Practical Ways to Use Vegetables to Prevent and Treat Diseases of Flowers and Ornamental Plants
In fact, many pests and diseases of flowers and ornamental plants can be controlled with vegetables. Using vegetables to prevent and treat flower and ornamental plant diseases is not only safe but also does not pollute the environment. Here, the editor introduces several methods of using vegetables to prevent and treat flower and ornamental plant diseases; friends in need can learn from them.
Camellia
1. Take 50 g of fresh chili peppers or dried chili peppers, add 5000 g of water and boil for half an hour. Spraying the liquid on the plants can kill aphids and red spider mites. Take 1 part of Chaotian Qixing peppers (the redder the better), do not boil, crush and remove the residue, then add 5 times the amount of water to make a liquid and spray the plants; this can control armyworms and caterpillars.
2. Chop 50 g of Welsh onion, add 1500 g of water and soak for 24 hours, then filter. Spraying the liquid on the plants can control aphids and powdery mildew.
3. Crush garlic and place it in the flower pot soil; after 2-3 days it can eliminate ants and centipedes in the pot soil.
4. Mash 20 g of onion bulbs, add 1000 g of water and soak for 24 hours, then filter. Spraying the liquid on the plants can control aphids and red spider mites.
5. Mash fresh tomato leaves into a pulp, dilute with 2-3 times the amount of water and soak for 6 hours, then filter and take the liquid to spray the plants to control red spider mites. Adding a small amount of laundry detergent gives better results.
6. Add water to bitter melon leaves and mash them, then filter and take the liquid, add an equal amount of limewater and mix well, and pour it into the pot soil to control cutworms and mole crickets.
Preventive Methods to Reduce the Harm of Late Spring Cold to Open-field Flowers and Ornamental Plants
1. Prevention in agricultural production
March 11 news from China Garden Network: ① Grasp the patterns of late spring cold occurrence and listen to late spring cold weather forecasts. As the farming proverb says: "Spring weather is like a child's face," which shows that spring weather is changeable, sometimes warm and sometimes cold. We should seize the "cold tail and warm head" in the process of weather evolution and sow during clear weather. Generally, when the daily average temperature reaches 12°C and the minimum temperature is not lower than 5°C, and there are 3-5 sunny days after sowing (daily sunshine of more than 3 hours), it is favorable for sowing and raising seedlings of early rice.
② Strengthen field management and improve the microclimate conditions of farmland. Carry out scientific irrigation and drainage for early rice seedling fields, and when late spring cold arrives, use deep water to protect the seedlings, adopting "irrigate at night and drain during the day" and "drain on sunny days and irrigate on rainy days" to regulate the water and heat conditions of the seedling field.
③ In areas with conditions, greenhouse steam or soilless seedling cultivation can be adopted, so that the entire early rice seedling-raising process is completely under artificial control, ensuring the cultivation of strong seedlings of the appropriate age.
2 How to reduce the harm of late spring cold to open-field flowers and ornamental plants
When the temperature is relatively low, the harm to open-field flowers and ornamental plants is more serious, greatly affecting the growth and sprouting of Chinese rose, cedar, Chinese juniper, privet, osmanthus, crape myrtle, and others. Based on the practice of flower and ornamental plant experts and local flower farmers, the techniques for reducing the harm of "late spring cold" to open-field flowers and ornamental plants are briefly described as follows.
First is watering. After the "late spring cold" passes, seize the cold tail and warm head, and adopt methods such as cellar irrigation, flood irrigation, and root watering to irrigate once the flowers and ornamental plants that suffered severe freezing injury, cold injury, and chill injury, using water to alleviate the harm of low temperature.
Second is hilling the roots. Combined with spring weeding, carry out shallow intertillage between rows and plants of flowers and ornamental plants, and earth up around the roots. For trees and semi-trees, the hilling height is 4-6 cm; for hedges, shrubs, and vines, the hilling height is 2-4 cm. Through intertillage and hilling, increase the soil temperature around the rhizosphere.
Third is fertilizing. For mild freezing injury, apply 20 kg of urea per mu, plus 20 kg of ternary compound fertilizer; for moderate freezing injury, in addition to applying chemical fertilizers, apply more than 15 loads of organic fertilizer per mu (such as human and livestock manure and urine, barnyard manure, etc.); for severe freezing injury, additionally apply more than 25 loads of organic fertilizer per mu, and apply chlormequat, rooting and seedling-strengthening agents, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, etc. 2-3 times, which can be sprayed outside the roots at intervals of 5-7 days to promote rapid recovery of growth.
