Which vegetables are suitable for soilless cultivation?
Soilless cultivation of vegetables is the most advanced cultivation technique in the world today. Because soilless cultivation has many advantages over soil cultivation, the area devoted to soilless cultivation has shown a straight-line upward trend in recent years. Generally, the main types of soilless cultivation are hydroponics, rockwool culture and substrate culture. Let's take a look below at which vegetables can be grown with soilless cultivation!
Which vegetables can be grown with soilless cultivation?
1. Hydroponics: lettuce, bok choy, celery, beet, water spinach, Chinese chives, garlic sprouts, amaranth, etc.
2. Rockwool culture: tomato, cucumber, bitter melon, zucchini, bell pepper, etc.
3. Substrate culture: potato, radish, colored bell pepper, hot pepper, tomato, eggplant, etc.
What types of soilless cultivation are there?
1. Hydroponics: hydroponic vegetables are vegetables whose roots mostly grow in the layers of nutrient solution, and which are supplied with water, nutrients and oxygen only through the nutrient solution, unlike traditional soil cultivation, though certain substrates may be used when raising seedlings.
2. Rockwool culture: rockwool culture is the planting of plants in pre-made rockwool. Rockwool is made from 60% diabase, 20% limestone and 20% coke, melted at a high temperature of 1600°C, sprayed into 0.005 mm fibers and pressed into blocks.
3. Substrate culture: substrate culture is the fixing of crop roots in an organic or inorganic substrate and the supply of nutrient solution to the crops by drip irrigation or trickle irrigation. The cultivation substrate can be put into plastic bags and laid in cultivation furrows or troughs.
Advantages of soilless cultivation of vegetables
1. It can increase yield: in soilless cultivation, the various nutrient elements required by crops are applied as an artificially prepared nutrient solution, and nutrients can be supplied scientifically according to the crop species and the different growth stages of the same crop, so the crops grow robustly and have strong growth vigor.
2. The environment is clean and hygienic: soilless cultivation uses inorganic fertilizers, while soil cultivation uses organic fertilizers; as the fertilizers decompose and ferment, they produce odors that pollute the environment and also cause the eggs of many pests to breed, harming the crops. Soilless cultivation does not have these problems.
3. It saves water, fertilizer and labor: soilless cultivation does not require operations such as intertillage, plowing and hoeing, saving effort and labor. Watering and topdressing are handled at the same time, and because the solution supply system provides them at fixed times and in fixed amounts, there is no waste, and management is very convenient, greatly reducing labor intensity.
4. It avoids continuous cropping obstacles: soilless cultivation can avoid continuous cropping obstacles. In vegetable planting, reasonable crop rotation and avoiding repeated cropping year after year are among the important measures to prevent the severe occurrence and spread of diseases, and soilless cultivation solves this problem at its root.
5. It is not limited by soil: soilless cultivation completely frees crops from the soil environment and is not limited by soil quality or water conditions. Many deserts, wastelands or areas difficult to cultivate on Earth can all be utilized by adopting soilless cultivation methods.
6. It makes full use of space: soilless cultivation breaks free from the constraints of land, so it is not limited by space. Flat rooftops of urban buildings can be used to grow vegetables and flowers, invisibly expanding the cultivation area, and production can also be carried out according to human will.