What are the precautions for topdressing eggplant in summer?
Eggplant, also known as "qie" and by the alternate name "luosu", is one of the few purple vegetables and is also a very common home-style vegetable on the dining table. In some areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui it is called luosu, while in Guangdong and Guangxi it is called aigua. It is an annual herbaceous plant of the genus Solanum in the family Solanaceae, and is perennial in the tropics. The fruit it produces is edible, mostly purple or purplish black, and there are also light green or white varieties, with shapes including round, oval, pear-shaped and so on. Eggplant is a typical vegetable, and depending on the variety, its uses are diverse. Eggplant has fairly high value for recovery from illness, and its effect on improving vitality falls within the effective range.
Morphological characteristics of eggplant
Eggplant has a well-developed root system, reaching more than 1 m deep, with the main root mass distributed within the 30-33 cm soil layer. It lignifies relatively early, has somewhat poor regeneration ability, and also has weak ability to produce adventitious roots. In greenhouse cultivation, if the branching habit is allowed to grow naturally, it will create shade inside the greenhouse, affecting ventilation and light penetration for the eggplant, worsening disease and reducing yield. For this reason, scientific pruning must be carried out during cultivation. The flowers of eggplant are bisexual, mostly solitary, and sometimes 2-4 in clusters, white or purple, with the base fused into a tube shape. Eggplant has a high self-pollination rate, with a natural cross-pollination rate between 3% and 6%. According to differences in style length, it can be divided into three types: long-styled flowers, medium-styled flowers and short-styled flowers. Long-styled flowers have a stigma that extends above the anthers, are large and deeply colored, and are easily pollinated at the stigma, making them sound flowers; medium-styled flowers have a stigma level with the anthers, and their pollination rate is lower than that of long-styled flowers; short-styled flowers have a stigma lower than the anthers, are small with thin pedicels, and have very few opportunities for pollination at the stigma, usually almost completely dropping their flowers, making them unsound flowers. The eggplant fruit is a berry, round, long club-shaped or ovate in shape, and purple, reddish purple, green, white and so on in color. The seeds are flat and round, with a smooth and hard outer coat, and a thousand-seed weight of about 5 g.
Precautions for topdressing eggplant in summer
As the saying goes: “Whether there is a harvest or not depends on water; how much harvest there is depends on fertilizer.” If eggplant is to have high yield, it must first be fed well. How can eggplant be fed well in summer? Listen below: 1. Appropriate amount. Eggplant has the greatest demand for nitrogen fertilizer, but in high-temperature seasons it must be fed little and often. Each application of urea per mu should generally be controlled within 30 kg. This is because in high-temperature seasons, urea transforms relatively quickly after being applied to the soil, and after the plant's needs are met, the excess portion will be lost. This is especially true for sandy soil, where the proportion lost will be greater. For ammonium bicarbonate, an application rate of no more than 40 kg per mu each time is more suitable. If the application rate is too large, besides causing nutrient loss, it will also cause ammonia damage to eggplant leaves and fruits. 2. Appropriate method. Vegetable growers have become accustomed to applying chemical fertilizer with irrigation water, but this method is not suitable in the high-temperature summer season. Because the temperature is relatively high, when chemical fertilizer is applied with irrigation water, a large amount of ammonia gas volatilizes and reduces fertilizer efficiency. This is especially true for ammonium bicarbonate, which more easily causes ammonia poisoning in eggplant. Applying it in furrows or in holes gives the best results. After topdressing, the thickness of the soil covering should be no less than 5 cm to reduce volatilization of the effective components of the chemical fertilizer. 3. Reasonable combination. Although eggplant has the greatest demand for nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are also indispensable, and nitrogen chemical fertilizer cannot be applied at every topdressing. During the full fruiting period, it is best to apply a three-element compound fertilizer twice, with a total of no less than 40 kg per mu for the two applications, to meet the needs of eggplant growth and fruiting.