Photos/Text/Xiangtu Yijiu

Under natural growing conditions, not all the female flowers and young fruits of cucumbers can be guaranteed to mature successfully from flowering to fruit set.

In particular, greenhouse growers all know that during the fruit enlargement stage, young cucumbers may stop growing, gradually turn yellow and dry up, and eventually wilt and drop off.

This phenomenon is called "fruit abortion" (huagua). If fruit abortion occurs on a large scale in the field, it is abnormal and requires proper field management; if the proportion of female flowers and young fruits that wilt and drop off is relatively small (less than 10%), it can be ignored, as this is a normal phenomenon of cucumber self-regulation.

Large-scale fruit abortion not only affects the yield and quality of cucumbers, but also causes the grower's hard work to be wasted. To avoid and reduce the occurrence of this situation, attention should be paid to the following aspects.

1. Choose the right variety

Especially for greenhouse growers, choosing the right variety is the key to determining high cucumber yields. Although a greenhouse can "create" conditions superior to open-field cultivation, it also has its drawbacks: limited growing space, poor ventilation and light transmission, etc., which often make vegetative growth and reproductive growth insufficiently coordinated. When reproductive growth is inhibited, fruit abortion increases.

Therefore, choosing a variety suited to the growing conditions and with strong stress resistance is the key to success.

2. Improper fertilizer and water management

Cucumbers have a high demand for water and fertilizer, especially after entering the flowering stage, when they are undergoing the transition from vegetative growth to reproductive growth. At this stage, the plants have a very high demand for nutrients. If the amount of fertilizer applied falls short of what cucumbers need, causing "malnutrition," fruit abortion will be triggered.

If too much fertilizer is applied (nitrogen fertilizer), causing excessive vegetative growth of cucumber stems and leaves, fruit abortion can also occur. Therefore, fertilization must be appropriate, and maintaining suitable soil moisture is also a very important part of preventing fruit abortion.

3. Actively prevent and treat diseases

Downy mildew and powdery mildew of cucumbers mainly damage the plant's leaves and will spread and diffuse. Diseases destroy cucumber leaves, preventing the leaves from carrying out effective photosynthesis. Ultimately, this also causes young cucumbers to stop growing, wilt, and drop off. This factor is also a cause of large-scale fruit abortion. Therefore, prevention, timely detection, and "treatment" of diseases are also crucial.

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