When and how to sow eggplants for seedlings: the harvest will surprise you

Eggplant is one of the most popular vegetables to grow in your own garden. They can be eaten from the garden and canned for the winter. But it is important to sow the crop correctly to get a really good harvest.

Eggplant is grown through seedlings. OBOZ.UA found out when and how to sow the seeds of the plant to achieve the best result.

When to sow eggplants for seedlings

Eggplant seedlings begin to grow in February. March is also a good month for this. Early varieties can also be sown in the first half of April. If you do this later or grow the vegetable immediately in the open field, it will bloom in the second half of summer and will not have time to ripen.

As for the timing, eggplant seeds take a week to several weeks to germinate. The sprouts need up to two months to get strong enough to be transferred to open beds.

How to grow eggplant seedlings

Grow young plants in loose and permeable soil. You can buy a ready-made substrate for seedlings, or you can mix river sand, lowland peat, and compost/humus in a 1:4:3 ratio. Before planting, the homemade soil should be spilled with boiling water or calcined for disinfection.

Since most summer residents prefer to grow eggplants without picking, as the plant does not tolerate this procedure, you can take not very large dishes for seedlings. Peat pills or plastic cups are suitable.

It is better to sow hybrid varieties of eggplant - they are more resistant to adverse weather conditions and diseases. Make sure the seeds are of high quality. Buy seeds from trusted suppliers.

Before planting, warm the seeds - put them in a jar of warm water (40-50 °C) for 3-5 minutes. After that, they are immersed in a 10% hydrogen peroxide solution or a solution of potassium permanganate for 20 minutes to disinfect them.

It will also be useful to harden the seeds. To do this, they are placed between two layers of damp cloth and kept for a week at room temperature. Every day for 5 hours such seeds should be placed in the refrigerator. This procedure is not mandatory, but it will be useful.

Three seeds should be placed in each pot. When they germinate, pinch the top of the sprout, and then leave the strongest and most developed of the three. Eggplant seedlings are watered once a week.

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