How to Control Excessive Growth in Cucumber Seedlings? Detailed Practical Methods
Cucumber is a very common cucurbit vegetable in China, and its planting area in China is also very large. When growing cucumbers, management work is very important, especially during the seedling stage. If management is improper, cucumber seedlings are very prone to excessive growth, leading to reduced yield. So how should excessive growth in cucumber seedlings be controlled? Below, the editor brings you the methods for controlling excessive growth in cucumber seedlings. Let's take a look together!
1. Growth regulators
During the cucumber seedling stage, in order to avoid excessive growth of the seedlings, we can appropriately use growth regulators, which can effectively prevent cucumbers from growing wildly. However, they must not be used in excess. If growth regulators are used in excess, then cucumber growth will slow down, or even stop growing. Moreover, when the cucumber vines grow to half the trellis height, growth regulators must not continue to be used. If they continue to be used, it will have a great impact on cucumber flower bud differentiation and fruit setting, and the planting benefits will also decline as a result.
2. Day-night temperature difference
After stopping the use of growth regulators, we should prevent excessive growth during the cucumber seedling stage by controlling the day-night temperature difference. First, we need to widen the day-night temperature difference. When the seedlings show excessive growth, the temperature inside the greenhouse should be adjusted in time. Under normal circumstances, during the day, the temperature in the greenhouse should be controlled at around 26-28°C, and the day-night temperature difference should be maintained at around 15°C. At night, the lowest temperature must not be lower than 10°C, otherwise the cucumbers are prone to cold damage, affecting normal flowering and fruit setting. A suitable day-night temperature difference can not only prevent excessive growth of cucumbers, but also increase cucumber yield.
3. Water and fertilizer management
Water and fertilizer are also very important to cucumber growth. Cucumbers have strong growth capacity and relatively high yield, so during planting, the demand for water and fertilizer is also relatively large. However, the amounts must also be well controlled, especially nitrogen fertilizer. If too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied, it is very easy to cause excessive growth of cucumbers. Therefore, when applying base fertilizer before planting, an appropriate amount of nitrogen fertilizer should be added to the base fertilizer, and then no more nitrogen fertilizer should be applied during the growth process. Attention should also be paid to controlling the amount of watering. Watering should not be excessive; keeping the soil moist is sufficient. When too much water is applied, drainage should be carried out in time to prevent excessive growth of the seedlings.
4. Bending the vines
When growing cucumbers, we should often observe the growth of the cucumber seedlings. Especially during seedling growth, no matter when the cucumber plants show excessive vegetative growth, we can appropriately bend down the heads of the overgrowing cucumber vines. Turn the growing point of the vine head downward to avoid excessive apical dominance. This promotes the transport of nutrients within the cucumber plant to the lower and middle parts of the plant, inhibits growth at the top, and can effectively alleviate excessive growth, thereby achieving the purpose of controlling excessive growth and increasing yield.
The above is a brief introduction to the methods for controlling excessive growth in cucumber seedlings. Controlling excessive growth in cucumbers is very important and is directly related to cucumber yield and quality, so everyone must pay close attention to it. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and I hope it can be helpful to everyone.