Pepper "California miracle": features and cultivation

Sweet pepper, often also called Bulgarian, has long and firmly settled on our table.Due to the high content of vitamins and trace elements, it is among the most valuable vegetables. Despite the popular national nickname, the plant appeared here not from Bulgaria. It traveled a long way from another continent - South America. And thanks to the Bulgarian agronomists, it became possible to grow it not only in the south, but also in temperate latitudes.

Few know about all the amazing properties of this product. As a whole storehouse of trace elements, pepper is almost a panacea for the treatment and prevention of many diseases. Its cellular antioxidants reduce the risk of malignant tumors and have a great effect on the health of the hair and blood vessels.

Among the wide variety of varieties on the market, it is easy to get lost and experienced gardener. Everyone wants to make the right choice and get the first harvest of large, fleshy fruits that will delight in a fresh summer salad or lecho.

This will be helped by the most popular today, the California Miracle variety. He was named after the place of his native land selection, where he was bred in the late 1920s. Now it is successfully cultivated in various parts of the world.

The variety can be recommended with confidence for cultivation both to professionals and novice gardeners. It is enough to say that it has absorbed all the competitive advantages of hybrid varieties, and actually has no disadvantages. The variety is appreciated not only for its agrotechnical advantages, but also for the high sugar content in fruits. In the "California Miracle" it is twice as high as in other traditional forms. Ascorbic acid content, it also holds a record among vegetables and can only argue with black currants.

The variety of medium maturity feels confident on our sites. The plant grows about 60-70 centimeters high. It is distinguished by a powerful stem and shoots, as well as simply huge fruits that come in yellow and orange flowers. Classic type traditionally considered the red color of the walls of the fruit.

Fruits have four faces and are like an elongated rectangle. Pepper skin is shiny and fragrant. Walls differ in thickness, reaching up to 8 millimeters. The flesh is dense, crunchy and juicy, in the stage of full ripening sweet. Shrubs plants are very prolific. From them you can collect from seven to fifteen (under good growing conditions) large fruits.

The proven red fruits of the Californian guest do not leave alone demanding breeders. By analogy with the multi-colored varieties of other varieties, new varieties of color have also appeared in this family. Derived fruit with skin orange, yellow, golden and even almost black shades. It is worth noting that their differences are rather external. All descendants of the Californian classics have significant characteristics of the parent variety: high yield, disease resistance, high taste. The peppers of the yellow variety are somewhat different in thickness: they can grow up to 12 millimeters.

There is also a medium variety variety. Fruits ripen in four months from the moment of emergence of sprouts. The peppers themselves are slightly smaller in size than the traditional red ones. In the phase of full maturation, they have a bright yellow color. A valuable quality of the species is its high resistance to the main diseases of the culture.

High yield and excellent taste of the fruit are two main competitive advantages for the sake of which the crop was bred. A whole multivitamin complex gathered this South American guest: vitamins of groups A, B and C, iodine, calcium and potassium, sulfur with phosphorus.

With regular use of fruits, blood pressure decreases, blood circulation processes in the brain improve, and visual acuity increases. There is an element in this wonderful vegetable that is so necessary in our poor sunny days climate that stimulates the production of the hormone of happiness. Of course, it should be remembered that the measure is good in everything. People with problem kidneys and the gastrointestinal tract should not eat too much sweet pepper, especially in its raw form.

In addition, the “California miracle” still has a number of valuable properties due to which it has not lost its popularity over the years:

• resistance to bad environmental factors and changeable climate, thanks to which the pepper can be grown even in areas of high risk farming;
• excellent preservation of the presentation, which allows you to grow fruits for sale;
• good resistance to a number of pests;
• large size and thick fleshy walls of the fruit;
• high yield - with proper care, the collection can reach ten kilograms per square meter of bed.

The lack of varieties is the lack of resistance to certain diseases, as well as features of growing the culture.

According to gardeners, pepper, even in adverse environmental conditions, grows strong, with thick-walled fruits. The plant develops strong and unpretentious enough, and the fruits are sweet and juicy.

Before planting seeds in the ground it is necessary to germinate and process them. Usually pepper seeds have good germination. Processing is necessary in order to further avoid the multiple diseases of seedlings. Sprouting helps to speed up the growth of seedlings.

