The correct method for diagonal staking of eggplants to prevent lodging

To prevent eggplants from lodging, when the plants reach 30 cm, use bamboo poles or wooden sticks to stake the eggplants or hang them up with silk cord. Many vegetable growers insert the bamboo pole or wooden stick straight into the soil about 4 cm from the plant, and then secure the eggplant.

However, recently the author found in Dongdanhe Village, Daotian Town, Shouguang City, Shandong Province, that Mr. Li's eggplants were not staked vertically but diagonally. The author was very curious, so asked Mr. Li, who was staking eggplants in the greenhouse.

Mr. Li told the author that he used to use the vertical staking method as well. But vertical staking holds the plant upright, making apical dominance obvious and easily causing excessive vegetative growth. As a result, many vegetable growers delayed the time for staking the plants, and the plants then tended to lodge once they reached a certain height, making later staking troublesome.

To balance this contradiction, Mr. Li improved his staking method by inserting the bamboo pole or wooden stick diagonally into the soil, which both solved the lodging problem well and avoided excessive growth. The specific operation is as follows:

When the plant grows to 30 cm, on the due south side of the plant, 10 cm away from the plant, insert the bamboo pole diagonally toward the north, with the bamboo pole about 40 cm long, so that the bamboo pole forms a 60-degree angle with the ground. In this way the bamboo pole crosses the plant, and then secure the plant to the bamboo pole; when securing it, the plant should also form a 60-degree angle with the ground. Let the plant grow lying slightly, which can both prevent lodging and inhibit apical dominance, prevent excessive vegetative growth, make the plant sturdy, and enhance the plant's disease resistance.