Detailed Explanation of Key Techniques for Autumn and Winter Cultivation and Management of Green Peppers

Green pepper fruit flesh is thick and crisp-tender, rich in vitamin C. The green fruit contains about 93.9% moisture and about 3.8% carbohydrates, while the red ripe fruit contains vitamin C up to 460 mg. It can be served cold, stir-fried, boiled, used as filling, pickled, processed into cans, or made into candied fruit. Green peppers are nutritious and are one of the vegetables people enjoy all year round.

Green pepper belongs to the plant kingdom, class Dicotyledoneae, subclass Asteridae, family Solanaceae. Together with red peppers, they are collectively called green peppers. The fruit is a berry. It has many aliases; big pepper, lantern pepper, and persimmon pepper are all its names, and because it can bear sweet berries, it is also called sweet pepper and vegetable pepper. It is an annual or perennial herbaceous plant, characterized by relatively large fruit and a mild pungency or even no pungency at all, used as a vegetable rather than as a seasoning. Because of its vivid emerald green color, newly bred varieties also come in red, yellow, purple, and many other colors, so it can not only stand alone as a dish but is also widely used as a garnish. Green pepper evolved in North America from green peppers native to the tropical regions of Central and South America. Through long-term cultivation, domestication, and artificial selection, traits such as increased fruit volume, thicker fruit flesh, loss of pungency, and an increased number of carpels and ovary locules have occurred. It was introduced to China more than 100 years ago and is now widely cultivated throughout the country. Green pepper is rich in vitamin C and is suitable for people with high blood pressure and high blood lipids.

Autumn and Winter Cultivation and Management Techniques for Green Peppers

Autumn and winter greenhouse green peppers supply the New Year's Day and Spring Festival markets, with bright colors and relatively high economic returns, so how should green peppers be cultivated and managed in autumn and winter?

1. Sowing and Raising Seedlings

Select early-to-mid maturing varieties that are heat-tolerant, resistant to viral diseases, and have large fruit. The variety with the largest promotion area in our county is Bianjiao No. 1; in addition, there are Xinfeng No. 4, Luojiao No. 4, Daguo Zaofeng, and others. The suitable sowing period is around July 20, with 75-100 grams of seed used per mu of greenhouse and a seedling bed of 20 square meters. Raise seedlings in a greenhouse that retains the top film and is covered with a shade net. After watering the seedling bed thoroughly, sow the seeds, cover with 1 cm of nutrient medicinal soil after sowing, and cover the seedling bed with film, then cover with straw to retain moisture and lower the temperature. From the 5th day after sowing, check germination and emergence every morning and evening. When 60% of the seeds have emerged, remove the straw and film from the bed surface. When green pepper seedlings have 2-3 true leaves, on rainy days or sunny evenings, in a greenhouse that retains the top film and is covered with a shade net, transplant the seedlings into 8 cm diameter nutrient pots, watering with settling water while transplanting. Throughout the seedling transplanting stage, the covering on the seedling greenhouse should be covered by day and uncovered by night to keep the soil surface moist.

2. Timely Transplanting

When the seedling age is 35-40 days, the height is 15-20 cm, and there are 6-7 true leaves, that is, from mid-August to early September, transplant on cloudy days or after 3 p.m. on sunny days. Fifteen days before transplanting, apply 4000 kg of decomposed farmyard manure per mu. Five days before transplanting, apply a topdressing of dilute manure water once, and spray once with insecticide (50% pirimicarb 1500 times solution) and fungicide (5% junduqing 300 times solution), so as to transplant with fertilizer and pesticide, water the nutrient pots thoroughly, and ensure the soil blocks do not break apart. The transplanting row spacing is 40 cm, plant spacing is 25 cm, and cover with plastic film.

3. Strengthen Management.

1. Light and Temperature Management

In the early stage after transplanting, a shade net should be added over the greenhouse, and agricultural film should also be added on rainy days, with ventilation day and night. From mid-September to mid-October, cover the greenhouse with film at night for insulation, and pay attention to ventilation during the day, keeping the greenhouse temperature at 25-30°C and not exceeding 32°C around noon. When the nighttime temperature inside the greenhouse is below 10°C, that is, before Frost's Descent, a small tunnel should be added inside, and as the outside temperature continues to drop, straw mats should also be added over the small tunnel for insulation. On cloudy, rainy, and snowy days, the straw mats should also be removed at the appropriate time each day to let in light.

2. Fertilizer Management

Fertilize according to the seedlings. Ten days after transplanting and in the early fruit-setting stage, apply 10 kg of high-quality compound fertilizer per mu dissolved in water, control the amount of nitrogen fertilizer, and prevent excessive vegetative growth.

3. Water Management

The seedling stage must not lack water. During the fruit-setting stage, keep the bed surface moist. Never use hot water to irrigate seedlings during high temperature or when the soil is hot, and never use flood irrigation. After November, because the outside temperature gradually drops, it is better to keep the bed surface on the dry side.

4. Hormone Application

Flower and bud drop is likely during hot seasons; use a 15×10-6-20×10-6 concentration of 2,4-D solution to coat the flower stalks.

5. Plant Adjustment

For normal plants, promptly remove the flower buds on the first fork; for weak plants, also remove the flower buds on the second fork to prevent fruit from weighing down the plant. For vigorously growing plants, keep the first fruit to prevent excessive vegetative growth. After the first frost, cut off tender shoots, ineffective branches, and small flower buds to concentrate nutrients for fruit growth.

6. Pest and Disease Control

Select high-efficiency, low-toxicity, low-residue pesticides, use biological control, physical control, and agricultural control, and focus on the prevention and control of viral diseases.