How to Grow Mustard Greens? A Detailed Guide to Mustard Green Cultivation Techniques
Mustard greens have been cultivated in our country for a very long time. Records about mustard greens date back to ancient times, and it is a vegetable with both high edible value and medicinal value. At present, mustard greens sell very well in our country, so many people want to grow them. To grow them well, understanding the cultivation methods is essential.
How to Grow Mustard Greens
Mustard greens have two propagation methods: collecting wild plants and artificial cultivation. Artificial cultivation includes open-field cultivation and protected cultivation. Open-field cultivation can be carried out in both spring and autumn in the Yangtze River and Huang-Huai regions, generally with autumn sowing as the main season. Sowing can be done successively from late July to October, and harvesting ends from mid-September to March of the following year, but the yield is highest when sown in August. Sowing too early means hot, dry weather and frequent rainstorms, making emergence difficult, so shade netting should be used for coverage. Sowing too late means the seedlings may encounter a cold wave when they have 2 to 3 true leaves and are prone to frost damage. Spring sowing can use solar greenhouses or plastic tunnels to bring the market period forward or delay it, making it an efficient cultivation method.
Mustard Green Cultivation Techniques
1. Land preparation. Mustard green seeds are tiny, so the land must be leveled and finely prepared, with weeds and debris picked out, and deep furrows with high beds should be made for drainage and irrigation. The bed width is generally 2.5 m (including the ditch).
2. Sowing. Sowing period: spring cultivation in late February; summer cultivation from early July to late August; autumn cultivation from early September to early October, generally with autumn cultivation as the main season.
3. Sowing rate: per 667 sq m, 1.5 to 2 kg for spring sowing, 3 to 4 kg for summer sowing, and 2 to 3 kg for autumn sowing.
4. Sowing method: Mustard greens are all broadcast sown, but efforts should be made to sow evenly. After sowing, gently tread over the bed surface with your feet so that the seeds and soil are in close contact, which helps the seeds absorb water and emerge earlier. For summer and autumn sowing, the land can be watered 1 to 2 days before land preparation, then prepared and made into beds. If sowing newly harvested seeds from the same year, because the seeds have not yet broken dormancy, they should be placed in a 2 to 7 degrees C environment (refrigerator) to promote germination before sowing.
Field Management for Mustard Green Cultivation
1. Reasonable fertilization. Generally, seedlings emerge 3 to 4 days after autumn sowing, and 6 to 15 days after spring sowing. When the seedlings have 2 true leaves, carry out the first topdressing, applying 1000 kg of 0.3% urea solution per mu. The 2nd topdressing is carried out 7 to 10 days before harvest, and after that, topdress once after each harvest.
2. Timely watering. Mustard green seeds are small and easily affected by soil moisture, so pay attention to watering to maintain moisture before emergence, and watering is best done in the morning and evening. Grasp the principle of light watering and frequent watering, and do not soak the soil through in one watering.
3. Timely weeding. Mustard green plants are short, and they are usually broadcast sown, so weeds grow mixed together with the mustard greens, making weeding relatively difficult and labor-intensive. Weeding should be combined with harvesting.
Pest and Disease Control for Mustard Greens
1. Downy mildew. It mainly harms the leaves, with lesions appearing on both sides of the leaves. In the early stage of the disease, spray 72.2% Proplant aqueous solution at 600—800 times dilution or 64% Sandofan wettable powder at 500 times dilution, once every 7—10 days, rotating and alternating the products, for 2—3 consecutive applications.
2. Soft rot. The main symptom is that water-soaked irregular spots first appear at the stem base or on the roots near the ground, after which the lesions expand and spread inward, causing internal soft rot, with sticky fluid flowing out. The diseased part gives off a foul odor, which distinguishes it from black spot disease. In the early stage of the disease, spray 14% copper-ammonia complex aqueous solution at 300 times dilution or 72% agricultural streptomycin soluble powder at 3000—4000 times dilution, once every 7—10 days, for 2—3 consecutive applications.
3. Viral disease. After root mustard seedlings are infected with viral disease, faded green round spots appear on the leaves, and the veins of the heart leaves become clear. In the later stage, the leaves show light green and yellow-green mottling or obvious mosaic symptoms, and the leaves shrivel. After adult plants are affected, the symptoms on the heart leaves are the same as those on affected seedlings. In severe cases, the leaf surface is deformed and shriveled, the veins necrose, and the plant becomes dwarfed, stops growing, or dies.
When growing mustard greens, you can choose the cultivation method according to your own needs, and generally artificial cultivation techniques are used more often. In the early stage of cultivation, good work must be done in site selection and seed selection. In the later stage, field management must also be strengthened; timely pest control, watering, and fertilization are all very important. Only after doing this series of work well will the mustard greens grow well.