How to make and care for potted leeks?

Leeks have green leaves and are evergreen all year round. They can also bolt and bloom in summer. They are beautiful and elegant. Planted in pots and placed in courtyards, balconies or living rooms, they can beautify the home environment. As a perennial root vegetable, leeks can be planted once and can grow for a long time. Moreover, daily management and maintenance are convenient and easy, making them very suitable for household cultivation. Furthermore, pests and diseases of potted leeks are easy to control, and the leeks grown by residents themselves are more environmentally friendly and safe to eat. For ordinary urban residents, making potted leeks is simple and easy. You can do it yourself from beginning to end, or you can buy finished potted leeks from a professional market. After taking them home, you only need daily maintenance to enjoy your eyes and mouth. For professional producers of leeks, they can increase the added value of commercial vegetables by making potted leeks and achieve the purpose of increasing economic income.

(1) Selection of cultivation containers

If residents make their own potted leeks, they can go to the flower market to buy tile pots, purple sand pots, porcelain pots or plastic pots for growing flowers. Tile basins have a rough surface, fine pores, good air permeability, low price, and are very practical, but not very beautiful. Purple sand basins, porcelain basins, and glaze basins are elegant in appearance, but expensive, have poor air permeability and water absorption, and can easily cause waterlogging. And the shortcomings of lack of ventilation; plastic pots are commonly used commercial containers in recent times. Although they are not air-permeable and water-permeable, they are light and cheap. You can also purchase densely meshed plastic baskets often used in supermarkets as cultivation containers. This kind of basket has a strong frame, beautiful appearance, is easy to move and place, is large and deep, and is very conducive to ventilation and drainage. You can also use high-density foam boxes for home appliance packaging. This kind of box is very light and not easy to deform. You can use wide adhesive tape to stick on the periphery of the box for reinforcement. When using it, be sure to make several small drainage holes at the bottom of the box. hole. It is also very practical to make a square wooden box made of 1 cm thick wooden boards, but it needs to be prevented from being soaked in water and leaking. For units specializing in the production of potted leeks, it is recommended to mainly use moderately sized, light and strong hardened plastic pots, plastic baskets or high-density foam boxes.

(2) Preparation of cultivation substrate

The preparation of cultivation substrate should follow the principles of being loose and breathable, having good water and fertilizer retention properties, being lightweight, odorless, and pollution-free. Most of the nutrient soil sold in the flower market has been formulated with nutrients, and most of them contain loose and breathable peat soil as the main component, which can be used directly. You can also refer to some of the substrate ratios described in the above-mentioned organic ecological soilless cultivation for mixing and preparation. The prepared substrate should be sterilized before being potted. Using solar energy for high-temperature disinfection is both safe and convenient. The method is to put the cultivation substrate into a dark, thick polyethylene plastic bag, then pour some more water to seal it, and place it in a place where the sun can fully illuminate it. After one month of high temperature treatment, most harmful organisms can be killed. After disinfection, the cultivation substrate is spread out to dry in preparation for potting. The used old substrate can be reused after such disinfection, it just needs to be remixed with some fertilizer.

(3) Selection of varieties

Potted leeks are mainly used for foliage viewing and harvesting. Therefore, those with broad, straight leaves, dark green leaves, and disease resistance should be selected. Leaf type varieties. When carrying out commercial production, the dormancy characteristics of the varieties must also be considered. If they are to be put on the market during the Spring Festival, it is best to choose deep dormant varieties, because after potting in summer and autumn, these varieties will start to grow after a period of root cultivation. It reaches the low-temperature dormancy stage for 1 to 2 months and cannot grow normally from November to December. Move the leek pots into the greenhouse 30 to 40 days before the planned launch, and the leeks will begin to grow vigorously. During the Spring Festival, leeks are in the harvesting period and have the best commercial performance. If you plan to put it on the market before and after winter, you must choose non-dormant varieties. These varieties can grow rapidly after winter as long as the surrounding temperature conditions are suitable. They can be harvested once from November to December, but they must wait until the Spring Festival. , the overall performance of such varieties is not as good as dormant varieties.

