How to grow loofah in greenhouse? Key points of loofah cultivation technology

Sponge gourd is a vegetable with certain nutritional value, so how can we better cultivate sponge gourd in the solar greenhouse? Let's talk about it in detail below:

1. Site selection and seed selection:

Choose a field with loose soil, far away from "three wastes" and no pollution for planting. Choose early-maturing, high-yielding and disease-resistant varieties to reduce the amount of pesticides used. In the Huanghuai region, varieties such as "Xiatang No. 1", "Five-leaf Fragrant Sponge Gourd", "Early-maturing Rod-shaped" Sponge Gourd and "Yahua Zaojia" Sponge Gourd are generally used.

2. Raise seedlings and transplant, and plant scientifically.

Winter and spring loofahs are sown in early to mid-October to ensure that they are available in bulk before the Spring Festival. Before sowing, expose the seeds to the sun for 2-3 days, scald them in 55℃ hot water for 10-15 minutes, soak them for 6-10 hours, then wrap them with wet cloth and germinate them at 30℃. Sow them when 90% of the seeds are white. Use disease-free soil for seedling cultivation in the seedbed, and replace the old seedbed with new soil. The temperature of the seedbed should be controlled at 25-30℃ during the day and not lower than 15℃ at night. When the first true leaf of the loofah seedling unfolds, move it into a plastic nutrient pot filled with nutrient soil, which is conducive to cultivating strong seedlings. 40-45 days before transplanting, choose a sunny morning to transplant in a solar greenhouse. 20 days before planting, the land should be prepared and fertilized. 3,000 kg of decomposed human feces and urine, 150 kg of cake fertilizer, 25 kg of superphosphate, and 60 kg of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium compound fertilizers should be applied per mu. The soil should be plowed 30 cm deep, and ridges should be built with a row spacing of 90 cm after harrowing. The upper ridge should be 40 cm wide and 20 cm high, with deep furrows and high ridges, which are conducive to drainage and irrigation. Wide and narrow rows should be planted, with a wide row of 70 cm and a narrow row of 20 cm. The planting spacing should be 35-40 cm. About 3,700 plants should be planted per mu. After planting, the ground film should be covered and holes should be made to lead the seedlings out of the film.

3. Management after seedling establishment

1. Temperature: Reduce ventilation within 7 days after transplanting to increase the indoor temperature and promote early seedling growth. After the seedlings have grown, the daytime temperature in the greenhouse should be controlled at 28-30℃. If it is above 30℃, the wind should be blown away. The night temperature should be maintained at 14-16℃. If the weather cools down, temporary heating measures should be adopted to keep the night temperature not lower than 8℃.

2. Fertilizer and water: organic fertilizer is the main fertilizer, and less or no chemical fertilizer is used to reduce chemical fertilizer pollution. Before fruiting, apply seedling fertilizer once in combination with watering, and you can apply decomposed human feces and urine. After flowering and fruiting, apply melon-swelling fertilizer once. When entering the vigorous growth period, the demand for water and fertilizer increases greatly. Generally, fertilizer is applied once every 15 days in combination with watering, and 20 kg of urea can be applied per mu each time.

Sponge gourds have a high demand for water and fertilizer, especially in the peak period of fruiting. It is necessary to apply more fertilizer and water more, which is the key to ensure high yield. At the same time, on sunny mornings, carbon dioxide gas fertilizer can be appropriately applied. Remember to ventilate and remove moisture after watering.

3. Plant adjustment. When the loofah grows to more than five leaves, the stems begin to stretch and should be tied in time. Usually, plastic ropes are used to hang the vines for easy management and pruning. As the stems stretch, the vines should be trimmed and pruned several times. The stems are generally kept at a height of about 1.5 meters to prevent the top from being burned. In order to maintain the growth advantage of the main vine, all side vines should be removed before the first female flower appears. After the side vines that appear later bear fruit, keep one leaf and prune them in time.

4. Protecting the melon: Loofah is a cross-pollination crop. Under protected cultivation conditions, artificial pollination must be carried out. The pollination time is to use artificial flower pairing before 8 am.

4. Disease and pest control.

The diseases of loofah are mainly blight, anthracnose, downy mildew, and wilt. For blight, spray 75% chlorothalonil 800 times solution twice at the early stage of the disease; for anthracnose, use 40% anthracnose 300 times solution; for downy mildew, spray 750 times solution of potassium permanganate, once every 5-7 days, and spray 4 times in a row. For wilt, after pulling out the diseased plants, disinfect them with 20% lime water immediately, and then spray 100-150 mg/kg of agricultural streptomycin 3 times. The main insect pests of loofah are aphids and whiteflies. The main method is to use yellow board trapping to reduce the amount of pesticides and reduce pesticide residues.

5. Harvest at the right time.

Luffa is mainly edible as a tender melon. The harvesting standard is when the fiber inside the fruit is not hardened, the hair on the fruit surface is reduced, and the skin is soft. Greenhouse luffa grows very fast and can generally be harvested 10-12 days after pollination. Harvesting is best done in the morning. Luffa has a strong continuous fruiting ability and can be harvested once a day during the peak fruiting period.