How to feed tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings: don't focus only on nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
Those gardeners who zealously claim that they do not feed their seedlings with anything are most likely being downright disingenuous.
An expert of the online publication BelNovosti, agronomist, landscape designer Anastasia Kovrizhnykh believes that it is impossible to obtain strong seedlings that will subsequently yield an excellent harvest without fertilizers.
This is due to the fact that at a certain period of their life, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, in addition to their demands for warmth and light, begin to show “claims” for mineral nutrition.
Of course, you shouldn’t grow seedlings in empty soil – the soil can consist, for example, of garden soil, manure humus, river sand and a small amount of wood ash, but in the spring you should also add superphosphate and potassium sulfate to it.
This will help to satisfy the plants' demands for phosphorus nutrition at the time of germination and emergence - even if you apply enhanced fertilizers, but later, it will be impossible to correct the situation.
Because the seedlings are growing and the volume of soil remains small, the supply of nutrients should be replenished.
Apply fertilizer on average once every ten days and only at the root.
The easiest way to do this is to buy ready-made preparations that contain macroelements such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
In addition, make sure that mesoelements (calcium, magnesium, iron, sulfur) and microelements (boron, zinc, molybdenum, copper, manganese, etc.) are present.
During the entire growing season, you can also “treat” the seedlings a couple of times with liquid humates and the same amount of diluted chicken manure.
Earlier we talked about when to plant cucumbers .
