What causes hollow heart (dry heart) in cauliflower? Latest causes and control methods
Cauliflower has good nutritional value, and many people grow it, but during the growing process, hollow heart damage often occurs. This is a relatively serious disease affecting cauliflower and requires timely control to ensure healthy cauliflower growth. So how should cauliflower hollow heart be controlled? Let's find out together.
1. Disease symptoms
When cauliflower develops hollow heart, the edges of the top leaves initially appear water-soaked and semi-transparent, or gradually turn light yellow. The top section gradually wilts and shrivels into a white dry band, seriously hindering the heart growth of the cauliflower, causing the leaves not to cover the curd, affecting the color of the curd, and also causing the curd to turn yellow or purple, seriously affecting its marketability. In severe cases, it may also cause a serious reduction in curd yield.
2. Causes
There are many causes of cauliflower hollow heart. For example, excessively high soil solution concentration can prevent the root system from normally absorbing nutrients and water, and can also cause burning, ultimately leading to hollow heart. Applying too much nitrogen fertilizer causes the plant to resist absorbing other elements, resulting in hollow heart. Soil salinization and poor irrigation water quality are also triggering causes of hollow heart. This disease is most severe during the heading stage of cauliflower, and during storage it can also continue due to physiological activity. When calcium fertilizer application stops, hollow heart also tends to occur abnormally.
3. Control methods
(1) Because most of the current market production uses greenhouse cultivation, concentrated production, highly intensive cultivation and many years of continuous cropping cause soil calcium deficiency. Therefore, a reasonable crop rotation system needs to be implemented to prevent calcium deficiency in the plot. This can not only effectively control cauliflower hollow heart, but also promote better crop growth and development, helping to increase yield.
(2) When planting, choose plots with good irrigation conditions, level the land, and water scientifically at the right time, especially watering promptly when high temperature and drought occur in the early growth stage. Use soil testing and formula fertilization techniques, and pay attention to the reasonable combination of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to avoid partial or excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer. On this basis, pay attention to supplementing calcium and manganese. You can spray 0.7% calcium chloride solution and 0.7% manganese sulfate, choosing to spray the heart leaves when cauliflower has 8-10 leaves, for a better calcium and manganese supplementation effect.
The above is an introduction to the causes and control methods of cauliflower hollow heart. We hope it helps you. To learn more related knowledge, please keep following us.