Full Analysis of Key Techniques for Greenhouse Corn Cultivation

Corn is a crop with a relatively large planting volume in our country. It can be grown in the open field or in greenhouses, so what are the techniques for greenhouse corn cultivation?

1. Basic introduction to corn

Corn is an annual herbaceous plant of the grass family, native to Central America and South America. It is an important food crop in the world and is widely distributed in the United States, China, Brazil and other countries.

There are many types of corn varieties. By use, there are grain and feed varieties, vegetable varieties (including waxy type, sweet type, and baby corn type), processing varieties (sweet corn, baby corn), popping varieties (special varieties for popcorn), etc.

2. Techniques for greenhouse corn cultivation

1. Land selection

Choose land suitable for corn growth and transportation for planting, and carry out deep plowing in time.

The depth of deep plowing is generally 25-30 cm. After deep plowing, a disc harrow or spike-tooth harrow should be used in time to break up clods. After the beginning of spring, harrowing must be done promptly to cut off soil capillaries, reduce water evaporation, and lay a foundation for sowing.

2. Sowing

Choose a suitable sowing period and carry out appropriate isolation.

Before sowing, select intact seeds free of mold, disease, and insect damage and sun them, then soak the seeds in a 0.2%-0.3% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution for 7-10 hours. After the seeds have absorbed enough water, take them out and drain them, then germinate them at 20-28°C while keeping them moist. Once the seeds uniformly show white sprouts, they can be sown.

When planting sweet corn, isolation must first be considered. Generally, temporal isolation and spatial isolation can be used. Temporal isolation requires that the sowing period of other types of corn nearby be staggered from that of sweet corn; for spring sowing, the interval must be more than 30 days, and for summer sowing, the interval must be more than 20 days. Spatial isolation requires that no other types of corn be planted within 300 meters around the sweet corn. In production, a suitable isolation method can be selected according to actual conditions.

Planting sweet corn is like growing vegetables: choose a plot with loose soil and apply sufficient base fertilizer. Generally, apply 2000-3000 kg of organic fertilizer, 15 kg of urea, 50 kg of superphosphate, and 5-10 kg of potassium sulfate per mu as base fertilizer.

3. Field management

During the corn growth period, manage factors such as watering, checking seedlings and filling gaps, and pest and disease control.

1. Watering: Watering should begin at the jointing stage, that is, after the seedling hardening period ends. During the jointing stage, flood irrigation is not suitable, so as to avoid excessive stem growth, raise the ear-bearing position, and reduce lodging resistance.

2. Checking seedlings and filling gaps: timely final thinning. After emergence, check seedlings and fill gaps in time. In direct-seeded fields, generally when seedlings have 3-4 leaves, thin each hole to 2 plants, and when they have 4-5 leaves, keep 1 plant per hole. For thinning and final thinning, follow the principle of removing weak plants and keeping strong ones, and removing mixed plants and keeping pure ones, with 3500-4000 plants per mu.

3. Pest and disease control: prevent the occurrence of pests and diseases early. According to the plant protection policy of “prevention first, comprehensive control”, combined with different cultivation methods and sowing times of local sweet corn, adopt a combination of agricultural control and chemical control in control techniques, use as little pesticide as possible or no pesticide, give priority to high-efficiency, low-toxicity, low-residue pesticides, and promote the use of biological pesticides.