A variety that may become your favorite - Ox's Ear pepper and the secrets of its cultivation

Ox's ear pepper is popular due to its high yield and large fruits. The taste of the vegetables is sweet and rich, and the flesh is thick and juicy. The variety is often found in markets and supermarkets: due to its high productivity, it is grown not only for personal use, but also for sale.

At the same time, Ox's ear is a rather demanding crop to care for. It does not tolerate frost and too high temperatures. However, knowing the basic rules of agricultural technology, growing peppers is easy to cope with.

Description of the variety

Ox's ear is a pepper bred by domestic breeders. Although it appeared on the markets relatively recently, it has already won the recognition of gardeners.

Various companies produce seeds of the crop: “Siberian Garden”, “Aelita”, “Altai Seeds”.

Ox's ear is a variety, not a hybrid, so the grains from its fruit are also suitable for planting. They are collected from the largest and most beautiful peppers, fully ripe on the bush.

Peculiarities

The main feature of the Ox Ear is its fruit. They are large and have an unusual shape that really resembles the ear of an artiodactyl.

The flesh of the vegetables is thick, which makes them versatile in cooking. The fruits are suitable for fresh consumption, pickling, cooking hot dishes, and lecho.

Advice! Delicious lecho is obtained from thick-walled fruits, so Ox Ear is perfect.

The fruits are bright red with a sweet taste and a pronounced peppery aroma. The taste does not change even in unripe vegetables.Many gardeners also collect red-green peppers from the bush.

Plants have high immunity. Variety rare sick — it does not have to be treated with chemicals for preventive purposes.

Negative Features of Ox Ear - susceptibility to high and low temperatures and not always complete seed germination.

Main characteristics

Ox's ear is valued for the taste of its fruit and high yield. It is often grown for sale.

The main parameters of the variety are presented in the table:

Preparation for cultivation

Peppers are grown in seedlings.Sowing begins in early March.

Before this, the seeds are prepared for better germination and increased plant resistance to adverse environmental factors:

1. Planting material is sorted out. First, darkened and damaged specimens are removed from the total mass. The remaining grains are soaked in warm water, and any that float are removed.
2. The seeds are soaked for half an hour in a light pink solution of potassium permanganate. Treating prevents plant infection.
3. The material is wrapped in moistened with warm water (or growth stimulator solution) pieces of gauze. They are placed in a deep container, which is placed in a warm place for 2-3 days for the seeds to swell. Periodically add liquid to the container.

For seedlings use light but nutritious soil. You can buy it in a store or prepare it yourself by mixing peat and garden soil in equal proportions. For a bucket of this composition take 2 kg of sand and 1 tbsp. ash.

The soil is watered with a dark pink solution of potassium permanganate and hot copper sulfate, poured into a container for sowing and left in a warm place so that the earth warms up.

Pepper is one of the crops that does not tolerate picking well. Therefore, gardeners immediately use individual containers for sowing. The volume of the pots should be 150–200 ml. It is better to choose a peat container: you will not have to remove plants from it even when planting it in a permanent place.

When planting a large number of peppers, you can also use a common box (with drainage holes in the bottom).

The containers are disinfected: poured with boiling water or soaked for half an hour in a solution of potassium permanganate.

Growing seedlings

When the soil in the boxes warms up, begin sowing. This is done 80 days before the pepper is supposed to be planted in a permanent place.

They grow seedlings both in a greenhouse and at home. In the first case, the plants are stronger and more viable. In a special room it is easy to provide suitable temperature and lighting. It is convenient to plant seeds immediately in a heated greenhouse because the plants are sown in a common bed and are not planted until 80 days have passed. During this time, the bushes are thinned several times.

When growing on a windowsill, you should be more attentive to the lighting of the seedlings and avoid drafts.

Planting pepper

When sowing in a common box, make 2.5 cm depressions in the soil. The distance between the rows is 3-4 cm. The seeds are placed in holes with an interval of 3 cm. The top is sprinkled with soil and watered with warm water with the addition of a growth stimulator. The boxes are covered with film and placed in a warm, dark place until the first shoots appear.

In individual pots, 2 seeds are planted in each container to a depth of 3 cm. The container is covered with film and kept warm until the seeds germinate. After 2 true leaves appear, the weaker stem is pinched.

Important! If seedlings are grown in individual pots, then a layer of disinfected drainage (coarse sand, broken dishes, small crushed stone, crushed expanded clay or brick) is poured onto the bottom of each pot.

Further care

Pepper is a fastidious crop, but knowing a few secrets of agricultural technology will make it easier to grow it:

1. After the first shoots, the film is removed. The seedlings are moved to the windowsill. It is important to protect plants from drafts.
2. To ensure that the peppers receive light evenly, the pots are constantly turned towards the window.. If signs of a lack of lighting appear (plants become lethargic, begin to stretch out and turn yellow), provide additional lighting with fluorescent lamps.
3. When real leaves appear, they are picked (if the seeds were planted in a common box). To do this, carefully, holding the pepper by the leaves and helping with a fork, remove it from the container and transplant it into pots filled with drainage and soil. The root collar is not buried. The soil is moistened abundantly immediately after picking. The next watering should be done no earlier than 10 days later.
4. Water the peppers as the top layer of soil dries. Warm water is poured under the root.
5. 10 days before planting the crop in the ground, it is hardened: Take it out onto the street or balcony every day during the warm part of the day. Start with 1 hour, gradually increasing the duration to 8–10 hours.

