In March, the entire nature begins to come out of hibernation, and gardeners appear first concern. And the most important thing a month - seedling. Many at the time wondering how to grow seedlings of flowers, which is better: to grow the seedlings on their own or buy ready-made? Resolving this issue depends on your financial capabilities and love to overcome difficulties.

Growing seedlings on their own, you get the following benefits:

• Save money, because a packet of seeds is often cheaper than one plant.
• You can grow rare plants that are not in the range of industrial production, as well as tender plants that can not tolerate a transplant or do not tolerate it.
• Much reduce the risk of introduction of pests in your future garden.

Growing seedlings

If you have decided to grow the seedlings on their own, then in March - is the time to sow the seeds of vegetables, annual and perennial flowering plants. Most gardeners do not have the specialized greenhouses for growing seedlings, so the only thing that remains is to huddle on a narrow windowsill in a city apartment. And there are many seedlings get stretched out, "dead." How to grow strong, healthy seedlings of flowers, what to do with the seedlings, how to cope with the disease, to the envy of all the neighbors get healthy seedlings are strong?

The key to future success is the quality of the seed. Do not skimp when buying seeds with questionable hands. You may get zero results. Contact your specialty store. Purchasing seeds, ask shelf life. If the package is hermetically sealed, tamper with it directly before sowing.

So we need to plant capacity and the substrate. As the tanks can use any low boxes, ceramic or plastic bowls, ordinary flower pots. Substrate - peat mixed with sand in equal parts, or special ground for seedlings from the store. The optimum sowing date - the end of March or beginning of April.

We fill utensils for planting substrate is moderately moist almost to the top, level the surface and slightly thicken it. Evenly scatter the seeds on the surface, sprinkle a thin layer of land, lightly crush and moisturizing. It is better to do it from the sprayer or watering can with a very fine sieve, to avoid erosion.

Small seeds - tobacco, petunia, begonia, poppy and others. - For an even sowing mixed with sand (one of the seeds into ten parts sand), and scatter over the surface of the substrate. In this case, they do not sprinkle the ground and lightly crush and moisturize.

Heat

For good growth and development of young seedlings enough ambient temperature of + 20 ° C. During the day it can be 23-25 ​​° C, and at night drop to 14-16 ° C. But in the first week after emergence of the plants to prevent stretching and a better root development is necessary to lower the temperature at 2-3 ° C, because with increasing temperature increases the rate of seed germination.

Substrate

Half of success in growing seedlings - is properly selected substrate. Different crops substrate composition can be uneven. But there are some conditions that must necessarily comply.

• Oddly enough, but the substrate must not be too nutritious, that is, it should contain a small amount of nutrients. Otherwise the plant will be too active to grow, and with a lack of light begin to elongate.
• The substrate must be able to pass water well.
• The substrate must be fresh. This means that you can not plant seeds in the previously used substrate. Before that, a substrate should be steam thoroughly. At home, this procedure can be done in the oven. For steaming ground necessary to pour into a bowl, moisten it and put a couple of hours in the oven. The temperature of the oven does not exceed 85 ° C. If the temperature is higher, then the substrate will evaporate organic compounds such as humus and peat.
• For plants, the seedlings of which is highly susceptible to the disease, "blackleg" - balsams, annual aster, sweet pea, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers - the substrate should consist of sod land, peat and sand in the ratio 3: 1: 1 respectively.

Lighting

Those who have the windows in the house are oriented to the south, southeast or southwest, of course, luck. But the double glazing is still missing a little light, so the young plants are better highlight. And especially do not do without the backlight, if the windows are located on the north side. The backlight can be used as a lamp, in which you need to put light bulbs 40 watts.

But incandescent bulbs produce a lot of heat, which can cause overheating of the seedlings. Therefore, heat is good to use fluorescent lamps, and one shall be the cool blue tones, and the other - a warm yellow. You can use the arc and mercury fluorescent lamps. Good results are given lighting and metal halide discharge-sodium lamps. They provide light in the orange and red spectral range, which accelerates the development and growth of plants. However, when using such lamps plants begin to experience a shortage of blue light, but this is partially offset by light coming from the window.

Today, there are special fitolampy. They provide optimal development and good plant growth spectrum of radiation. However, they do not heat and serve as a long - life of the lamp is 10 thousand. H. However, these lamps should be protected by watering from moisture, because they had no moisture protection.

The distance from the lamp to the plant must be no more than ten centimeters, which increases with the growth of seedlings. For good growth and development of young plants is necessary to highlight up to twelve hours a day. At the same time, keep in mind that if your apartment windows face south, southeast or southwest, the backlight can be switched on only on cloudy days, and if the window north, it includes a daily basis.

Air humidity

The optimum humidity for seedlings - 60-70%. Because of the central heating running in March, even in full, the air is very dry. La in order to provide young plants suitable humidity, they must be periodically sprayed. You can make a different way, if you want to achieve a constant humidity. Podstelil pots under plastic wrap and fold the edges so as to obtain such things like an open greenhouse. The height of the walls of the hotbed should be above the edges of pots for seedlings of 30 cm.

Water

Young plants need to be sure to water regularly, avoiding drying of the substrate. Superficial watering crops in the aisles of the pipette or spray. All other plants can be watered from a watering can. For watering-settled need to use warm water. Room temperature water promotes good root growth. It is best to water in the morning on sunny days.

