The meticulous management of greenhouse crops goes beyond watering and fertilizing; it also includes crop work like lowering plants or leaf removal. While these tasks may seem straightforward, incorrect execution can adversely affect the health and productivity of the crop. Understanding the potential pitfalls is crucial for ensuring a successful growing season.
Lowering the Plants
In crops like tomatoes, lowering the plants is a common practice to manage plant height and ensure that fruits are within easy reach for harvesting. Done correctly, this improves air circulation and light penetration, making the plants less susceptible to diseases like blight. However, if executed improperly, lowering can stress the plants, causing issues like stem breakage or root exposure. For instance, lowering the plants too quickly or too much can snap stems and dislodge support stakes, leading to plant injury and reduced productivity.
Leaf Removal
The purpose of leaf removal in many crops is to improve air circulation, reduce disease pressure, and enable better light penetration to lower leaves. Yet, excessive leaf removal can expose fruits to sunscald or lead to stress due to rapid transpiration. Incomplete or rough removal can also cause wounds that become entry points for pathogens, increasing the risk of disease.
Best Practices and Precautions
Timing: Conduct these operations when the plants are least vulnerable, generally in the cooler parts of the day to minimize water loss and stress.
Training: Workers should be adequately trained to understand the right techniques for lowering and leaf removal. Incorrect methods can result in irreversible damage.
Tools: Use sharp and sterilized tools to minimize the risk of transmitting diseases from plant to plant.
Observation: After performing these tasks, closely monitor the plants for signs of stress or disease, and adjust your management practices accordingly.
Consult Experts: Always consult growing experts to understand the specific needs of your crops.
At ecoation, we created an automatic AI model that can visually inspect plants and assess the quality of crop work. If done improperly, crop work can significantly impact yield and quality of the produce.