(4) Sowing seeds and raising seedlings

When residents make their own potted leeks, they first use a wooden block with a thickness of about 1 cm to cut 2 to 3 strips of about 0.5 cm on the surface of the cultivation medium in the pot. Make a deep sowing trench, and then spread 50 to 80 leek seeds evenly in each trench. After planting, use a wooden block to gently press the seeds from top to bottom so that the seeds can be in close contact with the substrate. This can prevent reverse growth and floating root seedlings from occurring. Then use a watering can to gently and evenly water the pot with enough water until there is clear water seeping out from the bottom of the pot.

After watering, cover the sowing trench with sterilized vermiculite or fine sand, with a thickness of about 1 cm. In order to prevent the cultivation substrate from drying out, maintaining moisture and causing seed loss due to rain, you can use old newspapers or plastic films to tie up the upper openings of the cultivation pots. Be careful not to let the newspapers or films come into contact with the surface of the substrate. Instead, use bamboo supports or wires to tie them up. It soars. About 10 days after sowing, the seedlings will gradually emerge. Pay attention to watering in the next 2 months. Watering should be dry and wet. In the later period, watering can be combined with some low-concentration nutrient solution to promote the growth of the seedlings. For large-scale production of potted leeks, it is best to use soilless substrates for sowing and raising seedlings in protective facilities such as greenhouses and greenhouses.

(5) Potting and planting

When the seedling height reaches about 25 cm, potting and planting can be carried out. Gently lift out the leek seedlings with a seedling shovel, select strong seedlings, and smooth them out one by one. Use a knife to cut off the upper leaves 2 to 3 cm above the leaf sheath, leaving 3 to 5 cm of the lower fibrous roots. After the long part, every 3 to 5 plants are divided into 1 cluster, and planted in a straight line at a certain distance on the cultivation pot substrate. For units that specialize in the production of potted leeks, they can also dig out leeks with about 3 years old roots from the field in summer, arrange the plants and transplant them into pots for potting.

(6) Daily maintenance

Potted leeks should be placed in a place with sufficient light and ventilation. The outdoor temperature and light environment in spring, summer and autumn is more suitable for the growth of leeks. If the conditions are good, it should be placed in the courtyard or on the terrace. If it is placed on the balcony, it is best to provide frequent ventilation. Generally, family rooms are relatively dry in winter. You can consider using 12# lead wire to build a shelf about 50 cm high on the cultivation pot. The outside of the shelf should be covered with colorless and transparent plastic film to maintain air humidity.

Leeks like fertilizer and water very much. The substrate in the pot should always be kept moist. Topdressing is done 1 to 2 days after each harvest. The amount of fertilizer should not be too large. When it enters the prosperous period, it should be combined with watering and topdressing. Use the film box as a tool to determine the amount of fertilizer for each application. Take 1 to 2 cups of commercially available green leaf flower fertilizer, spread it evenly over the entire pot and then water it.

(7) Harvesting

It can be harvested when the plant is 25 to 40 centimeters high. When harvesting, it should be cut from about 2 to 3 centimeters above the ground. Do not leave the stubble too short. After entering the high-temperature summer, leeks grow rapidly. After every 2 to 3 normal harvests, the harvest cycle should be appropriately lengthened to enrich the storage of nutrients in the rhizomes. Do not harvest continuously too frequently.

(8) Disease and Pest Control

Leeks are most afraid of pests such as leek maggots. In order to prevent adult leek maggots from laying eggs on leeks, you can cover the leeks with an insect-proof net. , blocking the invasion of pests. If underground pests such as leeks and maggots are found, it is best to use plant ash mixed with soil and water to kill them. You can also use low-toxic pesticides such as maggot remover to irrigate the roots. If aphids are found, it is best to kill them manually, or spray them with aphids and other drugs. If dry tips or disease spots appear, you can completely cut off the diseased leaves, which can generally solve the problem. You can also spray low-toxicity pesticides such as chlorothalonil. It is best not to harvest for about 10 days after spraying.