Vegetables play a very important role in our lives and are the main source of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Combined with food crops, they provide the human body with nutrients needed for growth.

Vegetable flower and fruit thinning and flower and fruit preservation techniques are often seen in our previous planting articles. In fact, it is a technique that is often used in actual planting. This planting technology is a method to improve the yield and quality of vegetables and realize scientific planting; at the same time, it also solves the problems of low yield, low income and deformed fruits. As a vegetable grower or planting enthusiast, it is necessary to be familiar with and master this technology.

Thinning flowers and fruits

1. The role of thinning flowers and fruits

For some vegetables that can be eaten fresh, such as: tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers wait. It pays great attention to the quality of individual fruits. If there are too many inflorescences on each branch, it will not only affect the individual fruit shape, but also cause excessive fruit setting, crowding, poor fruit growth, reduced quality, and even an increase in deformed fruits, excessive consumption of nutrients, and the risk of premature plant aging. Therefore, timely thinning of flowers and fruits is necessary to prevent it.

Reasonable flower and fruit thinning can ensure that the plant has a reasonable load capacity, and can also avoid malnutrition caused by multiple causes, accelerate the expansion of high-quality fruits, and improve the uniformity of the fruits, thereby also Improved marketability. For example: for vegetables such as garlic and potatoes, timely removal of flower buds during the growth period will help the underground stems to enlarge and increase yields; for tomatoes, watermelons, cucumbers and other vegetables, timely removal of overly dense flowers and fruits, diseased fruits, and deformed fruits can quickly promote growth. The retained fruits are fully developed and enlarged.

2. Techniques for Thinning Vegetable Flowers and Fruits

1) When thinning flowers and fruits of tomatoes, excessively dense flower buds and deformed flowers should be thinned out during the flowering period. After fruit setting, when the diameter of the young fruit is more than 3 cm, promptly remove irregular fruits, small fruits, deformed fruits under the same ear, and fruits with delayed development. For large-fruited varieties, 3-4 fruits should be left in each ear, and for medium-fruited varieties, 4-5 should be left. More small-fruited varieties can be kept, and generally more than 5 are better. You can keep all the cherry tomatoes except the diseased ones.

2) When thinning the flowers and fruits of watermelon, the fruits are usually thinned after the melons have been seated and pollinated for about 10 days, and deformed melons, diseased melons, and damaged melons are removed. It is better to keep 2 melons per plant, keep the ones that are growing well, and remove all the others. If it is a large-fruited watermelon, it is better to leave one melon on the main vine and one melon on the side vine; both should be left near the 15th node of the vine.

Preserve flowers and fruits

1. The reasons why vegetables drop flowers and fruits

This seems to be a bit opposite to sparse flowers and fruits. To preserve flowers and fruits, try to find ways , preserve the flowers and fruits that need to be preserved. It's just that some reasons have caused the flowers and fruits to fall, so we don't need to remove them manually.

When flower and fruit drop is severe, it is an important factor restricting the production of fruits and vegetables. Generally, there are two main reasons for flower and fruit drop: one is caused by environmental factors, and the other is caused by improper cultivation and management. During the seedling stage or after planting, the external temperature is too low or too high, causing poor differentiation and incomplete development of flower buds, resulting in deformed flowers; unstable temperature during the flowering period, many cloudy and rainy days, insufficient light, and poor pollination can cause flower and fruit drop.

Improper field management, unbalanced application of water and fertilizer, causing vegetative and reproductive organs to compete for nutrients; overgrown plants, excess nutrients, diseases and insect pests, etc., are all direct causes of flower and fruit drop.

2. Technology for preserving flowers and fruits in vegetables

During planting and production, we need to adjust the plants by topping and removing side branches in time to prevent excessive vegetative growth and flower and fruit drop. The main measures to preserve flowers and fruits include: chemical treatment, artificial assisted pollination and other technologies. Commonly used flower and fruit preserving agents include borax, potassium dihydrogen phosphate, anti-falling agent, etc. When tomatoes are cultivated in spring, the early temperature is too high and unstable. You can use anti-dropping agent to dip the flowers in to increase the fruit setting rate. For watermelons, winter melons, etc., we can use artificial pollination to improve pollination quality and fruit setting rate.