Fourth is disease prevention. After flowers and ornamental plants are frozen, their disease resistance declines, and pathogens are likely to infect them. Diseases caused by low temperature mainly include phytophthora blight, anthracnose, sheath blight, sclerotinia rot, canker, viral diseases, etc. They can be controlled with ethylicin, triadimefon, carbendazim, iodine preparations, etc. plus humic acid, amino acids, active enzymes, and trace element foliar fertilizers. If the disease is severe, spray once every 5-7 days for 3-4 consecutive sprays.
3. Health prevention
For the discomfort caused to the human body by "late spring cold," especially for people with chronic diseases and the elderly, the prevention methods are: first, when the temperature drops suddenly, pay attention to adding clothes and keeping warm, especially keeping the hands, mouth, and nose warm; second, strengthen physical exercise to improve physical fitness; third, pay attention to rest and maintaining emotional stability, avoiding excessive fatigue and mental tension; fourth, during the "late spring cold" period, eat more foods such as garlic, onion, and celery.
After winter, there is generally a period of "late spring cold."
People with weak constitutions and poor immunity should pay attention to the following five points:
First, properly "keep warm in spring"; do not immediately take off winter clothes just because the temperature temporarily rises. Morning and evening temperatures are relatively low, so pay attention to keeping warm.
Second, eat more foods that strengthen the spleen and stomach, such as chicken, duck, lean meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and others that are rich in vitamins and trace elements and easy to digest.
Third, ensure timely dust removal and ventilation indoors to reduce and inhibit the survival and reproduction of pathogens.
Fourth, properly carry out outdoor activities and breathe fresh air to improve cardiopulmonary function, so that the body can better regulate itself and adapt to the changeable spring climate.
Fifth, drink more water; this not only helps maintain smooth blood flow but can also prevent respiratory diseases.
Little Flower-Growing Facts You Must Know
Introduce some little flower-growing facts that are useful when growing flowers.
Clever ways to water flowers when no one is home:
Method 1: Fill a sealed plastic bag with water, tie the opening tightly, poke a hole in the bottom, and place the bag in the flower pot. Only after 10 days to half a month will all the water in the bag seep into the flower pot, which can solve the problem of watering flowers in time when no one is home.
Method 2: Put water in a cup and place it higher than the flower pot (the cup and flower pot are both placed on the same plane). Put one end of a cloth strip into the bottle and the other end into the flower pot, so that water can slowly seep into the flower pot.
Methods for killing insects when growing flowers indoors:
Method 1: Cut the white part of Welsh onion into small fine sections and then grind it into onion paste. Rinse it with water, pour it into a spray bottle, and spray it on the flowers.
Method 2: Insert fresh orange peel into the soil of the flower pot. It can both kill insects and absorb odors, and orange peel is also an excellent fertilizer.
Keeping cut flowers fresh:
Method 1: Add an appropriate amount of salt and sugar water to the water in the vase to extend the flowering period.
Method 2: For woody flowers, burn the bottom 2-3 cm of the plant with fire, then soak it in white liquor for 2-3 minutes, and finally wash it clean with clear water and place it in the vase.
Method 3: For herbaceous flowers, soak the bottom of the plant in hot water for 30 seconds, then take it out and place it in the vase.
What are flowers and ornamental plants? What are the common names and scientific names of flowers and ornamental plants?
"Flowers and ornamental plants" has both narrow and broad interpretations. In the narrow sense, "flowers and ornamental plants" refers to herbaceous plants with ornamental value, such as chrysanthemums, garden balsam, and others. In the broad sense, "flowers and ornamental plants" refers to all plants whose flowers, stems, leaves, fruits, or roots have ornamental value in form or color. Therefore, in the broad sense, flowers and ornamental plants include not only herbaceous plants but also trees, shrubs, vines, and groundcover plants.
Names that are widely accepted but usually have no scientific source are collectively called common names of flowers and ornamental plants, or common names for short, such as chrysanthemum, stock, and others. There are many ways to choose common names. For example, some are named according to flower form, such as cockscomb and dancing-lady orchid; some are named according to flowering season, such as spring orchid and autumn orchid; some are named according to transliteration, such as carnation; and there are other naming methods. In fact, some flowers and ornamental plants became famous far and wide because of the publication and release of literary or film and television works before some people even knew them, such as the names stock and tulip. Although the common names of flowers and ornamental plants are widely recognized and accepted, they often have phenomena such as one flower having multiple names and different flowers sharing the same name, which easily confuses people and is not conducive to communication and trade.