Cow's ear is sensitive to feeding. The soil in which seedlings are grown must be fertilized. Do this 3 times:

1. The first time fertilizing is applied after the appearance of 2 true leaves. Mineral fertilizers are suitable for this: add 10 g of ammonium nitrate, 15 g of superphosphate and 5 g of potassium salt to 5 liters of water.
2. 2 weeks after the previous feeding, fertilizers are applied again. For 5 liters of water take 20 g of ammonium nitrate, 30 g of superphosphate and 10 g of potassium salt.
3. The seedlings are fed for the last time 5 days before transplanting to a permanent place.. Add 1 tbsp to 5 liters of water. ash and 25 g of superphosphate.

Picking to a permanent place

For Ox Ear, choose well-lit and windless areas of the garden. Liquid should not stagnate in them.

The best vegetable predecessors are melons, legumes, cereals and cabbage. Do not plant the crop after nightshade. Different varieties of peppers cross-pollinate easily. Therefore, they are either planted at different ends of the garden, or tall plants are placed between the beds: for example, corn.

The beds are prepared in the fall - they are dug up and cleared of weeds.The soil is mixed with humus, ash and superphosphate. A week before planting, the soil is leveled with a rake, cleared of weeds, and watered with copper sulfate.

The planting pattern for the variety is 50X40. So 4-5 plants fit per 1 m2. Peppers are planted in holes along with a lump of earth. The root collar of plants is not buried.

Features of growing the variety

The bushes of the Ox's Ear are not tall - it is not necessary to tie them up. If, under the weight of the fruits, the bushes begin to bend toward the ground, you will have to attach them to a support.

The formation of a bush is not required: the abundance of fruits is ensured by the spreading nature of the variety.

The leaves at the bottom of the bush are removed. Get rid of yellowed and withered greenery.

Cow's ear is demanding on soil composition. The vegetable is fed at least 3 times per season. Complex mineral and organic fertilizers are used.

The variety is sensitive to temperature changes. In the greenhouse, the room is ventilated and care is taken to ensure that the temperature is not too high. On hot days, use a fan. When it gets cold outside, peppers are covered with film, otherwise they will simply die due to frost.

Care Tips

Experienced gardeners know the secrets of a rich pepper harvest:

1. The beds are mulched with rotted hay to protect the roots of the crop from freezing, pests and diseases.
2. Water the pepper at least 2 times a week only at the root. Before flowering, the bushes are sprayed with warm water.
3. To attract pollinating insects during flowering, the beds are sprayed with sweet water (1 tbsp. sugar per bucket of water). Add 1 tbsp to the mixture. l. boric acid for rapid formation of ovaries.

We should also talk about fertilizers, for which there are plenty of recipes:

1. The crushed peels of 4 bananas and the shells of 6 eggs are infused in 6 liters of water for 3 days.The mixture is used for the first feeding. For each plant take 1 liter of fertilizer.
2. Add 8 tbsp to 4 liters of hot water. l. ash, leave for a day. Water the peppers when fruit sets.
3. Chopped chamomile, plantain, and nettle are poured into a bucket. The total mass of greens should occupy half the container. The rest of the volume is filled with ice water. This “tea” is steeped for a week. Then dilute with water in a ratio of 1:10. Water once every 7–10 days, 3-4 liters per 1 m2.
4. For every 5 liters of water, take 0.5 kg of chicken manure and leave for 5 days. 1 liter of fertilizer is poured under each bush during the flowering period.

Typical diseases and pests

Ox's ear is resistant to most common pepper diseases. To minimize the risk of plant infection, they are sprayed with a Fitosporin solution once a week.

Pepper is not protected from insects. There are several folk remedies for pest control:

1. To remove aphids, spider mites and other small insects, the bushes are sprayed with a soap-onion solution. To prepare it, add 1 piece of grated laundry soap, 1 onion minced in a meat grinder and 2 small hot peppers to a bucket of water. The remedy is infused for a day. It is also used for prevention.
2. To repel slugs, vegetable leaves are sprinkled with tobacco or ash.
3. To protect the roots from mole crickets, crushed eggshells are poured into the holes.

Advantages and disadvantages of the variety

Advantages of Ox Ear:

• high productivity;
• strong immunity to diseases;
• no garter or pinching required;
• fleshiness and excellent taste of the fruit;
• large sizes of vegetables.

Pepper also has disadvantages:

• sensitivity to temperature changes;
• demands on soil composition;
• poor tolerance to picks.

Reviews

Despite the fact that the variety is demanding of care, it pleases with high yields and excellent taste of the fruit. Gardeners respond mostly positively to the variety.

Victoria, Voronezh: “I have been growing ox ear for several years now. This variety has crowded out all other peppers from my garden. Its fruits are huge and bright, as in the photo. The walls are thick and fleshy, the taste is sweet. It makes the most delicious lecho. Of course, you will have to tinker with cultivation. To prevent plants from dying, it is important to fertilize regularly. You won’t be able to grow it at the dacha where you go on weekends.”

Igor, Ryazan: “I tried to grow Ox Heart for the first time 3 years ago. I planted it in open ground early, and all the plants died. For a long time I didn’t dare try this variety again, but the desire to have fruits in the garden, like at the market, won out. Last year everything worked out. True, I grew it under film. It is necessary to mulch the soil, preferably with humus. I fed the plants only with silage with the addition of superphosphate.”

Read also:

How to salt whole bell peppers for the winter quickly and tasty.

Amazing decorative pepper “Black Prince”.

How to preserve hot peppers for the winter at home.

Conclusion

Cow's ear requires regular care. The variety does not tolerate heat and cold well and gets sick if there is a lack of fertilizer. By following the basic rules of agricultural technology and inspecting the bushes daily for negative changes, you will get a rich and tasty harvest.