Planting material for 15 minutes immersed in a solution of salted water (half a teaspoon per glass). When a part of the seeds emerges, they are thrown away, since they are not viable and will not give offspring. Remaining at the bottom of the collect, and in the future they will go to the landing. They are washed with warm water and spread on paper to dry.

The next stage is processing in potassium permanganate, which will help make the plant resistant to disease. In a pink solution, the seeds are kept for 15-20 minutes. Then removed and dried again.

This is followed by the familiar procedure of germinating seeds in a tissue. For this, the bottom of a saucer or other shallow container is filled with warm water. In a gauze or cotton flap put the seeds and immersed in water. The plate is cleaned in a warm place.

Sprouts usually appear every other day, and on the third day the seed can be planted in the ground.

Some gardeners consider the tempering procedure to be effective. It helps prepare seeds for future adverse conditions during growth. The last stage of seed germination in this case will look as follows. After a day of swelling of the seed in warm water, it is removed and placed in the refrigerator for a day. After that, they are already landing in the ground.

Sprouted seeds are sown in late February - early March in small pots measuring 6x6 centimeters. For planting it is good to use a mixture of sand, peat and earth from the bed where the pepper will grow in the future (1: 3: 3 ratio). Seeds are placed in the ground to a depth of 1 centimeter, sprinkled on top of the earth, not compacting it, and well watered. Soil is not poured into the pot to the brim, and leave about 2-3 centimeters depth of the pot free. After this, the containers are covered with foil and put in a warm place. As the soil dries it is watered. In 5-7 days sprouts will start to break from the ground, then the shelter will need to be removed.

Further care of the seedlings is simple. They should be placed in a warm, well-lit place with an average daytime temperature of 22-25 degrees. At night, it should not fall below 15-18 degrees.Periodically, as it dries, the plant is watered with warm water and loosened the soil.

When the pepper will have two sheets, you can begin to pick. The land for this is taken the same as for the seedlings. Capacities will need a larger size -10x10 centimeters. Too large pots of seedlings are not required, as it grows very slowly until the flowering period. Good for this purpose to take peat pots. They are convenient in that when transplanting to a permanent place, the root system of the plant will remain intact. So, the seedlings will not get sick and quickly enter into a period of active vegetative growth.

The cups are filled with an earthen mixture of about 2/3 of the volume, so that in the future it was possible to pour nutrient peat. In each of them they make an indentation sufficient to ensure that the seedlings fit freely with the root system. Carefully remove the pepper with a lump of earth and plant it in a new place, sprinkling it with earth to the seedbed leaves. The land is pressed and watered. For a better development of the plant and the growth of green mass in a week, pepper is well fed with a solution of urea. To do this, 8 liters of water take a tablespoon of granules.

The plant is transplanted to the ground after two months. Pre-pepper gradually quenched, starting 2 weeks before transplanting to take it to the open air. First, the seedlings are on the street for two hours, then four. Gradually, this time increases to a whole day.

For the planting of pepper, it is necessary to choose a sunny plot with a light, non-acidified soil. Cucumbers, zucchini, peas, beans, onions and carrots will be his good predecessors. It is worth remembering about crop rotation and not planting seedlings after related crops. These are peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes.

Land plot prepared from the fall, carefully removing the remnants of the previous culture. A bed is dug up on shovels bayonet, making fertilizer when digging (about 7 kg of humus or 5 kg of rotted manure per square meter of soil). If the soil is not sufficiently neutral, lime is also added to it at the rate of 200-400 grams per square meter, depending on the degree of acidification of the soil.

Pepper transplantation is started with the end of frost, when the air temperature does not fall below 16 degrees and the soil is sufficiently heated. Place the seedlings on the bed according to the scheme, leaving 30 centimeters between the plants and 50 centimeters between the rows. The pepper well is filled first with 1/3 of the soil, then with a clod of earth (or directly in the peat pot), seedlings are planted and watered. Plant is covered with earth to the cotyledon leaves, slightly compacting the soil around the trunk.

Pepper is a plant that requires simple, but timely care procedures, which consist in sufficient moisture and fertilizing of the soil. The bed must be periodically cleaned of weeds and loosen.