For the scientific names of flowers and ornamental plants, according to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants, they are divided into three levels: genus-species-cultivar. Genus names and species names are composed of Latin or Latinized words and are italicized in print. Cultivar names are not italicized, and they have two ways of being written: one is to add the abbreviation symbol "cv." before the cultivar name; the other is to directly add single quotation marks around the cultivar name. Unlike common names, each kind of flower and ornamental plant has only one scientific name, thus eliminating the possibility of mistakes in communication, trade, scientific research, and other settings.
How are flowers and ornamental plants classified? What is the practical classification of flowers and ornamental plants?
There are many kinds of flowers and ornamental plants and a wide range, including not only flowering plants but also mosses, ferns, and other plants, and their cultivation and application methods are also diverse. Therefore, because the bases differ, there are many classification methods for flowers and ornamental plants. The commonly used classification methods mainly include:
First, classification according to the botanical system. This classification is mainly based on botanical morphological characteristics as the main basis, classified according to family, genus, species, and variety, and given names in Latin form.
Second, classification according to natural distribution. It is mainly divided into tropical flowers, temperate flowers, cold-zone flowers, alpine plants, aquatic flowers, rock plants, and desert plants.
Third, classification according to principle and use. It is divided into flower bed flowers, pot flowers, cut flowers, and picked flowers.
Fourth, classification according to ornamental parts, divided into flower-viewing flowers, fruit-viewing flowers, stem-viewing flowers, and foliage-viewing flowers.
Fifth, classification according to natural flowering season. It is divided into spring-flowering types, summer-flowering types, autumn-flowering types, and winter-flowering types.
Sixth, classification according to economic use, divided into ornamental flowers, medicinal flowers, spice flowers, and edible flowers.
Seventh, classification according to ecological habits. It is mainly divided into annual herbaceous flowers, biennial herbaceous flowers, perennial herbaceous flowers, and woody flowers.
Eighth, classification according to place of origin. The world is divided into seven climate types. Within the regions belonging to each climate type, due to the unique climate conditions, natural distribution centers of wild flowers have formed. These seven climate types are: China climate type, Europe climate type, Mediterranean climate type, Mexico climate type, tropical climate type, desert climate type, and cold-zone climate type.
The following mainly introduces the practical classification of flowers and ornamental plants. The practical classification of flowers and ornamental plants is a classification method adopted from the standpoint of horticulture, and here flowers and ornamental plants are mainly divided into 8 groups.
First, annual and biennial herbaceous flowers: annual herbaceous flowers refer to flowers that complete their entire growth cycle within one year from seed sowing. Biennial herbaceous flowers refer to flowers that complete their entire growth cycle within two years from seed sowing.
Second, perennial herbaceous flowers: perennial herbaceous flowers refer to perennial herbaceous flowers with a growth cycle of more than two years (excluding bulbous flowers below).
Third, bulbous flowers: bulbous flowers are a type of perennial herbaceous plant. In order to tolerate adverse environments such as dryness and low temperature, they form thickened structures with special morphology and ecology underground and store a large amount of nutrients. They can be divided into spring-planted bulbs and autumn-planted bulbs.
Fourth, woody flowers: ornamental flowers with lignified stems and many years of growth, which can be divided into tall trees with one trunk or a few trunks, and shrubs with more branches and a shorter crown.
Fifth, greenhouse flowers: herbaceous or woody flowers that, under natural conditions in temperate zones, either cannot overwinter or have difficulty overwintering.
Sixth, foliage plants: plants whose leaves are the main ornamental object, but some plants also have ornamental flowers, such as bromeliad flowers.
Seventh, orchids: including the entire Orchidaceae family. Cultivated species are constantly increasing, and hybrid cultivars are even more numerous.
Eighth, cacti and succulents: plants native to the desert climate type, with fleshy bodies.
Why is China called the "Mother of Gardens" of the world?
China is very rich in flower resources, with countless rare flowers and exotic plants. For example, for rhododendrons, the number of original species in the world is about 800, while China accounts for about 650. There are about 220 species of camellia in the world, while 195 species grow in China; among nearly 500 species of primrose, China accounts for about 390.
China has a vast territory, complex natural conditions, and diverse terrain, climate, and soils; especially during the Mesozoic and Tertiary periods when gymnosperms arose and developed, the climate was always warm; during the Quaternary glaciation, China was not damaged by the northern continental ice sheet and was only affected by mountain glaciers and climate fluctuations, basically maintaining the relatively stable climate of the Tertiary ancient tropics. Because of these reasons, China's plant resources are very rich, and it is the largest center among the eight major centers of origin of cultivated plants in the world. Among the approximately 270,000 known flowering plant species, China has about more than 25,000. Among some ancient relict groups that had long been extinct in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, those still preserved in China to this day include ginkgo, Cathaya argyrophylla, Chinese swamp cypress, golden larch, dove tree, katsura tree, and others.
