Radishes in egg trays. Proper planting of radishes in egg boxes: agricultural technology for cultivation and care. How to plant radishes in egg cells

Every gardener grows radishes, because this garden culture- one of the most unpretentious. In addition, it ripens earlier than other vegetables, and the small red-sided root vegetables contain a whole range of useful substances.

They are usually sown in beds, and after the seeds have sprouted, the seedlings are thinned out to avoid crowding, because if the planting is too dense, the crop will be very small and will go to waste. But resourceful summer residents have figured out how to make their work easier - they plant radishes in ordinary pressed paper trays in which eggs are sold. Such trays are an excellent (and cheap) alternative to special cassettes, because they also have cells.

What is the point of using cassette trays?

In addition to smooth and beautiful beds, growing radishes in such improvised cassettes has other advantages:

• small seeds are convenient to sow;
• seedlings do not need to be thinned;
• plantings do not require mulching and loosening;
• there is no need to remove weeds due to their complete absence.

How to prepare a cassette bed?

Before you start sowing, you need to prepare the cassettes. To do this, on each tray, cut off the tops of the cells on one side with a sharp stationery knife. It should work out through holes the same size.

Now dig up the bed directly and use a rake to level the soil well so that the surface is even.

The place for planting radishes should be allocated on the sunny side of the site.

Place the prepared trays tightly next to each other on a dug up and leveled area. It is better to do this in one row to make it more convenient to care for the seedlings.

The trays must be slightly pressed into the ground so that it protrudes through the holes in the cassettes. If this is not done, the seed may roll under the tray.

To prevent the cassettes from being blown away by the wind, they need to be secured. You can use wire for this purpose, from which you can make small staples.

Sowing seeds in cassettes

Place one seed into each cut cell through which the soil spilled into the cassettes. When all the trays are filled, cover them with soil on top and water generously.

Sand can be used instead of soil.

Easy planting care

All further care for radishes is regular watering. The first shoots will appear within a week, and then the radishes will actively grow roots without going into the tops or cracking. After all, the cassettes have enough space and light for him. And harvesting is very easy - just pull the bush by the tops and the radishes will leave the tray without much difficulty.

Planting radishes in egg cells has been tried and tested by many gardeners and is recognized as the best.

In order to sow radishes, it is necessary to prepare a plot of land in advance. Digging and loosening are carried out traditional way. Having leveled the ground, you can begin laying the cells.

Before laying them, they need to be prepared. Egg paper trays are environmentally friendly pure material. To make them, they use paper pressed in a special way, and once in the ground, they quickly decompose under the influence of water and microflora.

Purchased seeds do not need additional treatments, they are tested and calibrated. However experienced gardeners prefer to treat radish seeds with a solution boric acid at the rate of 0.1 g per 1 liter of water. Radish, a crop that grows rapidly. For the growth and division of young cells, the microelement boron is necessary; it is this that will add strength to growth.

Sowing technique

The bottom of the cells must be cut off sharp knife and lay them on the ground, slightly pressing them to the ground. Planting radishes in egg cells is not a complicated process and does not require much effort.
Add a little soil to the cells and place a seed on top. If the purchased seed is fresh, then one seed is enough, but if you have doubts about germination, then you can sow two seeds, to be on the safe side, and then remove one sprout.

The top of the crops is covered with soil mixture. Some vegetable growers practice filling it with sand, arguing that in this case the grown root crop, after being removed from the cell, is cleaner than when grown in the ground.

Site selection

In early spring, when the leaves of the trees do not yet interfere with the illumination, choose garden territory a bright and sunny area will not be difficult.

The predecessor for radishes can be any crop except radishes, cabbage, turnips, and rutabaga. Pathogens and insects overwintering in the soil do not sleep, and when re-sown they will immediately attack the crop.

But radishes have certain requirements for the soil composition. The soil for growing radishes should be:

• fertile;
• neutral or closer to alkaline;
• breathable;
• water permeable.

If the level of soil fertility is in doubt, after the first shoots you need to start fertilizing.

Shoots

Radishes, when sown in egg trays, germinate with the same intensity as with the traditional method.

If you give preference to early varieties, those that sprout in 18 - 20 days, 5 - 6 days after sowing small sprouts will be clearly visible, provided that the temperature is maintained at 20 - 22 ° C.

More late varieties they germinate a little slower, and seedlings will appear in 8 - 12 days at the same temperature.

The intensity of seedlings is influenced by the temperature factor. To get an early radish crop, it is not enough to sow the seeds early; you also need a film cover, or sowing in a greenhouse or greenhouse. However, even under this condition, if night temperatures are close to 0 or minus, then germination will not be friendly and slow, and fruiting will occur not after 22 - 30 days, but after 35 - 40.

The optimal temperature for seedlings varies between 16 - 18° C. If we sow radishes in egg cells in advance, when the temperature can drop to minus 2° C, the seedlings will appear late, but the frost will not do much harm. However, long-term frosts should also be considered. In order to save crops, you can cover them with agrofibre or any non-woven material.

Traditionally, radishes are grown in beds in grooves made in the soil, but there is also a unique method that can be used in household. This is growing in trays left over from eggs. This method has certain advantages that distinguish it from classical method cultivation of crops. Let's look at how to properly plant radishes in egg cells and how to care for them.

The method of growing radishes in egg trays is gaining increasing popularity among vegetable growers. Many people are starting to cultivate spring vegetable in this way for the following reasons:

• it can be used both in ordinary garden beds and in greenhouses;
• thanks to the trays, you can plant plants evenly in the beds, which in turn allows you to make the most of their area;
• sowing requires a very small amount of seeds; there is no need to thin out the seedlings, which also saves them;
• plants do not need to be mulched, loosened, or weeded, since weeds do not grow through the trays;
• root crops in cells grow neat and uniform;
• Plant care is simplified:
• It is very easy to collect root vegetables: you just need to pull them out by the tops, there is no need to dig up.

All this allows you to grow radishes in egg trays with minimal effort and expense.

Growing radishes in egg cells

Despite the simplicity and ease of growing this plant in egg trays, you need to do it correctly. For example, you will need knowledge on how to prepare trays and beds for them and how to sow seeds in improvised cassettes.

Preparing a cassette bed

The first stage, which involves this method of growing radishes, is pre-sowing preparation egg trays. What should be done? For each such tray, you need to cut off the tops of the cells on the back side with a sharp knife. The result should be holes of the same size.

After preparing the egg cassettes, you can proceed to preparing the beds. It needs to be dug up, fed with fertilizers and very carefully leveled and fluffed up the soil so that the soil surface is as smooth and soft as possible. The egg trays should be placed one next to the other with the holes down so that their edges touch each other and lightly pressed to the ground.

If radishes will be grown in beds without shelter, then the trays must be secured to the soil surface. To do this, you need to make wire or metal brackets to fit the trays and press them to the ground so that they hold firmly. This must be done to prevent the wind from scattering the cassettes around the site.

Sowing seeds in cassettes

Before sowing radish seeds into egg trays, they must be prepared: sorted and removed small and poor quality ones. Disinfect the largest grains in a 1% solution of potassium permanganate; you can also soak them in growth stimulants and dry them. After preparation, put 1 piece in each cell. There is no need to plant radishes thicker so as not to thin them later.

After sowing is completed, it is necessary to water the beds from a watering can with settled and heated water, sprinkle the seeds on top with soil, peat or humus. Some gardeners who are familiar with this growing method in practice advise sprinkling radishes not with soil, but with sand. And here's why: after watering, the sand will not crust over, but will remain loose and breathable, which is very important for the normal growth of root crops.

Another benefit of using topsoil sand when growing radishes in egg trays is that the roots remain clean and dry when harvested. It is enough to shake them off the sand and that’s it. To speed up the germination of radish seeds, the egg trays can be covered with film or any agrofibre, and after the seedlings appear, remove them.

You can sow radishes in egg trays every week, using seeds from varieties various terms maturation. To do this, you need to organize a conveyor of several beds: this will allow you to harvest red root vegetables almost uninterruptedly throughout the spring-summer season.

Further care

There is nothing complicated about growing radishes in cassettes: caring for the plants growing in them is no different from that provided for ordinary beds. It consists of 3 stages:

1. Mandatory watering. Radishes can grow and form roots only in moist soil, so they need to be watered constantly. In dry weather, radishes need to be moistened every day, but with a small volume of water (it is better to do this with a spray bottle). IN cloudy weather The frequency of watering can be reduced to 3 per week.
2. Periodic loosening if the soil becomes compacted. You need to loosen carefully, superficially, so as not to touch the plants.
3. Treatments for pests if they appear.

It is not necessary to fertilize radishes if the soil was well fertilized before planting. The first radish shoots the original way cultivation should appear within a week after sowing, and after 1 month or earlier (depending on the variety) it will be possible to harvest tasty juicy root vegetables.

Stencil

Use an egg carton as a stencil on the soil prepared for planting. Just press down the egg cells with approximately equal force.

As a result, you will have a finished bed with evenly distributed planting holes. All you have to do is put a seed in each, sprinkle soil on top of them and carefully level the surface.

It is most convenient to work with three containers at once. Sow radishes in 2 rows (1 seed in each hole), carrots in 2 rows (1-2 seeds in each hole), beets - through one hole in a checkerboard pattern. It is also convenient to plant seedlings for feathers in such holes.

Planting vegetables

During the long winter, put away the cardboard egg cartons, and when the next one arrives summer season plant radish seeds in them, lettuce, carrots.

To do this, carefully pour fertile soil into each cell and place 2-3 seeds using a toothpick. After the seedlings appear, all you have to do is take these containers with the plantings to the greenhouse beds and dig them into the ground to the required depth.

The cardboard packaging will gradually decompose in the ground, but at first it will protect the young shoots from the proximity of weeds. In addition, cardboard retains moisture well.

It is best to insert one package into another. In the upper cells, first make drainage holes through which excess moisture will escape.

The cells are also suitable for growing seedlings of cabbage, onions, and vernalizing potatoes before planting.

You can place empty cardboard trays with holes in them in the garden bed. lower parts cells and then plant radishes, carrots and other vegetables in them. The beds will be clean, without weeds, they can be watered much less frequently, and there will be no need to thin them out at all (only for initial stage, if you plant 2-3 seeds per cell).

A neighbor told me the following method. It involves laying cardboard egg boxes with holes made in the cells directly on compost heap. She plants pumpkins in them. The harvest is always good.

Paths between rows

If you suddenly have a lot of empty cardboard packages for 30 eggs on hand, you can line the paths between the beds with them (for example, in the same greenhouse). There will be enough for one summer.

At the end of the season, simply bury the cardboard in the ground, where it will gradually begin to decompose into harmless substances.

Filler for warm beds

All remaining unused cardboard (not just egg cartons) can be used as filler when making warm beds.

Along with branches, such bedding is placed on the lowest layers, and stale horse or cow manure and fertile soil are poured on top of it.

As a result, the growing season vegetable crops extended (vegetables are planted earlier and harvested later). The heat generated by the decay of organic matter will protect crops from frost (both early spring and autumn).

When planning to get a generous carrot harvest, it is important to worry about proper planting seed material so as not to have to deal with thinning later. Experienced summer residents They know firsthand that traditional sowing of dry seeds does not bring a good harvest, so you need to resort to more sophisticated methods. Let's look at the most popular ways to sow carrots so as not to thin out when weeding.

Why are carrots thinned?

The main reasons for thinning root crops:

• densely planted carrots do not allow all the fruits to grow and fully develop;
• when planted closely during growth, the root crops become intertwined and do not receive required quantity nutrients;
• the distance between plants affects the size of the fruit (the larger it is, the smoother and larger the root crop);
• It is necessary to partially remove diseased and weak plants.

Did you know? Carrots are a unique root vegetable in terms of properties and usefulness, originally from Afghanistan. The ancestors of modern carrots had purple, yellow and even white colors. Carrot orange color appeared in the Netherlands. She was bred specifically for the Orange dynasty of the royal family, for whom orange was the color of the dynasty.

How to sow carrots without thinning

Growing root vegetables is not easy because they require care, but gardeners have learned to grow carrots in ways that provide good harvest without any hassle.

Soaking and germination of seeds

An excellent alternative to planting dry seed is soaking and germination:

• soak the seeds for several hours in water at room temperature;
• lay out the soaked seed on a damp cloth;
• regularly moisten the wet surface so that it does not dry out;
• Once the seedlings appear, the seeds need to be hardened: we leave the seed in the refrigerator for 10-12 days, after which we plant it in the beds.

Important! The soaking and germination method is effective if the soil is constantly moistened so that small seedlings do not dry out.

Sowing with sand

You can plant carrots evenly using sand. To do this, you need to mix half a bucket of sand and a tablespoon of seeds. Moisten the resulting mixture and spread it over the furrows. Then cover with soil and water. You don’t have to worry about such a carrot bed until autumn, and then you can get a good and large harvest.

Using adhesive tape

Landing on the tape - another one easy way get a rich carrot harvest.
Today, seeding tapes with carrot seeds glued to them are sold in some gardening stores. The technology for planting in this way is simple: we stretch the tape along the prepared bed, and then sprinkle it with a dense layer of soil. When the first shoots appear, we take care of watering and weeding the beds.

From the moment the snow begins to melt, you need to find a place on the site where you can dig a shallow hole and leave a bag of canvas with carrot seeds in it. After half a month, when they begin to hatch, we take them out of the bag, mix them with a small amount of sand and scatter this mixture along the furrows. Then we cover the area with the beds with film. After about a week, seedlings will appear that can be planted in open ground. This method allows you to get early harvest, and root vegetables retain many useful substances.

Did you know? The longest carrot in the world was grown by English farmer Joe Atherton from Nottinghamshire. Its length is 584 cm including a thin ponytail.

Using paste

Uniform sowing of carrots can be achieved by mixing the seed with a simple paste. To prepare it, you will need a container into which we pour a tablespoon of flour and pour in one liter of boiling water, and then mix thoroughly so that there are no lumps. When the mixture has cooled, add it required quantity seeds and mix again. Thanks to this, the grains in the paste will be evenly distributed, will not stick together and will be visible when sowing.

Pour the paste into the bottle, close it with a lid with a small hole and evenly squeeze the mixture into the furrows, sprinkle with soil and water. In a nutrient medium, seedlings germinate faster and are not very dense.

VIDEO: HOW TO PREPARE A PASTE FOR PLANTING CARROTS

Sowing seeds on toilet paper

Method of sowing root crops toilet paper similar to the method using special adhesive tape, only in this case you can do everything yourself.

The sowing technology is as follows:

1. We cut the toilet paper into even strips 20-25 mm wide.
2. To fix the seeds on paper, we use a thick paste made from water and starch in the ratio: 1 teaspoon of starch for 1 glass of water.
3. We spread the adhesive mixture onto the paper and glue the seeds at the same distance from each other.
4. When the paste dries, roll the paper.
5. Immediately before planting, we make grooves 25-30 mm deep and lay out paper strips. Then we fill them with soil and water them.

Important! Using the method of sowing on toilet paper, you need to carefully select root crop seeds, pay attention to the date of manufacture, the condition of the packaging, and expiration dates, since with low germination of carrot seeds there is a risk of being left without a harvest.

VIDEO: TECHNOLOGY OF SOWING SEEDS ON TOILET PAPER

Pelleting

A method of sowing seeds without thinning – pelleting – is gaining more and more fans. To use it, you need to purchase pelleted seeds. Thanks to technological processing, each seed is enveloped in a hard shell, which contains dry hydrogel and fertilizers. Each dragee is brightly colored to make it easier to control the sowing process.

To plant carrots in a garden bed in this way, every 8-10 cm we make grooves 20-25 mm deep and throw 1-2 pellets into them. Then we cover them with soil and water them. Experienced farmers have found an alternative to pelleting. They advise preparing at home a mixture of soaked seeds and dried, crushed mullein in a ratio of 1:4.

Did you know? The small town of Holtville in California has already gained fame as the carrot capital of the world. A week-long festival in her honor is held here annually and begins with the selection of a “carrot” queen. The festival program also includes a parade of “carrot” floats, as well as various culinary and sports competitions starring this root vegetable.

Sowing with improvised means

Many gardeners have learned to sow carrot seeds using various available means.

Homemade seeders

A seeder for carrot seeds is made with your own hands from plastic bottle. To do this, a small hole is cut in it the size of the seed.

Thanks to a homemade seeder, you can quickly sow the beds, but you need to be prepared for the seedlings to be dense, since it is difficult to control the number of seeds that fall out.

Toothpick boxes, salt shakers, strainer

To facilitate sowing, toothpick boxes, salt shakers, and strainers are also used. These improvised means already have holes that help distribute the seeds of root vegetables evenly. But, as with homemade seeders, it is difficult for gardeners to control the amount of seeds that fall into the furrow. With the appearance of the first shoots, you need to see if they are too thick and thin out in time if necessary.

Egg cells

The method using egg cells is original and simple. To sow root crops, you will need two paper cells designed for thirty eggs. For structural strength, we put one cell into another and apply it to the loosened soil. We get even holes into which we place the seed and provide subsequent care.

Using seeders

For dosed sowing of seeds use special device- seeder. It is a two-wheeled structure with a seed container. It works according to the following algorithm:

• the front wheel has spikes that make grooves;
• a certain number of seeds fall out of the hole in the container;
• another smooth wheel levels and compacts the bed.

Main mistakes when sowing carrots

Not only beginners, but also experienced gardeners make mistakes when sowing root crops and cannot find an explanation for the poor harvest. Let's look at the main mistakes when sowing carrots.

1. Sowing with dry seeds - this simple and effortless method entails late, uneven, thickened seedlings.
2. Poor thinning of crops, which is explained by the desire to get a larger harvest. Thanks to this, there will be more root vegetables, but they will be small in size.
3. Incorrect selection of plants for mixed crops.
4. When using the adhesive tape method, it is not compacted properly, but only buried. As a result, during windy weather the tape ends up on the soil surface, and the seeds that have begun to germinate dry out.

To grow a good harvest, you should follow these tips:

• water the beds regularly, at least two to three times a week;
• often loosen the soil and cover the carrots with soil;
• Weed as necessary;
• monitor the condition of carrots and respond in time to the appearance of insect pests.