The culture is moisture-loving and needs stable watering at least twice a week. Otherwise, the plant will slow its growth, may lose its ovaries and fruits. Water the plant with warm water (at least 20 degrees) from the watering can to the root hole, trying not to fall on the leaves. After watering at least once a week, the ground should be well plowed and spud pepper.

The application of nutrient mineral fertilizers is also important for the formation of large, high-quality fruits of the "California miracle." Usually perform root dressing in three stages: 2-3 weeks after planting, in the flowering phase, during the period of active growth of the fruit no later than 2 weeks before the harvest. The first dressing is carried out with a dry mixture of ammonium nitrate and superphosphate (in the ratio of 3/6 grams per bush). It is sprinkled on the ground and slightly crying, followed by watering.

At the flowering stage, pepper dressing is produced by various compositions. You can use ready-made complexes of mineral fertilizers. Gardeners prepare and uncomplicated home remedies. For 10 liters of water take 0.5 liters of chicken or 1 liter of cow manure and a glass of ash.

During the period of fruit growth pepper is poured with 10 liters of water with 40 grams of superphosphate. You can make fertilizer from 2 tablespoons of nitroammofoski and 0.5 liters of chicken manure per 10 liters of water.

Foliar dressing is carried out when the ovaries and flowers fall down on the bush. It is sprayed with a solution of boric acid (1 teaspoon per bucket of water). If the fruits began to grow slowly or even stopped in development, you should spray the pepper with superphosphate solution - 1 tablespoon to 8 liters of water.

The formation of a bush in the garden or in the greenhouse is not a mandatory procedure. But if you want to get a strong plant with a good return of the harvest, then the branches will need to pinch, and some flowers to break off. Upon reaching the plant height of 20-25 centimeters begin pruning. On the branching of several shoots usually leave 2 of the strongest, the rest are removed along with the inflorescences. The branches on which there are no fruits are also removed so that the plant does not spend its strength on them.

Pepper disease is easier to prevent with proper agricultural technology than to heal. But if the plant is still sick, it will help heal simple procedures.

Wilting bushes with darkening of the radical neck will indicate the defeat of the black leg. Crop rotation will be the best prevention of the disease, in which the pepper is not planted in the same place earlier than in 3-4 years. Sick plant is destroyed in order to avoid the defeat of the rest.

Compliance with crop rotation will be an effective measure against alternariosis. With the defeat of this disease on the leaves appear round brown spots with further death. Black dented marks appear on the fruit. Infected parts of the bush must be removed and burned. The plant is sprayed with a 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid. You can also take 40 grams of copper oxychloride per bucket of water.

To avoid the appearance of gray rot, you need to comply with the planting scheme, timely remove excess and infected parts of the plant, avoiding thickening of the planting. The appearance of the disease will indicate dark gray spots on the fruit or leaves. The affected parts are removed, and a mixture of ash, lime (or chalk) and fungicide is applied to the site of the cuts.

White rot leads to wilting of the plant. The bush is covered with white spots, which gradually turn yellow. Proper preparation of the beds in the fall with careful destruction of organic residues will help prevent disease. Infected peppers are sprayed with copper oxychloride solution.

So that your peppers do not start eating pests, it is worth remembering a few simple rules:

• observe crop rotation;
• carefully remove the remnants of the predecessor culture when digging the bed in autumn;
• weed weeds.

To distinguish pests from each other is easy. On leaves affected by aphids, the leaves curl, wither, the fruits become irregular, and a gray patina appears on the plant. The spider mite leaves a gray-black spider web on the back of the leaves. Yellowish dots appear on top. Leaves, flowers and fruits fall.

Slugs are another frequent pest that leaves large holes on the leaves and fruits of pepper. The dry treatment of the soil and the bush with a mixture of lime and tobacco dust (or ash) in a 1: 1 ratio helps fight them.

The culture will please even in bad weather conditions, and will forgive the mistakes of agricultural engineering. With maximum observance of all the simple subtleties of pepper care, you will receive a selective harvest, which in frozen or canned form will delight until spring.

On the fecundity of the California Miracle pepper variety, see the following video.