Sweet pepper is a popular crop, but it is thermophilic and has a number of requirements for gardeners when growing. Hybrids are especially picky about growing conditions, but their yields are highest. The productive, but somewhat capricious varieties include the Kakadu variety, which has an interesting form of large fruits. Consider what kind of variety it is, its advantages and disadvantages, agricultural farming technique, how to store.
Grade description
The main characteristics of Kakadu sweet pepper are:
- mid-ripening ripening dates - from the appearance of the first seedlings to the collection of the first fruits, a minimum of 130 days passes, but under good conditions, the fruits may appear a little earlier;
- high spreading bush, well leafy;
- plant height - up to 1.5 m;
- medium-sized foliage, green, wrinkled;
- forms peppers of elongated cylindrical shape, somewhat curved, drooping, ribbed;
- on each bush grows up to 3 kg of crop;
- the fruits have 3-4 seed chambers and a wall thickness of 6-8 mm;
- in a state of technical maturity, the fruits have a dark green color, and when fully ripened, they turn red or yellow (depending on the variety);
- fruits grow to a length of 25-30 cm;
- the mass of peppers is 250-400 g, can reach up to 500 g;
- the taste is sweet, without bitterness;
- the skin is glossy, the pulp is juicy and fragrant;
- the variety is recommended to be grown in sheltered soil (greenhouses, film shelters) or in unprotected soil in the southern regions;
- fruits of universal use: suitable for salads, cooking with heat treatment and preservation (lecho, sauces, pickled);
- the variety is demanding to care, does not tolerate lower temperatures;
- prone to vertebral rot disease with a lack of moisture against a background of high temperatures;
- productivity - 8-10 kg per 1 sq. km. m;
- long fruiting period;
- the fruits are well transported and stored.
Did you know? Sweet red pepper contains 7 times more beta-carotene than green or yellow, and in one large copy is about 1 mg of vitamin A, so this product improves vision. For this purpose, it is enough to consume 40 g of red sweet pepper daily.
Advantages and disadvantages
- Kakadu pepper variety has the following advantages:
- high productivity;
- tasty juicy fruits;
- large size and interesting shape of peppers;
- extended fruiting;
- good transportability;
- ability to be stored for a long time;
- friendly shoots.
- This variety has disadvantages inherent in many hybrids:
- the inability to use the collected seeds;
- high requirements for agricultural farming technology;
- intolerance to low temperatures;
- the need for garter and molding.
Growing seedlings at home
Kakadu pepper in our latitudes is grown only in seedlings. The seedlings themselves can be grown at home.
Optimum timing for sowing
Seeds of medium-term peppers are best planted at the end of February. The most optimal dates can be selected according to the lunar calendar.
Did you know? According to the lunar calendar, pepper is best planted in seedlings when the growing moon is in the constellations of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces. In this case, it is important not just the planting time, but the time the seeds come into contact with water. A pick or transplant of a plant to a permanent place should be carried out when the moon is growing.
The soil
Pepper prefers fertile light soils whose acidity does not go beyond 5–7 pH. You can buy ready-made universal soil for seedlings, or you can make the soil mixture yourself. For example, mix sand, humus, peat and garden soil from your site in equal proportions, or simply mix humus with sod-leaf soil.
In any case, a home-made mixture will need to be disinfected. The simplest thing is to pour it with a weak solution of potassium permanganate.
Capacity
You can use both the existing packaging for seedlings and purchased.
Consider the most commonly used containers for seedlings of peppers:
- Crates. This is a reusable container that you can make yourself. The box is easy to carry, but not always easy to carry. Seedlings should be removed from it carefully so as not to damage the roots.
- Plastic cassettes. Inconvenient in transportation and short-lived. But from them it is easy to take out plants.
- Peat cups. Perfect for diving, but it is important to monitor moisture, as they quickly dry out. They are not cheap.
- Peat pills. Expensive, but convenient for picking, contribute to the good development of roots. Dry quickly and require a pallet.
- Plastic cups. The drainage holes in this cheap container will have to be done by ourselves. They are convenient for transplantation, but they are not very convenient to transport.
Seed preparation
Packed seeds from a good producer, especially if they have a colored shell, can immediately be planted in the ground. Seed purchased by weight must be prepared for sowing.
The following stages of preparation are used:
- Seeding unsuitable seeds. At the same time, they are placed in a saline solution (30 g of salt per 1 liter of water) and shaken. After 10 minutes, good seeds will sink to the bottom, and empty seeds will rise to the surface.
- Disinfection. Seeds are placed in a potassium permanganate solution for 10 minutes, then washed with water.
- Stimulant treatment. Seeds are kept a couple of days before sowing in a stimulator (Epin or Humate) for about 12-24 hours.
- Sparging. Instead of using stimulants, you can put the seeds in a tank with an aquarium compressor for a day.
- Germination. To test for germination and to obtain friendly seedlings, pepper seeds are recommended to germinate. To do this, they are wrapped in moist gauze and put in a warm place.
- Hardening. To do this, the soaked seeds in wet gauze are several times placed in the refrigerator and incubated for 12 hours at a temperature of at least + 2 ° C. This will help make future plants more resistant to cold snap.
Did you know? Sweet pepper is an excellent antidepressant. The presence of vitamins PP and group B in it helps with stress, depression, poor sleep, and also improves memory.
