How to prepare seeds and when to plant zucchini for seedlings?

Zucchini are unpretentious plants from the pumpkin family; their cultivation does not require much labor. Most often, their seeds are suitable for planting in open ground, but there are situations when it is simply necessary to plant zucchini for seedlings. In what cases can you not do without seedlings, how to properly prepare and plant seeds at home in order to grow strong plants?

Seed selection

Sowing seeds directly into open ground or planting zucchini for seedlings depends on two factors - the selected variety and weather conditions. In the south of Russia, any varieties can be planted immediately on the garden bed, but in the middle lane, in order to get an early harvest of vegetables, it is better to grow seedlings.

In order to understand the features of care, to know when and how to start sowing, we will figure out what kind of zucchini seeds can be purchased. These vegetables come in three varieties: white and yellow zucchini and zucchini (green fruit). They differ in taste and keeping quality. The most mellow are green zucchini. They can be stored until the New Year holidays and longer in natural conditions. Ordinary white zucchini cannot lie for a long time, but they have the most delicate taste, but yellow and green fruits have coarser fibers.

In addition, zucchini varieties differ in terms of ripening:

• early;
• medium early;
• late.

Advice

If the package does not indicate which variety it is, early or late, you can navigate by the ripening period from germination to technical maturity (first harvest). In early zucchini this period is up to 50 days, in mid-early zucchini - up to 56, late-ripening varieties have a longer growing season.

There are conventional and hybrid varieties on sale. Hybrid are characterized by a longer growing season. As a rule, hybrids are foreign seeds. Their advantage is that they are not prone to outgrowth. They are suitable for those who love the delicate taste of young fruits. Hybrid vegetables have thinner skin and more pulp due to the fact that the fruit has a smaller seed chamber. They are suitable for planting in open ground in the southern regions, in the central part, seedlings of marrow hybrid varieties are needed, and in the north, growing them in open ground is problematic. Cold-resistant varieties with a short growing season are suitable for northern conditions.

When buying seeds, you also need to pay attention to whether preliminary preparation has been carried out. Such information should be indicated on the package, and seeds that have been treated with fungicides are always colored and do not require additional treatment for fungal diseases. Sometimes the seeds are sold fully prepared for sowing - they are covered with a layer of dry salts and nutrients. This treatment is called pelleting, as the seeds look like pellets. Their advantage is that no further processing is required, the disadvantage is that shelf life is reduced.

Antifungal treatment

Before sowing, the seeds must be disinfected, since some diseases are spread through them. This can be done dry and wet.

Dry method

• 30-60 days before sowing is carried out, zucchini seeds are placed in a jar with dry potassium permanganate.
• The jar is closed with a lid and shaken, making sure that the seeds are evenly powdered.
• The processed seeds are removed from the jar and stored dry.

Wet pickling is carried out when preparing zucchini for sowing - just before soaking.To do this, prepare a 2% solution of potassium permanganate, soak the zucchini in it for 15 minutes, and then rinse it under running water. Folk methods of disinfection - seeds are put in aloe juice or garlic gruel for one hour. Rinsing after this is not necessary.

Presowing preparation

In the pre-sowing treatment, in addition to etching from diseases, enrichment with nutrients, increased germination, hardening and warming up. To grow seedlings, which will subsequently give more female flowers, the zucchini seeds are heated. The most reliable way is "slow" warming up - storage of seeds near heat sources at temperatures up to + 30º C for 30-60 days. With this method of heating, the zucchini do not overheat and do not steam.

Rapid warming up

If the seeds were bought shortly before planting, they can be heated for 2-3 hours at a temperature of + 55-60º C. In this case, the temperature should be increased gradually. Another "dry" method is ultraviolet irradiation. Any UV lamp is suitable for this. The irradiation time is 50-70 seconds. Wet warming also does not take much time - the seeds are immersed in a thermos with hot water (+ 50º C) for 20 minutes.

Advice

Heating seeds outdoors with sunlight is not suitable for seedlings. Sowing for seedlings occurs early and the air temperature is still insufficient for such treatment.

