add 1 liter of compost or fertile soil, fill it with water and mix. Cover the bucket with a lid and leave to infuse for 5 days. Stir the fertilizer every day. After a liter, dilute it in 10 liters of water and feed the pepper.

Answers to frequently asked questions

How to choose the time to plant peppers?

Focus on your climate zone. Choose a specific day according to the lunar calendar.

How long can you keep seedlings at home?

No more than 80 days. Overgrown seedlings tolerate planting in a permanent place worse.

What preparations should I use for feeding?

If the seedlings are healthy, then potassium humate, “Krepysh”, “Agricola”. If there are problems, then use complex mineral fertilizers.

Which variety is better?

Depends on where you will grow peppers (garden, greenhouse) and your climate zone.

When to stop watering peppers by region (table)

The optimal length of daylight hours is 12 hours. It is from this indicator that one must proceed when calculating the volumes and number of irrigations. In the table below we have given indicators of daylight hours for different parts of Russia, depending on their geographical location.

*Refers to regions between 65 and 55 degrees north latitude.

In addition to the length of daylight hours, you also need to take into account the air temperature. It is best to water when the thermometer is in the range from +18 to +25 °C.

Possible methods of watering peppers in open ground

Watering is an integral part of the normal growth and development of peppers, but it must be done correctly in compliance with all necessary recommendations. There are several methods of soil irrigation that every gardener can use for his plantings.

Drip irrigation

Ideal for those gardeners who visit the plot only on weekends. The system can be purchased at a store, or you can install it yourself using available materials. For drip irrigation, you will need a large container to hold the water, unless it is directly supplied from the water supply. In addition, this system can be supplemented with a timer, which will regulate the frequency and volume of watering according to the parameters you set. This method has a number of undeniable advantages:

• The soil will be moistened evenly, which will eliminate the formation of a crust and reduce the need for loosening.
• The roots will receive a sufficient amount of moisture and will be able to absorb nutrients from the soil in the right quantities, which will allow them to fully develop.
• Drops of water are prevented from getting on the leaves; only the roots and the soil around them are moistened.
• Water is used economically.
• The number of weeds is reduced.

Surface watering

Such irrigation is carried out in hot regions so that a significant supply of water remains in the soil. To do this, furrows or square holes are formed around the plantings. Thus, the moisture does not go far from the root and is not wasted, and the roots absorb it as needed. The main thing is to make sure that the peppers do not stand in a puddle, otherwise root rot may appear. Surface watering requires gardeners to spend a lot of money on preparatory work, but gives good results in the form of active crop growth and a large amount of harvest.

Fine watering or sprinkling

This type of irrigation is relevant either in very modest areas, or, conversely, when processing plantings on an industrial scale. In simple terms, dispersed irrigation is spraying plants. For a small number of peppers it can be carried out with a regular hand sprayer. If the volume of work is large, then special sprinkler installations are purchased and installed.

This method of watering is used to cool the bush and accelerate photosynthesis processes. It cannot be used as an independent watering in hot regions, otherwise the incoming liquid will not be enough for the roots and the plant will die.

Subsoil irrigation

Subsoil irrigation is relevant for a large area of ​​land planted with different crops. Sometimes it is also installed by those gardeners who go to the hacienda only a few times a month. This method is quite labor-intensive and expensive.

Before forming the bed, special pipes are laid in the ground, from which water flows into the ground in a given mode. In addition to the uniform distribution of liquid, there is another advantage - there is no need to regularly loosen the beds before watering.

Manual watering

Most gardeners in Russia still use manual watering. All kinds of containers are used for it (watering cans, buckets, ladles). The method is long and physically difficult, suitable for a small planting area.

But its advantage is the ability to regulate and control the water temperature. Sometimes a hose is used for manual watering, but it is necessary to put a special tip on it so that the powerful stream does not damage the delicate roots.

Features of watering bell (sweet) and hot peppers

You will only get full fruits of sweet and bitter peppers if you plant them as far apart as possible. Otherwise, mixing will occur during the pollination process, and the resulting peppers will have the same taste.

• It is recommended to water bell peppers more often, but less, so that the roots absorb sugar. If you water too much, the roots may begin to rot.
• Hot peppers are watered less often so that they do not pick up microelements from the soil that affect the formation of sugar notes.

What are the dangers of excess or lack of moisture for peppers (consequences of improper watering)

Peppers must be watered strictly according to the rules, focusing on weather conditions, day length and soil quality. Excess moisture can lead to harmful consequences:

• Fall of flowers and ovaries. If too much liquid gets into the soil, it becomes very dense, the aeration process and the ability of the roots to absorb useful microelements are disrupted. Too few of them reach the ovaries for their normal formation.
• The appearance of fungal diseases. The first sign of rot is dark spots on the leaves, then the base of the stem may begin to rot, which will inevitably lead to the death of the bush. The disease progresses especially intensively with excess moisture in cloudy weather.
• Invasion of slugs. These pests love moist soil. Overfilled soil can attract uninvited guests who will happily feast on juicy fruits and pepper leaves.
• Sunburn. As a result of excessive intensive watering, drops of liquid may remain on the leaves, which in hot weather can lead to sunburn.

When watering peppers, it is important to remember that the danger for plants is not only too much watering, but also its insufficient volume. In this case, the first thing to do is to dry up the ovaries of the flowers, and the fruits turn out deformed and small.

If there is a lack of liquid, bell peppers will produce bitter fruits, and chili peppers will begin to have spots on their pods.

What container is suitable for growing peppers

The choice of landing containers is not limited if they meet the requirements for containers: disinfected surface, presence of drainage holes.

You can grow seedlings in plastic containers for ice cream and cookies, peat tablets and cups, plastic cups, milk or juice tetra bags, etc.

The most popular containers are cassettes or plastic boxes in which seedlings grow before picking. After the procedure, plastic cups are used.

If there are not very many seedlings, then it makes sense to use peat cups. If there are a lot of seedlings, then peat cups will hurt your pocket.

ON A NOTE. There are also unusual growing methods. Such as snail, diaper, growing on toilet paper, etc.

Tips from Mister Summer Resident

Our website https://mrdachnik.com has several tips that will help you harvest an excellent harvest at the end of the season:

1. Peppers love loose soil, so at the slightest hint of crust formation, the bed should be loosened immediately.
2. To improve the quality of watering, you need to form a hole near the bush, filling it with mulch on top.
3. If the soil is very dense and sticky, then the amount of watering should be reduced.
4. If you doubt the required volume of water, be guided by the fact that a puddle appears - as soon as the water stops going deeper, you should stop watering.
5. Tap water needs to settle for a day to avoid chlorine getting into the ground.
6. If the water has a high level of hardness, ash should be added to it at the rate of 0.5 tbsp. for 10 l.
7. Peppers need additional irrigation and spraying, but not in the heat or during prolonged rains.
8. Water for irrigation should be warm - from +22 to +25 °C. To achieve the desired temperature, you can leave the container with liquid in the sun to heat up, or dilute ice water with hot water.
9. Sandy soil must be additionally compacted with peat or compost, and the peppers planted in it must also be mulched to better retain moisture.

Mulching

In order for moisture to evaporate faster, the beds must be mulched with rotted manure or compost, sawdust, straw or hay. This way the moisture will remain in the soil longer and the frequency of watering can be reduced. Mulch also prevents weeds from growing.

Advice! Watering can be done directly over the mulch.