Secrets of growing zucchini seedlings - tips, features, recommendations

Zucchini - heat-loving, herbaceous, annual vegetable culture with oblong, juicy and fleshy fruits. Appearance of the plant itself, depending on the variety, can vary and have a cluster, long-spaned or semi-articulate shape. In addition, there are differences in the color of the leaves, fruits and, of course, to taste.

Cultivated by sowing seeds or transplanting grown sprouts in open ground and greenhouses. The most promising way is growing zucchini through seedlings. In this case, the commodity output can be obtained almost a month earlier, in comparison with the non-irrecoverable method.

When to sow zucchini on seedlings?

For the average strip, the seeding time for growing zucchini seedlings fluctuates:

• from April 20 to May 12-16 - receipt of early products;
• from 14 to 30 July - late harvests, fruits are suitable for long-term storage and conservation.

For cultivation of courgettes in greenhouses and under film shelters, seedlings are planted 15 days earlier than for growing plants in the garden.

Advice! Do not know when to sow zucchini for seedlings? - Ask the weather forecast for the next month, in particular, you need to know the expected air temperature. The optimal daytime temperature for transplanting seedlings into the greenhouse or open soil is +23 ° C, and the night +19 ° C, respectively, the period in which weather forecasters predict a stable warm weather, with the necessary temperature and the absence of a threat of frost, can be considered the best time for planting grown plants on garden. From this date it is necessary to subtract 30 days (the time from sowing the seeds to obtaining shoots with several true leaves), the result is the best period for sowing zucchini for seedlings for your region.

Features of growing zucchini seedlings

1. When growing zucchini seedlings on the windowsill:
   • southern side - additional lighting is not required;
   • northern side - installation of artificial lighting is mandatory;
   • west and east - it is desirable that the total duration of daylight hours was not less than 11 hours.

Advice! Carefully follow the air masses coming from the street through the windows and the transom - cold air falling directly on plants is able to destroy the tender and, so far, weak shoots.

1. Agrotechnicians recommend the cultivation of zucchini seedlings only in separate cups, even better if it is disposable peat pots. This point, perhaps, is a feature of growing zucchini seedlings. It is due to the fact that the plant "does not like" the transplant, and individual containers make it possible to move the shoot into the soil without injuring the root system.
2. Optimal diameter of the capacity for seedlings is 80-100 mm, height 10 cm.
3. Food and choice of fertilizers:
   • the first fertilizing is carried out 7 days after the appearance of sprouts, for it a solution is prepared - add a liter of water to, st. spoons of superphosphate and urea. The solution can be replaced with the ready-made top dressing "Bud
   • the second top dressing is performed 10 to 11 days after the first - per liter of water, Art. spoons of ashes and nitrofoski.

Important! Fertilizer is applied directly to each plant, maximum, st. l. solution per container.

1. Watering. For irrigation, only warm water is suitable, its average temperature should vary between 21-25 ° C. On one pot, 100 ml of water is enough, every 5 days. In very hot weather, it is necessary to water a little more often, every 3 days.
2. Taverns need a loose, fertile soil, rich in nutrients and microelements. The simplest and most widespread among the gardeners the composition of the independently prepared soil substrate includes sawdust, humus, peat and ordinary soil in proportion, x1x, × 1.
3. Transplantation of young plants in the greenhouse or open ground is made 20-29 days after sowing the seeds. The period of landing in the ground is individual, it depends on the temperature regime at which the shoot and the selected variety developed. The determining factor is the presence before the landing of at least 3 of these leaflets.

How to plant zucchini seedlings in the open ground?

• 7-8 days before disembarkation, the seedlings begin to be accurately tempered, for this purpose the pots are taken out into the street, they are kept there during the light day, and for the night they are brought into the room.
• The fundamental point in deciding how to plant zucchini seedlings in the open ground is the correct scheme location of plants - thickening is unacceptable, bushes should not interfere with each other, otherwise good yields will only be possible dream.

Planting in the open ground:

1. the distance between long-spaned and semi-bushy cultures is 70 × 90 cm, bush cultivars are 70 × 70 cm;
2. depth - in the holes, to the cotyledonous leaves.

• On the day of planting, prepare the wells and spill them with warm water (35 ° C).
• Root the plant, gently compact the earth around it, pour water 1 liter per 1 sprout. Watering only the radical, it is necessary to make sure that the water does not fall on the leaves in any case.
• The first time, until about June 19, at night, the ridges with seedlings should be covered with a non-woven protective material or film. This is done in order to prevent hypothermia and death of shoots due to lack of heat or nocturnal frosts. In the morning, after warming up the air, the protective materials are removed.

How to grow zucchini seedlings in the north?

Despite the fact that the northern summer is rather short, and the risk of an unexpected cooling is great, the agrarians still successfully grow such a thermophilic and light-loving crop as zucchini. And they grow it mainly in a seedling way. The question "How to grow zucchini seedlings in the north?" - it's not worth it, this technology is everywhere, and in the middle band, and in The northern areas are the same, the difference in the time of landing, they are significantly shifted in time due to the features climate.

Advice! For northern regions, select zonated zucchini seeds, such as "Roller "Whitefish "Pharaoh etc., all of them have a short vegetation period, about 50 days before harvest, and high resistance to a slight drop in temperature air. Cover seedlings with protective materials for the night and at a cold snap.

Greenhouse - arc and covering material

• If possible, grow zucchini in a greenhouse, in the north it is especially important because of the risk of sudden colds, and even cover up, and somehow warm the hotbed much easier than a garden bed.
• Do not listen to volunteers who gladly give out advice on how to plant zucchini on seedlings better. Better - this is when the street is optimal for the growth of zucchini temperature, prepared by the soil substrate, containers for seedlings, fertilizers and, of course, the best seeds for your climatic zone are selected.

Seed zucchini seedling seedling - video