Causes of leggy eggplant seedlings and the latest prevention measures
When planting eggplant, you first need to raise seedlings, and during the seedling-raising process, leggy growth of eggplant seedlings is very likely to occur, which is not conducive to the formation of strong seedlings, leads to difficulties in later cultivation, and directly affects the yield. So what causes leggy eggplant seedlings? How should they be prevented? Let's learn about it together.
1. Harm of leggy eggplant seedlings
After eggplant seedlings become leggy, because the cuticle layer on the surface of stems and leaves is underdeveloped, water evaporation is high, and they easily lose water in the wind and wilt; the plant body has a relatively high nitrogen content and low carbohydrate content, resulting in poor stress resistance and making it highly susceptible to diseases. Leggy eggplant seedlings cause nutritional deficiency, easily leading to later flower bud differentiation and a small number of flower buds, causing abnormal flower organ development, and making deformed fruit or stiff fruit very likely to appear; moreover, after transplanting, recovery is slow and the survival rate is low.
2. Causes of leggy eggplant seedlings
There are many causes of leggy eggplant seedlings, and the period when leggy growth is most likely to occur is the emergence stage when the cotyledons unfold. At this time, leggy growth is mainly due to sowing too densely and failure to remove the covering in time after the seedlings emerge, causing the seedlings to be too crowded and thus become leggy. Failure to lower the temperature in time after emergence also very easily causes leggy growth. During the cotyledon unfolding stage, failure to thin the seedlings in time or excessive temperature can also cause the seedlings to be too crowded and become leggy. Before transplanting and seedling recovery, continuous rainy days, relatively high humidity in the seedbed, and excessive nitrogen fertilizer also very easily cause leggy growth.
3. Prevention measures
On the premise of ensuring a suitable temperature in the seedbed, the covering should be removed in time, and the duration of natural light on the seedbed should be extended as much as possible, so that the seedbed has sufficient light and excessive growth of the seedlings is inhibited. At the same time, the seedbed temperature should be appropriately lowered. When half of the seedlings in the seedbed have emerged, the daytime temperature should be lowered to 25 degrees in time, and the nighttime temperature must not exceed 15 degrees. If the seedlings are too crowded and become leggy because the density is too high, they should be thinned early to widen the spacing between seedlings. At the same time, seedbed management should be strengthened, and foliar fertilizer should be sprayed in time to supplement the nutrients of the seedlings. For those that have already become leggy, growth regulators such as chlormequat can also be sprayed on the leaves to inhibit leggy growth.
The above is an introduction to the causes of leggy eggplant seedlings and prevention measures. We hope it can help you. To learn more related knowledge, please follow us.