Growing eggplants is not an easy task, starting with the stage of care and growing seedlings.
With these post-emergence tips, you'll be able to grow a good harvest of blue vegetables.
It is necessary to remove the film in time after the shoots have emerged. This should be done when most of the ladder is visible above the soil layer. You should not wait until all the seeds have sprouted. By waiting, you will make other seedlings die.
Lower the temperature. The plant is heat-loving. In the first 3-5 days - 18-20 degrees, and then you can lower the temperature by 5 degrees. Under such conditions, the seedlings will not stretch, but will grow well in the future.
Temperature
At a temperature of +22...+25, the seedlings will sprout in two weeks; if the temperature is higher, the seedlings will sprout earlier.
The difference between day and night temperatures should be no more than 5 – 7 degrees.
Additional lighting. Daylight hours should be 14 hours. During the first period of seedling growth.
If the daylight hours are longer, then few flowers will form, and the harvest depends on this. At the beginning of seedling growth, choose the red spectrum when you will build up green mass, and blue - when the stem will grow and to improve the absorption of phosphorus and other elements.
Additional lighting
- The first third of growth from 14 to 16 hours;
- the second from 13:00 to 14:00;
- the last one - from 12 to 14 hours;
- In the first days - around the clock.
Additional lighting plays an important role in stretching the seedlings. Lamps should not be placed too close, because eggplants have very delicate leaves. If the sun is very bright on the windowsills, they need to be shaded.
Picking. It is better to grow eggplants in individual cups, so that later you can easily transplant it to a new place of growth - to a garden bed. There is no need to pinch the tip. The roots should not rest against the walls of the cups, it stops growing and begins to age.
The stem begins to lignify, the plant sheds its leaves and produces few fruits. Before picking, eggplants do not need to be fed, they already have enough useful elements.
Eggplant feeding starts with potassium and phosphorus, and then nitrogen is required. It is because of this feeding that the eggplant will grow leaves, grow roots and lay flowers.