Diseases seedlings

Brown rot and "black leg" - the main scourge of the seedlings. "Black leg" is one of the most dangerous plant diseases. His signs: casting cotyledonous first yellow and then fade, and the stem at soil level is black, and it appears the waist. Once these symptoms appear, the plants wilt rapidly at first, and then die. Most "blackleg" susceptible crops such as Antirrhinum, annual aster, gillyflower, tomatoes and cabbage. When the first signs of the plant is removed, and the remaining are not watered for several days. Furthermore, topsoil is removed and carefully pour pure, preferably river sand and fly ash or perlite.

Root rot

From this disease often suffer cabbage, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, annual aster, sweet pea, clove, sage, primrose. Determine the disease is not difficult: first the lower leaves begin to turn yellow, then they turn brown and fall off. On the stems appear dark stripes. At high humidity affected places covered with white bloom, which is the spores of the fungus. Affected plant roots become brittle, and plants often die.

The disease develops when growing plants in acidic soil, as well as if the soil contains an excess amount of organic matter. To prevent the occurrence of this disease in growing seedlings always taken a loose fresh substrate, which is unacceptable excess nitrogen.

Against the "black feet" and root rot fungicide use "fitosporin" in which the seeds are soaked before sowing.

Given all these factors, following the recommendations you get home strong, healthy seedlings.

Well? The sun brighter, the holiday season is getting closer, and his hands and scratched start it now? Understandably, a gardener (amateur or professional) will passively wait for the start of the season? No, we just will not wait, we will prepare for him. Or rather, to cook something with which we enter this season. And not just to cook, and to use for this horticultural know-how - for seedlings peat tablets.

This new device appeared in our country recently, and many gardeners gardeners about it do not even know. But advanced and had time to try out the peat tablets in practice leaves them just admiring reviews and strong recommendations for use. What is so magical in this know-how? What it really convenient for seedlings peat tablets, and how to use them properly? Referring to the experience of those who have dealt with them, and learn more about it.

What is peat tablets?

Peat tablets - one of the new developments for the amateur and professional gardening. They are intended for seed germination, seedling, grafting and rooting leaves. Peat tablets like the most effervescent tablet of aspirin and consist of pressed peat with the addition of trace elements and growth stimulants. Outside such a tablet is dressed in a skin-thin mesh.

The initial size of the peat tablets of approximately three centimeters in height and eight centimeters in diameter. On one side there is a small peat tablet recess seeds (this is its upper part). Uploaded warm water peat tablet swells and rises in height, while maintaining the diameter (mesh does not start to creep sideways). Becoming filled with a nutrient mixture of peat glass cylinder, peat tablet becomes the first vessel at a stage of plant growth.

The convenient peat tablets?

As soon as the first intrepid gardeners, gardeners tried peat tablet in action, once it became clear that they get rid of extra fuss ground for seedlings (in terms of apartment is especially annoying) and save space. This was the first of the advantages of open naturalists peat pellets. Further advantages of becoming more and usability increasingly clear:

• peat tablet virtually indispensable when growing plants with delicate roots, since peat crumbly and does not injure the root system;
• peat tablet are very convenient for sprouting small seeds or expensive seed, as the percentage of germination was in peat pellets is very high;
• when growing seedlings in peat pellets is very easy and convenient to adjust the humidity, since excess moisture pills do not absorb;
• using peat pellets no additional dressing and growth promoters in the early stages of seedling production;
• peat is porous and allows the roots to "breathe", making them stronger and more resistant plants;
• Tablets are placed in a special net that keeps its shape and allows you to immerse the plants in the soil without harming the roots;

In short, the cultivation of seedlings of flowers in peat pellets, or germination of vegetable seeds or breeding and hybrid crop has clear advantages over the traditional method of cultivation. But the rules of growing seedlings in peat pellets are not very different conventional and familiar. However, the features are here too.

How to use peat pellets?

First, prepare a tablet for use:

• select the tray and place it in the desired quantity of tablets deepening upwards;
• pour into a tablet to defend the water warm water (two, two and a half tablespoons);
• We are waiting for the tablet swells, as happens in about fifteen minutes;
• drained from the sump excess water.

And then proceed to the sowing and germination of seeds:

• Each tablet put on one (or two) of the seed, the seedlings grow what we want;
• seeds fall asleep with a thin layer of humus (those that grow in the light, leaves open);
• Cover the tray with pills transparent material (glass or plastic) to create the greenhouse effect;
• in the process of germination periodically "ventilated" a mini-parnichok.

After germination should take care of them for the requirements of a particular culture. And at the moment the pick simply transplant the seedlings into the soil without removing the plant from the tablet. In the future, the shell-mesh simply dissolved in the earth, and she will be part of fertilizer tablet.

Things to remember when using peat pellets? This material is "disposable", so that the cost of the tablet to add the cost of seeds, to assess the true costs. Prefer only well-established brands of peat pellets, for example, tablets "Jiffy". But even if planting seedlings in peat tablet for you a completely new business, try to start to use them in parallel with the traditional method of growing seedlings. And then you too will be able to accurately assess the pros and cons of this and market gardeners know how.