How to speed up the ripening of peppers in a greenhouse: the best methods and life hacks of experienced summer residents

Pepper is a heat-loving plant, so it grows in open ground only in the southern regions. In regions with cold climates, it is cultivated in greenhouses or greenhouses. But often, even in greenhouses, gardeners are forced to take measures to speed up the ripening of fruits.

Types of pepper ripeness

Pepper ripeness can be of two types: technical and biological. Harvesting is possible both in technical and biological maturity.

Technical ripeness

Stage of technical ripeness - the state of fruits when they have reached normal size, but are not ripe. The color is dark green, white or yellowish. These peppers are harvested for storage, sale or transportation. Fruits collected at technical ripeness can be stored for up to two months and gradually ripen.

Biological ripeness

Biological ripeness is an analogue of reproductive maturitywhen the seeds complete their development cycle. The fruits acquire bright colors - red, yellow, orange, black, etc., depending on the variety. Peppers cannot be stored in this state for long.

Hot peppers are harvested only when full biological ripeness.

Fruits are harvested every 4-5 daysso that the yield does not decrease.

Reference! Pepper is a perennial plant. If it is transplanted into a flower pot at the end of the season, it will bear fruit until December. Then it will go into a dormant state, and from February it will begin to actively grow again.

Ways to help speed up the ripening of peppers

To get a good harvest of ripened fruits, care must be taken to ensure that all conditions are met at the earliest stages of plant development.

Agrotechnical techniques

Agricultural rules will help get a good harvest of juicy fruits:

1. Seeds. Pepper seeds are difficult to swell and germinate after two weeks. To speed up the process, you can soak the seeds in growth accelerators, such as Narcissus, Zircon, Epin Extra, Energen. Plants do not tolerate transplantation well at an early age, so it is recommended to plant the seeds immediately deeper, 4-5 cm.
2. Temperature. Seedlings can only be planted in warm soil. The air temperature should not fall below 14°C. Make sure there are no large fluctuations between day and night temperatures. To do this, it is better to plant the crop in low greenhouses or greenhouses, where the temperature is more stable and there are no sharp fluctuations.
3. Lighting. Light is important for peppers; choose a sunny place. It is not recommended to thicken the plantings; it is necessary to maintain a distance between plants of at least 30 cm so that each bush is evenly illuminated.
4. The soil. The culture loves fertile, light soil. Apply organic fertilizer before planting. Seedlings also need regular feeding, starting from the appearance of the first leaf. The soil must be regularly loosened shallowly for better aeration.
5. Watering. Pepper is watered only with warm water! In normal weather, plants in the greenhouse are watered 1-2 times a week at the rate of 1-2 liters of water per bush. In hot weather, when humidity decreases, peppers in the greenhouse are watered twice a day: once at the root (1 l) and a second time by sprinkling with cool water (500 ml per bush).
6. Crown formation. The first bud is immediately removed to allow side shoots to appear.For the plant to develop, 2-3 shoots are enough. Be sure to remove barren flowers during the period of mass flowering, and at the end of summer - all flowers. With the onset of cold weather, all the small peppers are collected; they still will not ripen. The lower shoots along with the foliage are removed, they waste food, and there will be no fruit on them.

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Traditional methods

Gardeners are trying speed up fruit ripening with little tricks:

1. In heated greenhouses, the crop ripens a month earlier, and the fruiting period is extended.
2. Watering with hot water, 40-60°C during the cold period.
3. Ventilation of the greenhouse. To prevent condensation from forming due to the difference in night and day temperatures, it is necessary to close the greenhouse at night and keep it open during the day.
4. Foliar feeding of the above-ground part of the plant. Periodically, summer residents spray the leaves with an infusion of ash (two glasses per 10 liters of water).
5. Harvesting. To save nutrients, fruits at the stage of technical ripeness are removed. They are placed in a dark place: in 2-3 days you will have ripe colorful peppers.

Important! Water the bushes in the evening, three hours before sunset.

Life hacks from experienced summer residents

Here are a few trickswhich experienced gardeners use to speed up the ripening of peppers:

1. Planting seedlings in insulated soil. Dry hay, leaves, and unrotted compost are used as biofuel.
2. Various additives in the hole when planting. Banana peels, ash, crushed eggshells, hay and even bird feathers are added to the hole. Do not forget about mineral fertilizers - dolomite flour or potassium without chlorine.
3. Infusion of weeds for fertilizer.Nettle infusion gives a good effect. Half a 10-liter bucket of herbs is filled with water and left for a week. Then dilute a glass of infusion in 10 liters of water.
4. Fertilizer with “mash”, which is prepared from 3 liters of water, a glass of sugar, 100 g of yeast, 2-3 raw grated potatoes. Then this infusion is diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10.
5. Bird droppings are used as fertilizer.
6. You can reduce the frequency of watering using hydrogel. To do this, when planting seedlings in a hole, in addition to the additives listed above, pour in 1 liter of hot water and half a glass of “jelly” made from hydrogel, and plant the plant directly on it.

Reference. Hydrogel is a substance that absorbs moisture in order to further feed the plant with it.

How to speed up the ripening of sweet and hot peppers

Agricultural technology for bitter and sweet peppers is the same. For the rapid ripening of peppers, bush formation is crucial. It is necessary to pinch the top of the plant and also remove the side shoots. Hot peppers are pinched when they reach a height of 25 cm.

You can also use this technique: on a tall stem, use a knife or blade to make a through longitudinal cut, departing 15 cm from the soil. The length of the cut is about 10 cm. Insert a sliver of 4-5 mm thick into this cut. Then the plant will send all the nutrients to the fruits.

Read also:

How often to water peppers in a greenhouse

Why does pepper rot on the bush?

In a greenhouse/in open ground

We talked above about how to speed up the ripening of peppers in a greenhouse. Let us dwell on the features of open ground. After transplantation, the plants are covered with non-woven material. And it is better to leave them under it for the entire growing season. During the day (weather permitting), the covering material is removed.

In open ground, peppers are watered rarely, but abundantly. After watering, the soil is loosened and mulched with compost 5 cm high. This retains moisture and increases soil fertility.

Pruning the bush is also important, as when growing in a greenhouse. Supports for fruiting branches may be required.

In open ground, fertilizing plays an equally important role. to accelerate ripening. We use the same infusions, ash, and mineral fertilizers.

Attention! Foliar fertilizing begins to take effect after a few hours, so in the morning the plants are sprayed with clean water to avoid burns.

Crop rotation is also important to increase productivity.. And in the greenhouse after harvesting, it is advisable to remove 15 cm of soil and replace it with a mixture of peat and sand in a 1:1 ratio.

Conclusion

To speed up the ripening of peppers, it is enough to competently redistribute the plant’s forces in the right directions. To do this, we use a set of agrotechnical techniques and provide plants with comfortable conditions for development.