How to manage chives in summer? Just remember these four points
1. Remove weeds.
Summer is hot and rainy, with a suitable climate. This is not only a favorable season for chive growth, but also the best time for all kinds of weeds to grow. Because chive plants are relatively short and cannot provide strong shade, and because of the spacing between chive rows, these conditions create opportunities for weed growth. In field management, pay attention to removing weeds in time to prevent weeds from competing for water and nutrients, and to prevent the phenomenon of weeds starving the seedlings, which affects chive growth. After each watering, cultivate the soil in time, which can both break up soil compaction and achieve the purpose of removing weeds in time. In addition, during the chive growing period, remove weeds between plants in time to facilitate normal growth of the chive plants.
2. Control excessive growth.
Chives grow vigorously in summer. To increase the nutrient storage of chive plants, many growers apply fertilizer to chives at irregular intervals. This very easily causes excessive growth of chives, especially when too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied, which makes excessive growth even more likely. After chives show excessive growth, their plant height increases noticeably, the leaf area coefficient increases, and the plants become thinner and weaker, making them prone to lodging. After chives lodge, the plant layers overlap and shade each other. After a few days, the leaves turn yellow and the plants rot, causing the chives to become waterlogged and die, resulting in missing plants and broken rows. In severe cases, the entire chive bed may suffer total crop loss and need to be replanted. Therefore, in summer chive management, it is essential to focus on controlling excessive growth and promoting sturdy growth. Fertilization should mainly use phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to increase stem thickness and improve strength, achieving the management goal of sturdy but not excessive growth, with thick roots and strong seedlings.
3. Remove chive flower stalks in time.
The end of summer every year is the season when chives bolt and set seed, and bolting and seed setting consume a large amount of nutrients. Under normal circumstances, chives that bolt and set seed have a yield reduction of about 20%-30% compared with chives that do not bolt and set seed, and the quality of chives produced in winter is noticeably lower. Therefore, during the chive bolting season at the end of summer, remove the chive flower stalks in time to prevent nutrient consumption. If it is truly impossible to remove the chive flower stalks in time, then before the chive flower stalks have almost all emerged and before flowering, use a wooden stick to break the chive flower stalks below the chive flowers, so as to reduce nutrient consumption as much as possible.
4. Control chive maggots.
Chive maggots are the main insect pest in chive production. The occurrence of chive maggots can cause large-scale total crop loss of chives, so controlling chive maggots is also important work in chive production. Under normal circumstances, spring after the chive arch shed is removed and late autumn before the shed is covered are key periods for chive maggot occurrence. According to the occurrence time of chive maggots, after removing the chive shed, use 48% chlorpyrifos emulsifiable concentrate at 1 kg per mu, and apply it with water to the roots when watering for control. Before covering the shed, use 48% chlorpyrifos emulsifiable concentrate again at 1 kg per mu with watering to the roots for control, which can achieve a very good control effect.