Sowing seeds
The soil is poured into the sowing tank to a height of at least 6 cm, compacted, moistened and grooved with a distance of 5 cm between them. Seeds are placed in grooves at a distance of about 2 cm. If you are not constrained in the area of the seat, then the distance between the grooves is optimal make 6 cm, and the distance between the seeds - 5 cm. This is necessary so that the plant suffers less when transplanted to another container. It is best to immediately plant the seeds in a separate container, seeding the seed in the center of the pot. The depth of planting pepper seeds is 1-1.5 cm.
After planting, the soil should be moistened again, cover the container with a film and put in a warm place (about +25 ° C) until emergence. Usually they appear in a week. Every day, ventilate the tank, check the moisture and the presence of seedlings. When sprouts appear above the soil, the film is removed, and the container itself is transferred to a dimly lit place with a temperature of + 18–20 ° С.
Seedling Care
For growing seedlings, you should choose the most illuminated place (a window facing south, east or west). If this is not possible, then it is necessary to provide additional illumination with a lamp. Seedlings need daylight hours of at least 10 hours, but the most optimal would be 12-hour lighting. The temperature of cultivation should be within + 18–20 ° С.
Moderate watering is carried out in the daytime when the top layer of the earth is dried. It is important not to overdry and not overfill the seedlings. Water for irrigation is taken at room temperature.
Seedlings are fed with liquid fertilizer ("Agricole" or "Solution") 2 times for the entire growing time:
- When the second sheet appears.
- 2 weeks after the first feeding or 10 days after a dive.
Seedling hardening
At least a week before planting seedlings on beds, it is recommended to harden it. To do this, tanks with landings are taken out to the balcony or loggia in the daytime, at first by 2 hours, and then this time is gradually increased. If the air temperature on the balcony is not lower than +15 ° С, then the plants will soon be able to be kept outdoors for a whole day. It should be noted that plants should be placed for hardening so that they are not exposed to direct rays of the sun. Young plants are gradually accustomed to bright sunlight.
Planting seedlings in a permanent place
To plant seedlings of Kakadu peppers in open ground 60–70 days after emergence. This seedling in this period should already reach about 30 cm in height, have a good stem with leaves in an amount of about 12 pieces. In this case, the soil should warm up to +15 ° С.
For planting, holes 11–13 cm deep are made. There should be a distance of 40 cm between the bushes, and a gap of 75–80 cm between the rows. Experts recommend staggered landing. This planting procedure will not allow shading and it will be easier to take care of the plants.Important! Peppers need to be planted on a site where cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkin, garlic and onions previously grew. The bad predecessors are all nightshade cultures.
Outdoor Care
For a good harvest, proper care of the bushes should be provided. If the threat of frost did not pass or you did not guess with the weather, then plants need to make temporary shelters.
Watering
First of all, it is necessary to carry out regular watering. This vegetable crop is watered 2-3 times a week and is quite plentiful. The frequency and volume of watering depends on the weather. During the rainy season, watering is stopped, and in dry weather, watering is done at least 3 times a week and in large volumes.
You need to water it with warm water, at a temperature not lower than +18 ° C.
Fertilizer application
At least three times during the entire period, pepper should be fed.
Top dressing is carried out with an interval of about 14 days:
- In the first 30 days after planting, it is necessary to fertilize with a mixture of rotted bird droppings with ammonium nitrate.
- During flowering, a solution of overripe droppings is again added, but with the addition of potassium salt and phosphorus.
- When the ovary is formed, the content in the top dressing of phosphorus-containing and potassium fertilizers is increased, and ammonium nitrate is excluded.
Treatment
After each watering, it is recommended to loosen the soil with glanders in order to ensure the supply of oxygen to this plant crop. It is advisable to carry out the hilling of each bush - this will help to strengthen the root system well.
Along with loosening, it is advised to remove weeds that draw moisture and nutrients from the soil to a large extent, inhibiting the growth and development of pepper.
To protect the earth from drying out, as well as to prevent the appearance of weeds, it is recommended to mulch the soil around the pepper bushes. Compost, sawdust, bark, ash, peat are used as mulch.
Shaping and tying bushes
To increase productivity, each bush of this vegetable crop must be properly formed. For this purpose, eliminate weak side shoots, as well as twigs that let the bush below the ovary. This procedure is necessary for the good development and growth of the fruit.
A tall variety like Cockatoo will need a garter. It is best to use trellises and install them before planting seedlings.
Important! Only soft materials are used for garter. Most often, kapron tights are used for this.
Harvesting and storage
Separate fruits from the bush carefully so as not to damage the branches. As a rule, collection is carried out every 2-3 days.
Harvesting should be carried out during the period of technical ripeness, when the color of the fruit becomes light yellow, and the peel will give a gloss. Such pepper is well suited for long-term transportation, because if the storage rules are observed, it can ripen for another 2 months.
Fruits of biological ripeness (when peppers acquire a characteristic color for the variety) are best used immediately for cooking, preservation and freezing.
Fresh pepper is stored for no more than 2-3 months, but frozen for more than six months.
When storing peppers fresh, they should be periodically sorted out and rotted copies should be removed..
When freezing in a refrigerator, experts recommend that you follow these tips:
- the fruits are left intact for stuffing in the future or cut into cubes, strips;
- Before the process itself, the fruits are washed well, the peduncle is cut, seeds and dried from moisture;
- chopped or whole peppers are placed in separate packages so that it does not smell of other products;
- pepper can be stuffed, and then freeze.
Kakadu pepper is a high-yielding hybrid with large juicy fruits of an interesting shape, requiring garter and molding. It is planted in open ground only in the south, and in other cases it is grown as a greenhouse plant, because it does not tolerate low temperatures.
