Well?The sun is getting brighter, the summer cottage season is getting closer, and your hands are itching to start it right now? It is clear, what gardener (amateur or professional) will passively wait for the season to start? No, we will not just wait for it, we will prepare for it. Or rather, prepare what we will enter this season with. And not just prepare, but use a gardening know-how for this - peat tablets for seedlings. This new device has appeared in our country quite recently, and many gardeners do not even know about it yet. But advanced and those who have tried peat tablets in practice leave simply delighted reviews and persistent recommendations for use. What is so magical about this know-how? Why are peat tablets for seedlings so convenient, and how to use them correctly? Let's turn to the experience of those who have already dealt with them, and learn more about it.
What is peat pills?
Peat tablets are one of the new developmentsfor amateur and professional gardening and vegetable gardening. They are intended for germination of seeds, growing seedlings, rooting leaves and cuttings. Peat tablets look like a large effervescent aspirin tablet and consist of pressed high-moor peat with the addition of microelements and growth stimulants. On the outside, such a tablet is dressed in a thin mesh shell. The initial size of a peat tablet is approximately three centimeters in height and eight centimeters in diameter. On one side of the peat tablet there is a small depression for the seed (this is its upper part). Filled with warm water, the peat tablet swells and rises in height, while maintaining its diameter (the mesh does not allow it to creep to the sides). Turning into a peat cylinder-cup filled with a nutrient mixture, the peat tablet becomes the first container at the stage of growing a plant.
What are the advantages of peat pills?
As soon as the first brave summer residents and gardenerstested peat tablets in action, it immediately became clear that they eliminate unnecessary fuss with soil for seedlings (and in apartment conditions this is especially annoying) and save space. This was the first of the advantages of peat tablets discovered by naturalists. Then such advantages became more and more, and the convenience of their use became more and more obvious:
- peat tablets are almost indispensable when growing plants with tender roots, as peat is friable and does not damage the root system;
- peat tablets are very convenient for germination of small seeds or expensive seeds, since the percentage of their germination in peat pellets is very high;
- when growing sprouts in peat tablets, it is very simple and convenient to regulate moisture, since excess moisture does not absorb the tablets;
- when peat tablets are used, there is no need for additional fertilizing and growth stimulants in the early stages of growing seedlings;
- peat has a porous structure and allows the roots to "breathe", which makes them stronger, and the plants are more enduring;
- The tablets are placed in a special mesh that keeps its shape and allows to immerse plants in the soil without harm to the roots;
In short, growing flower seedlings in peattablets, or germination of vegetable seeds or selection and hybrid crops has clear advantages over the traditional method of growing. But the rules for growing seedlings in peat tablets are not much different from the usual and familiar ones. However, there are some peculiarities here too.
How to use peat pills?
First, prepare the tablets for use:
- we select the pallet and place on it the necessary quantity of tablets with a depression upwards;
- pour warm water in the tablet (two, two and a half tablespoons);
- We wait, when the tablet swells, and will occur approximately in fifteen minutes;
- We drain excess water out of the tray.
And then we proceed to sowing and germinating the seeds:
- in each tablet we put one (or two) of the seed of the seedlings that we want to grow;
- we fill the seeds with a small layer of humus (those that germinate in the light, leave open);
- cover the pallet with tablets with transparent material (glass or plastic) to create a greenhouse effect;
- in the process of germination, we periodically "ventilate" our mini-boy.
After the seedlings appear, take care of them.should be according to the requirements of a specific crop. And when the time for picking comes, you just need to transplant the seedlings into the soil without removing the plant from the tablet. Later, the mesh shell will simply dissolve in the soil, and the tablet itself will become part of the fertilizer. What should you remember when using peat tablets? This is a "disposable" material, so add the cost of the tablet to the cost of the seeds to estimate the true costs. Give preference only to well-proven brands of peat tablets, for example, "Jiffy" tablets. But even if planting seedlings in peat tablets is a completely new thing for you, try using them in parallel with the traditional method of growing seedlings at first. And then you will definitely be able to appreciate all the advantages and disadvantages of this gardening know-how. We recommend reading:
