How to Make Vegetables Grow Better
The editor explains how to make vegetables grow better and the related introduction of vegetable planting techniques and management for green plants and flowers. Let's follow the editor to see it together!
Vegetables play a very important role in our lives, as they are the main source of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Combined with grain crops, they provide the essential nutrients needed for human growth.
Vegetable flowering and fruit thinning, and flower and fruit preservation techniques are often seen in our previous planting articles. In fact, this technique is frequently used in real-world planting. This planting technique is a method to increase vegetable yield and quality, and achieve scientific planting. It also solves the problems of low yield, low income, and malformed fruits. For vegetable growers or enthusiasts, it is necessary to become familiar with and master this technique.
Flowering and Fruit Thinning
1. The Role of Flower and Fruit Thinning
For some vegetables that can be eaten fresh, such as tomatoes, watermelons, and cucumbers, the quality of individual fruits is very important. If there are too many inflorescences on each branch, it not only affects the fruit shape but can also cause poor fruit growth, reduced quality, increased malformed fruits, excessive nutrient consumption, and the risk of early plant senescence. Therefore, timely flower and fruit thinning is necessary to prevent this.
Reasonable flower and fruit thinning can ensure a proper load on the plant and prevent malnutrition caused by too many fruits. It accelerates the expansion of high-quality fruits, improves fruit uniformity, and thus enhances marketability. For example, removing flower buds in time during the growth period of garlic and potatoes is beneficial for the enlargement of underground stems and tubers, increasing yield. For vegetables like tomatoes, watermelons, and cucumbers, removing dense, diseased, and malformed fruits in time can promote the full development and expansion of the remaining fruits.
2. Techniques for Thinning Vegetable Flowers and Fruits
1) For tomatoes, during flower and fruit thinning, dense flower buds and malformed flowers should be removed during the flowering stage. After fruit setting, when the young fruit diameter is over 3 cm, remove irregularly shaped fruits, small fruits, malformed fruits under the same inflorescence, and slow-developing fruits in time. For large fruit varieties, 3-4 fruits should be left per cluster, 4-5 for medium fruit varieties, and more for small fruit varieties, usually more than 5 is ideal. Cherry tomatoes can be left except for diseased ones.
2) For watermelons, fruit thinning is generally done when the fruit has been set and about 10 days after pollination, removing malformed, diseased, and damaged fruits. It is best to keep 2 fruits per plant, with plants of similar growth, and remove the rest. For large fruit watermelons, one fruit should be left on the main vine and one on the lateral vine, both near the 15th node.
Flower and Fruit Preservation
1. Reasons for Vegetable Flower and Fruit Drop
This seems a bit opposite to flower and fruit thinning, as flower and fruit preservation is about trying to keep the necessary flowers and fruits. However, certain reasons cause flower and fruit drop, and we do not need to thin them manually.
Severe flower and fruit drop is an important factor limiting the production of fruit vegetables. The main reasons for flower and fruit drop are usually two: one is caused by environmental factors, and the other is due to improper cultivation management. Low or high temperatures during the seedling stage or after transplanting can cause poor flower bud differentiation and development, leading to malformed flowers. Unstable temperature during flowering, frequent rainy days, insufficient sunlight, and poor pollination can all cause flower and fruit drop.
Improper field management, such as unbalanced water and fertilizer application, can cause competition for nutrients between vegetative and reproductive organs; plant excessive growth, excessive nutrition, and diseases and pests are all direct causes of flower and fruit drop.
2. Techniques for Vegetable Flower and Fruit Preservation
In planting production, we should adjust the plant in time by pinching the top and removing lateral branches to prevent excessive vegetative growth and flower and fruit drop. The main measures for flower and fruit preservation include: chemical treatment and artificial pollination. Common flower and fruit preservation chemicals include borax, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, and prevent fruit drop agents. For spring planting of tomatoes, when the early temperature is low and unstable, prevent fruit drop agents can be used to dip the flowers to improve fruit setting rate. For watermelons and wax gourds, we can use artificial pollination to improve pollination quality and fruit setting rate.
The above sharing on how to make vegetables grow better and the specific introduction of vegetable planting techniques and management, hope you all like it!