Latest Key Points of Papaya Seedling Management Techniques
Papaya is a shrub or small tree belonging to the genus Chaenomeles in the Rosaceae family. It contains relatively rich nutrients. Although papaya tastes rather sour and astringent and has a low sugar content, making it unsuitable for eating raw, it contains a fair amount of tannins and organic acids as well as abundant vitamins, and has a very strong antioxidant capacity that can enhance the human body's immunity. So how should papaya be raised from seed before planting? Let's take a look together below!
1. Seedbed site selection
Papaya is extremely intolerant of cold during the seedling stage and is afraid of low temperatures, frost and waterlogging, so when choosing a seedling site, you should choose a place with higher terrain, sufficient sunlight and a good drainage and irrigation system for raising seedlings. You must also prevent papaya ringspot mosaic virus, so when raising seedlings you should choose new soil or a place far from old papaya orchards. If there are cucurbit family melon gardens nearby, you should also keep a certain distance from them. The nursery nutrition bags are generally about 10cm in diameter and 16cm in height, and then several small holes about 1cm in diameter should be opened in the bags to facilitate drainage. Fully decomposed farmyard manure should be applied at the bottom of the bags as a base fertilizer.
2. Seed treatment
When selecting seeds, you should choose disease-free and pest-free seeds, or before raising seedlings, first disinfect the seeds with a thiophanate-methyl solution. After soaking for twenty minutes, remove them and rinse them clean with water, then soak them in a baking soda solution for about five hours. After washing them clean, soak them in clean water for 20 hours. The suitable temperature for promoting germination is generally around 35 degrees. As soon as you see the seed coat crack open and white appear, it means germination has been successfully promoted and sowing can begin. Seed disinfection can effectively remove potential bacteria inside the seeds and increase the germination rate.
3. Seedbed management
Before sowing, we must first water the seedling soil thoroughly, then sow 2-3 seeds per cup. After sowing, cover them with a layer of fine soil, preferably just enough to cover the seeds. After sowing, water them and then cover with plastic film. Seeds have relatively high temperature requirements during seedling raising, and we need to control the temperature at around 35 degrees, then lower the temperature to around 25 degrees when the seedlings arch up. Then promptly set up a small arched shed for the seedlings. In the south, October to November each year is the most suitable time for sowing, and the seedling stage lasts about 4 months. In Hainan, sowing can be done all year round.
4. Seedling stage management
If sowing is done in autumn, then autumn-sown seedlings must overwinter and be planted out in the following spring, so for autumn-sown seedlings you must promptly control temperature and humidity as well as fertilizer and water management. The temperature for papaya growth must not be lower than 5 degrees or higher than 35 degrees, so in winter you must be sure to cover papaya seedlings with film to protect them from cold and keep them warm. After sowing, keep the soil moist at all times, but after the seedlings grow several leaves, the amount of watering can be appropriately reduced. To prevent leggy growth and the occurrence of pests and diseases, once about 4 leaves have grown you can begin applying light fertilizer, roughly once every 10 days.
The above is a brief introduction to the management methods for papaya during the seedling stage. The seedling stage is a very important key factor in growing papaya. The quality of the seedling stage determines the quality and grade of the papaya later on, so when planting, everyone must make sufficient preparations during the papaya seedling stage. The seedling stage can also effectively reduce the incidence of pests and diseases later on. That is all for today's introduction to papaya seedling management methods. This article is for reference only, and we hope it is helpful to everyone.