Spring Greenhouse Pepper Planting Techniques and Management Methods: 4 Tips for a Bumper Pepper Harvest
Peppers are cultivated in every part of our country, and their flavor is deeply loved by consumers. With the development of protected cultivation technology, cultivation forms have diversified, and multi-crop cultivation and growth can be carried out throughout the year. When using a greenhouse to grow peppers in spring, what are the planting techniques and management methods? These 4 tips help peppers yield abundantly!
Spring Greenhouse Pepper Planting Techniques and Management Methods
1. Planting time
Peppers are a warm-loving vegetable. During early-maturing cultivation, the early-stage temperature is low. Planting too early results in higher management costs, while planting too late affects the improvement of production efficiency. Generally, seedlings are raised in late December, and field planting in mid-to-late March is more suitable.
2. Seed selection
For spring greenhouse early-maturing cultivation of peppers, choose varieties with strong disease resistance, low-temperature tolerance, good low-light performance, fast fruit swelling, concentrated fruit set, compact plant type, and strong continuous fruit-setting ability, so as to achieve increased yield and economic benefits.
3. Preparing the greenhouse for field planting
For growing peppers in a greenhouse in early spring, the greenhouse film should be put on 15 days before field planting to prevent the effects of adverse weather and also to help warm the soil and increase ground temperature. Peppers like warmth and cannot tolerate frost, so field planting is generally carried out on a sunny day in mid-to-late March. Before transplanting, the soil should be deep-ploughed. In combination with soil preparation, apply 3000 kg of decomposed farmyard manure, 120 kg of cake fertilizer, and 50 kg of compound fertilizer per mu as base fertilizer. Then form ridges 80 cm wide and 20 cm high, and cover the ridges with plastic film. Close the vents, and according to the standard of 10 g of sulfur per cubic meter, mix sulfur with sawdust or wheat bran, light it to fumigate for disinfection, and ventilate after 48 hours to kill pathogens, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of diseases.
4. Field management
Temperature: Within one week after field planting, pepper seedlings are basically not ventilated to speed up seedling recovery. After seedling recovery, appropriate ventilation is needed; generally seedling recovery takes about one week. Because the temperature inside the plastic-film-covered greenhouse rises and falls quickly, when the daytime temperature exceeds 30°C, ventilation should be carried out promptly. In the early stage, because the outside temperature is still low, be careful not to let air in from the sides; ventilation should start from the upper part, and it is suitable to maintain the daytime temperature inside the greenhouse at 25-27°C, while paying attention to cold protection at night. When the minimum nighttime temperature outside stabilizes at 15°C in early-to-mid May, the greenhouse film can be removed and open-field management carried out.
Supporting: In greenhouse cultivation of peppers, due to high temperature and high humidity, vegetative growth is more vigorous than in open-field cultivation, with abundant stems and leaves, and plants are prone to lodging. After field planting, bamboo poles should be used beside the plants to fix them horizontally and prevent lodging. When the seedlings grow to 30-40 cm, use small bamboo poles to fix the plants. You can also insert bamboo poles at both ends and the middle of each ridge and pull ropes to support the plants and fix the seedling frame.
Fertilizer and water: During the growth process of peppers, intertillage should be carried out multiple times to keep the soil loose, promote the growth of the pepper root system, and help the plants absorb water and nutrients. Peppers like fertilizer and tolerate fertilizer, so during the plant growth period, topdressing should be carried out multiple times to promote high yield. At the beginning of the flowering stage of peppers, in combination with watering, apply 7 kg of urea per mu, and spray 0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate on the leaves 2-3 times. During the full fruit stage, the plants have the highest nutritional demand, so compound fertilizer can be applied 1-2 times, with 15 kg per mu each time. The root system of peppers is not well developed and is neither tolerant of waterlogging nor drought. During growth, high soil moisture and low air humidity are required. In order to increase the indoor temperature and reduce air humidity, plastic film mulching is necessary, and usually more attention should be paid to ventilation and dehumidification in the greenhouse. When watering, it is best to do so after 8 a.m., and at noon when the temperature is high, ventilate appropriately to remove moisture. After fruiting, increase the frequency and amount of watering, increase ventilation frequency, and control air humidity.
In short, when planting peppers in a spring greenhouse, management of temperature, water, humidity, and nutrients must be strengthened, and strong seedlings should be cultivated as much as possible. Be familiar with the symptoms of common pests and diseases, and achieve early detection and early treatment. Only by doing these things well can we improve the economic benefits of our pepper cultivation.