How to Grow Ground Cherries in a Greenhouse? Latest Planting Techniques and Methods Tutorial
Ground cherry is also called goli or golden ground cherry. It is an annual plant of the Solanaceae family, with both medicinal and edible uses, and is a new type of premium nutritious health fruit. Ground cherry fruit contains a variety of vitamins and other trace elements needed by the human body. It can be used to treat anemia, and also has beauty-enhancing and anti-aging effects, and has a certain preventive effect on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. So how do we grow ground cherry fruit in a greenhouse? Let's take a look below.
1. Site Selection and Land Preparation
Ground cherry is generally planted in flat brown loam with good drainage and irrigation conditions, sheltered from the wind or wind-blocking, and facing away from the sun. The fertility of the planting site does not need to be too abundant; generally medium fertility is sufficient. Secondly, ground cherry must not be planted in soil where Solanaceae crops have been grown, as the disease incidence rate is extremely high. Prepare the land finely, break the soil clods into fine pieces, make the beds properly, and level the bed surface. The bed width is about 1.5 m, the height is 20 cm, the ditch width is 10 cm, and the depth is 10 cm, with the ditches connected to each other.
2. Greenhouse Construction
For greenhouse cultivation of ground cherry, a greenhouse certainly needs to be built. After preparing the land, we build the greenhouse frame with a height of about 1.6 m, then cover the frame with double-layer transparent plastic to build the greenhouse, and then pile soil on both sides of the plastic and compact it so that it will not be blown away by the wind. In this way the basic greenhouse structure is completed. Then we need to leave a door for entering and exiting the greenhouse, as well as windows for ventilation, so as to ensure the normal growth of the ground cherry in the greenhouse.
3. Sowing and Seedling Raising
We need to set aside a plot inside the greenhouse for sowing and raising seedlings. For the seedling plot, we first water it thoroughly, then spread sufficient decomposed farmyard manure, mix the soil and fertilizer evenly, then evenly scatter the ground cherry seeds on the seedling bed, gently pat the seeds into the soil with a rake, and cover them with a layer of rice straw, or use plastic film instead, to maintain soil moisture. After the ground cherry seedlings emerge, we must remove the rice straw or plastic film in time so as not to damage the seedlings.
4. Timely Transplanting
When the ground cherry seedlings grow to about 10 cm, we can transplant and set them out. When pulling up the seedlings, we must be careful to keep the seedlings intact, especially the root system, and not damage the roots, which would affect the survival rate of the ground cherry seedlings. Secondly, it is advisable to carry along some of the base soil from the seedling plot, which causes less damage to the roots, and the seedlings can also adapt to the new environment more quickly after planting. When transplanting, the surface soil temperature should generally reach at least 10°C, so timely transplanting is also very important.
5. Field Management
About one week after the ground cherry fruit is transplanted, we should check the survival of the seedlings in the field, and promptly pull out dead and weak seedlings and replant, so as to ensure a full stand of seedlings in the field. Secondly, ground cherry fruit is tolerant of poor soil, so when the base fertilizer is applied sufficiently, later topdressing is also very simple. Generally, foliar fertilizer is sprayed only during the fruiting period, along with the use of phosphate fertilizer and potassium fertilizer. Ground cherry fruit is most averse to nitrogen fertilizer, so when growing ground cherry fruit we must not use nitrogen fertilizer. It also has a certain drought resistance, so we only need to water it in moderation, but during the fruiting period the water demand is relatively large, so the amount of water needs to be increased appropriately. Finally, pest and disease control must be done well, for example for white grubs, cutworms, and powdery mildew, we can use zinc phosmet, phoxim emulsifiable concentrate, and chlorothalonil wettable powder respectively for control.
The above are the methods for growing ground cherry fruit in a greenhouse. Now greenhouse planting techniques are becoming more and more popular. Many crops, medicinal materials, and so on can all use greenhouses, and even the breeding industry can use greenhouse technology. If you want to learn more about greenhouse planting, you can follow us.