Soak

Soaking is necessary in order to facilitate pecking. Seeds are wrapped in a damp cloth and kept at temperatures up to + 25ºC for 24-48 hours. After the sprouts have appeared (hatched), the seeds can be sown for seedlings. During soaking, care must be taken to ensure that the seeds are not waterlogged. That is, the cloth should not be wet, but damp.

The overgrowth of hatched sprouts is also harmful. They are very fragile, and when you have to plant (bury) the seeds in the ground, the sprouts break off. If the seeds are swollen, and sowing on this day is not planned, you need to put them in the refrigerator.

Nutritious "cocktails"

Significantly increases germination and facilitates plant cultivation by soaking seeds in nutrient solutions. Such preparation is carried out after antifungal treatment and warming up and is combined with soaking. Solution composition:

• 1 tbsp. a spoonful of ash or tableted micronutrient fertilizer (trace elements) - 0.5 tablets;
• 1 tsp nitrophoes;
• 1 liter of water.

Instead of this solution, you can use fertilizers: a solution of potassium humate or sodium humate, a solution of "Zircon", as well as a growth regulator "Epin".

Hardening

Although seed hardening is often used before planting in open ground, this technique is also used before sowing seedlings. It increases the plant's resistance to stress. However, this treatment does not cancel the subsequent hardening of seedlings before planting. Contrast hardening has proven itself best of all - during the day for about 10 hours the seeds are at room temperature, the rest of the day is on the lower shelf of the refrigerator.

Preparation of soil mixture

There are special potting soil mixes for pumpkin crops on sale. Their composition is ideal for growing zucchini seedlings. You can also prepare the desired mixture yourself. The table shows the ratios for three variants of soil mixtures for sowing zucchini.

No. of soil mixture	Earth	humus	peat	sand	sawdust
1	-	3	5-6	1	-
2	6	-	4	-	-
3	2	4	-	-	11

In addition to other components, complex fertilizers are necessarily added to the seedling mixture. Prepared the soil needs to be disinfected... A small amount can be processed at home by placing a smaller container of soil in a larger one with water. A large container (saucepan) is closed with a lid and heated. For 10 minutes the water temperature should be kept at about + 82ºC, but not higher. The soil is prepared 10-14 days before planting the seeds.

Advice

If you need to grow seedlings in large quantities, special sterilizers are used to disinfect the soil.

Sowing

One of the main questions for beginners is when to plant zucchini for seedlings? To choose the right time, you need to take into account that seedlings are transplanted into open ground 25-30 days after germination. For central Russia, the calendar dates for sowing seeds for seedlings are as follows: early varieties are sown in pots in mid-April, and mid-early ones - at the end.

Zucchini do not like transplanting, so it is better to plant them immediately in separate containers or cassettes, so that the earthen lump is not disturbed when transplanting into the ground. 2 seeds are sown in one container, deepening them by 3 cm. If both hatch, then later one sprout is removed, leaving a healthier and stronger plant. If pelleted seeds were taken for sowing, which cannot be pre-soaked, the soil mixture in the first days is regularly moistened and covered with a film until shoots appear.

Temperature regime

After sowing, the room temperature should be maintained at +18 -24º C, and after emergence the night and day temperatures should be different.

In the first few days, the following conditions will be optimal for seedlings:

• at night - from +12 to + 15º C;
• in the daytime - from +15 to + 20º C.

In the future, the temperature is increased by 2-3 degrees. It is not recommended to create "greenhouse conditions" by heating the room too much - this will not accelerate growth, but will lead to weakening of the plants.

Watering and feeding

The first watering is carried out 5-6 days after sowing with warm water. For 8 containers, prepare approximately 1 liter of water. In the future, watering is carried out as the soil is drained. The first feeding of seedlings is needed two weeks after the emergence of shoots, the second - another week, and the third - a few days before planting in open ground.

Compositions of feeding solutions (per 1 liter of water):

1. 1 g of ammonium nitrate and potassium sulfate and 3 g of superphosphate;
2. 65 g chicken droppings, 2 g superphosphate;
3. 1 teaspoon of wood ash and nitrophoska.

It is most convenient to use ready-made fertilizers for feeding. For zucchini, Agricola No. 5 and any formulations that can be used for pumpkin seeds, including cucumbers, are suitable.

Advice

If the seeds were sown in unfertilized soil, then the first top dressing is needed within a week after germination.