China's flower resources flowed to all parts of the world through various channels, making a great contribution to enriching world horticulture. After the 16th century, a large number of China's flower resources were introduced abroad. After European and American countries introduced Chinese flowers, they quickly changed their original appearance. Therefore, foreign countries often called going to China to collect flower resources "digging gold." Britain once introduced thousands of garden plants from China, which played a major role in some specialized gardens or wall gardens, rhododendron gardens, rose gardens, peony and herbaceous peony gardens, rock gardens, and others. In Europe, there was once a saying: without Chinese flowers and trees, it cannot be called a garden.
Since 1899, a man named Henry Wilson came to China five times to collect cultivated and wild flowers. Over a period of 18 years, he traveled throughout Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan, Gansu, Shaanxi, and Taiwan, China, collecting 1,200 species of trees and shrubs and 65,000 herbarium specimens. In 1929, Wilson published in the United States his notes on collecting in China, and the title was "China, Mother of Gardens." From then on, China has been called the "Mother of Gardens" of the world.
It can be said that every country that has introduced plants has planted Chinese flowers. Some of the flower germplasm resources introduced abroad are directly used in landscaping, making great contributions to gardens around the world; others are used as parents for cross-breeding flowers, playing a huge role in fundamentally transforming original flowers, because many Chinese flower species and cultivars have characteristics such as early flowering, flowering in all seasons, fragrance, excellent traits, and strong stress resistance.
What are the functions of growing flowers and ornamental plants?
First, their role in life and culture
Flowers and ornamental plants are the most beautiful products of nature, and their beauty is mainly shown in color, form, and fragrance. Flowers and ornamental plants give people enjoyment of beauty, and everyone has a love of beauty. In the world, although countries, ethnic groups, skin colors, languages, customs, systems, and so on are all different, people's love of flowers and ornamental plants is common.
Growing flowers can enrich people's spiritual life, make people relaxed and happy, eliminate fatigue, improve physical and mental health, and also exercise willpower and improve scientific and cultural accomplishment. Especially when the flowers cultivated through one's own hard work bloom, that feeling is beyond comparison.
At home and abroad, people all regard flowers as symbols of beauty, happiness, auspiciousness, and friendship. On occasions such as festive days, banquets, visiting relatives and friends, visiting patients, welcoming and seeing off guests, and international exchange activities, using flowers as gifts has become a good habit.
Second, their role in landscaping
Flowers and ornamental plants are important materials for landscaping, beautifying, and adding fragrance to the environment. Using flowers and ornamental plants to arrange flower beds, flower borders, flower terraces, flower clumps, and so on provides people with a beautiful working and resting environment, enabling people to enjoy nature in life or after work, thus achieving the purpose of serving people's life and work.
Flowers and ornamental plants also have effects such as dust prevention, sterilization, and absorption of harmful gases, playing roles in purifying air, regulating climate, and reducing urban noise, and are extremely beneficial to people's physical and mental health.
Third, growing flowers and ornamental plants has high economic benefits
Due to various reasons, flowers and ornamental plants currently rank first in economic benefits in the planting industry. In Italy, the output value ratio of fruits, vegetables, and fresh cut flowers per hectare is 1:1.2:10; in Colombia, each mu of flowers can earn up to 4,450 US dollars in foreign exchange, enough to buy 20,000 kg of rice. The high-benefit flower industry has become a target that many countries, whether developed or developing, are striving to develop. Since China's reform and opening up, the flower industry has also developed very rapidly, and the number of people who became rich by growing flowers is countless.
Fourth, the roles of flowers and ornamental plants in other aspects
Flowers and ornamental plants can be used as food. China has always had the habit of eating flowers, such as daylily, lily, and giant water lily. Fresh flowers contain large amounts of amino acids, vitamins, trace elements, and other substances, which are beneficial to health. Foreign countries also use fresh flowers to prepare dishes and make beverages, foods, and so on.
Flowers and ornamental plants can be used as medicine. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine in China, flowers and ornamental plants are good medicines for preventing and treating diseases and strengthening the body. Common ones in Chinese materia medica include honeysuckle, balloon flower, fritillary, dendrobium, cockscomb, and dwarf lilyturf.
Flowers and ornamental plants can also be used to make tea, such as chrysanthemum tea, jasmine tea, rose tea, and osmanthus tea.
Flowers and ornamental plants can also be used to extract essences; for example, the flowers of osmanthus, rose, magnolia, and clove can all be used to extract essences. The rose oil extracted from roses is equivalent in price to gold, or even higher than gold.