What kind of soil do peppers and eggplants like?
Peppers and eggplants are permanent residents of summer cottages, which are grown from year to year. With the onset of the hot season of conservation, they are simply irreplaceable for every housewife. Therefore, the happy owners of land plots try to plant them and get the harvest on their own. Such attempts do not always end in success, in the sense of an abundant, high-quality harvest of vegetables.
This is due to the fact that peppers and eggplant (especially the latter) are rather capricious. One of their main requirements is a competent approach to the selection and preparation of the soil. What kind of land do peppers and eggplants like? In order for the plants to grow well, develop and please with large fruits, the soil must be light and nutritious. This applies both to the stage of growing seedlings, and directly to the crops themselves in the beds.
Preparing a substrate for growing seedlings
The growing period for pepper and eggplant is approximately three months. The best option for getting an early harvest is sowing seeds for seedlings in early February.
Seeds for seedlings can be sown in already enriched soil purchased from the store. Or prepare the substrate by mixing yourself to choose from:
- sod land and humus in a 1: 2 ratio;
- humus, peat and sawdust in a ratio of 2: 2: 1;
- in equal parts humus and peat.
For each bucket of the resulting substrate, add one tablespoon of superphosphate and 2 tablespoons of ash.
Preparing the soil in the beds
Not every gardener can boast of loose and fertile soil in his garden. However, due to the availability of a wide range of fertilizers, it is possible to improve the composition of the soil.
Preparation of beds for peppers and eggplants begins with the autumn digging. Secondary digging is done in the spring with the simultaneous addition of organic matter and mineral fertilizers.
To improve the composition of the soil, fertilizers are applied depending on the structure of the soil:
- Loamy (clay) earth. Add manure, sand, sawdust and peat in a ratio of 1: 1: 0.5: 2.
- Peat land. Scattered over the beds in equal amounts of humus, sod soil and sand.
- Sandy land. They bring in one and a half buckets of clay soil, half a bucket of sawdust, one bucket of humus and peat each.
Fresh manure is not used to fertilize the soil so as not to burn the seedlings.
In addition, wood ash is scattered on the beds before digging. From mineral fertilizers add potassium sulfate and superphosphate (tablespoon per square meter), as well as urea (1 tsp).