How to Grow Tianying Chili for High Yield and Quality? A Detailed Guide to Cultivation Techniques

Tianying chili is a premium vegetable variety. It is not only an indispensable delicacy in people's diets, but also a natural raw material for pigment additives in the food industry and for beauty products, with very broad prospects for production and development. To achieve high quality, high yield and high efficiency in Tianying chili production, from 2000 to 2001 the promotion area reached 31,200 hm2, with a yield of 3,407.25 kg/hm2, an increase of 679.35 kg/hm2 over the control, and a total new output value of 159.1076 million yuan, achieving significant economic and social benefits.

1 Seedling Stage Management

(1) Raising Seedlings

The suitable temperature for Tianying chili growth is 20-30°C. In production, seedling raising in small arched sheds or sunny cold frames was promoted, with insulation covers such as straw mats added outside the film, improving the utilization rate of resources such as light, heat and water and the land production efficiency.

(2) Cultivating Strong Seedlings

If the seedlings for transplanting are too large or too small, the ideal yield cannot be achieved. Only seedlings that grow robustly and have strong root regeneration capacity can grow normally after transplanting and achieve the ideal yield result. The peak yield point is at a plant height of 15-18 cm, 10-12 leaves, and a seedling weight of 3-5 g, so we determined the seedling age to be 55-60 days, with a physiological seedling age of more than 10 leaves as strong seedlings.

(3) Timely Transplanting

When the temperature approaches the suitable temperature for chili growth of 20-30°C, appropriately dense planting and balanced fertilization should be carried out.

Appropriate dense planting is the key to maximizing the use of light and heat resources and achieving high quality and high yield. Under general local soil fertility conditions, the highest yield is obtained at a density of 135,000-115,000 plants/hm2.

Chili is a potassium-loving crop. Applying sufficient base fertilizer and increasing potassium fertilizer can effectively reduce chili diseases and improve yield and quality. To determine the reasonable amount of base fertilizer, the optimal base fertilizer is pure N 120 kg/hm2, P2O5 135 kg/hm2, K2O 157.5 kg/hm2, with an N:P:K ratio of 1:1.1:1.3.

3 Intercropping

Tianying chili is a crop that prefers scattered light, and moderate shading promotes both yield and quality. Based on experiments and demonstrations, we vigorously promoted Tianying chili and corn intercropping technology in the project area, with an intercropping area of 19,000 hm2, accounting for 61.3% of the project area. Experiments and demonstrations showed that intercropping Tianying chili with corn has the following advantages: 1) It effectively reduces the incidence of sunscald and improves quality. The diseased plant rate decreased by 60.2%, the diseased leaf rate decreased by 31.8%, the diseased chili rate decreased by 20.4%, and the first-grade product rate increased by 23.25%. 2) Corn leaves are broad and have strong leaf transpiration, which can reduce waterlogging damage to Tianying chili to a certain extent after heavy rain. 3) Corn has an attracting effect on adult pests such as cotton bollworm, facilitating concentrated capture and killing. 4) It increases dried chili by 315 kg/hm2, a 10.47% increase, and yields an additional 1,480.5 kg/hm2 of corn, with the two items combined increasing income by 3,000 yuan/hm2. According to experiments, the best row ratio for chili-corn intercropping is 4-6:1. Corn spacing is 50 cm, single-plant cultivation, with 600-800 plants/hm2 retained, and corn can be sown immediately after Tianying chili is transplanted.

4 Timely Topping

The plant type of Tianying chili is determinate cymose. Its natural growth characteristic is that after the apical growing point produces 14 leaves, it flowers, sets fruit and terminates growth, and then lateral branches emerge from the leaf axils of the lower leaves, with the terminal flower setting and ripening fruit earlier than the flowers on each lateral branch. At the end of June and the beginning of July, when Tianying chili has grown to 14 leaves, timely topping has the following benefits: 1) It destroys apical dominance, regulates the direction of nutrient transport within the plant, and favors the development and growth of lateral branches; topped plants had 0.2 more lateral branches than the control. 2) The plants grow robustly and uniformly, with 6.1 more fruits per plant and 8.4 more fruits of uniform grade. 3) Air circulation and light penetration are improved, favoring photosynthesis and the accumulation of photosynthetic products; the dry weight of 100 chilis increased by 1.2 g compared with the control. 4) The average yield of timely topped plants was 4,612.5 kg/hm2, compared with 4,240.5 kg/hm2 for the control, an increase of 372.0 kg/hm2 over the control, and statistical analysis showed a significant yield-increasing effect.