Table of Contents

Chapter Ⅰ Understanding of Industrialized Seedling Culture ……………… 1

Ⅰ. Overview of Industrialized Seedling Culture ………………………………… 1

Ⅱ. History and Development Status of Industrialized Seedling Culture ……… 1

Ⅲ. Characteristics and Significance of Industrialized Seedling Culture ………… 11

Chapter Ⅱ Physiological Basis of Plants for Industrialized Seedling

Culture …………………………………………………………… 15

Ⅰ. Planting Structure and Germination ……………………………………… 15

Ⅱ. Seed Quality and Pre-sowing Treatment ………………………………… 34

Ⅲ. Sowing and Seedling Culture Technology ……………………………… 51

Ⅳ. Structure and Function of Plant Root System …………………………… 61

Ⅴ. Nutrient Elements Required for Plants …………………………………… 71

Ⅵ. Absorption of Nutrient Elements by Plant Roots ………………………… 97

Ⅶ. Nutrition Diagnosis of Plants …………………………………………… 104

Chapter Ⅲ Preparation of Modern Vegetable Industrialized

Seedling Culture Facilities and Equipment ………………… 116

I. Main Facilities ……………………………………………………………… 116

II. Main Equipment…………………………………………………………… 137

Chapter Ⅳ Industrialized Seedling Culture Methods

and Technical Application of Vegetables …………………… 152

I. Production of Seedlings in the Electric Hotbed …………………………… 152

Ⅱ. Plug Tray Seedling Culture and Production Technology ………………… 157

III. Grafting Seedling Culture Technique …………………………………… 164

IV. Seeding Production through Tissue Culture……………………………… 169

Chapter Ⅴ Industrialized Sowing Techniques for Vegetables ………… 183

I. Seed Selection and Treatment ……………………………………………… 183

II. Sowing …………………………………………………………………… 192

Chapter Ⅵ Main Environment Control Technologies for Vegetable

Seedling Production …………………………………………… 199

I. Environmental Control Technologies for Solanaceous Fruit

Seedlings Production ……………………………………………………… 199

II. Environment Control Technologies for Cucurbit Seedling Production …… 212

III. Environmental Control Technology for Seedling Production

of Other Vegetables ……………………………………………………… 226

Chapter Ⅶ Common Diseases and Prevention Measures …………… 236

I. Physiological Diseases …………………………………………………… 236

II. Infectious Diseases………………………………………………………… 242

Chapter Ⅷ Common Pests and Prevention Measures………………… 248

I. Aphids ……………………………………………………………………… 248

II. Trialeurodes vaporariorum ……………………………………………… 251

III. Leaf Miner………………………………………………………………… 255

IV. Cabbage Caterpillar ……………………………………………………… 258

Chapter Ⅸ Sales, Packaging, and Transportation of Vegetable

Seedlings ……………………………………………………… 261

I. Sales of Vegetable Seedlings ……………………………………………… 261

II. Packaging and Transportation of Vegetable Seedlings …………………… 263

References …………………………………………………………………… 267

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Abstract
Ⅰ. Overview of Industrialized Seedling Culture The industrialized seedling culture is to equip the seedling production workshop with advanced seedling culture facilities and equipment; apply modern biotechnology, environmental regulation technology, fertilization and irrigation technology, and information management technology throughout the seedling production process; and organize seedling production and operation in a modern and enterprise-oriented mode, thereby realizing large-scale production of seedlings. Ⅱ. History and Development Status of Industrialized Seedling Culture (I) History and Development Status of Industrialized Seedling Culture in Foreign Countries Since the 1960s, agriculture in developed countries has been mechanized on a large scale. George Todd, one of the co-founders of Speedling (a company in the United States), first introduced plug trays made of expanded polyphenyl materials and applied them to cauliflower seedling culture. At the same time, Professors Jim Boodley and Ray Sheldrake of Cornell University (the United States) first proposed to use peat and vermiculite as seedling culture substrates. This further broadened the idea for large-scale industrialized production of plug tray seedling culture and provided excellent and stable seedling culture substrates. Later, this was successfully applied to the seedling production of vegetables and flowers. By now, plug tray seedling culture technology has been popularized all over the world. The core of this seedling culture technology is to use light substrates such as peat, vermiculite, coconut skin, and perlite as seedling culture substrates, plug trays as seedling culture containers, and mechanized precision sowing to realize one-time seedling culture. Since the root systems of each plantlet are separated from each other in the process of seedling culture, the purpose of separation can be achieved by removing the plug trays for seedlings during the transplanting. The root system of the plantlet is kept intact to improve the survival rate after the transplanting. Moreover, the seedling culture process is programmed and divided into several procedures (including substrate mixing and filling, sowing, substrate covering, watering, and transplanting), providing a possibility for mechanized flow operation and improving the production efficiency of seedlings. In developed countries such as the United States, plug tray seedling culture has been transformed into a new seedling production industry. Its emergence has driven technological progress in greenhouse manufacturing, plug tray manufacturing, substrate processing, precision sowing equipment, and other relevant industries. With the plug tray seedling culture as an example of the development history of industrialized seedling culture in foreign countries, the industrialized seedling culture in foreign countries has the following characteristics. (1) Large market demand and supply for plug tray seedling culture. In Europe, America, and other countries with a higher degree of agricultural modernization, plug tray seedling culture has been popularized rapidly. In terms of the yield of commercial seedlings, the United States ranks first, followed by Italy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. In the 1990s, the plug tray seedling culture of a certain scale was formed in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and other countries. With the United States as an example, the 4 companies, Speedling, KubePak, Pinter, and Blackmore, were the first companies to start specialized seedling production. Among them, foam plug trays invented by Speedling are widely applied to vegetable seedling production, while hard plastic raw material plug trays invented by Blackmore are widely applied to flower and vegetable seedling production. The plug tray seedling culture was growing rapidly. In 1979, the yield of plug plantlets for bed flowers in the United States was about 500,000 plants, while in 1994, that in North America (the United States and Canada) surpassed 4 billion plants. By the end of the 1990s, more than 90% of bed f lowers were produced by plug plantlets in North America. Together with vegetables, potted plants, cut flowers, perennial root flowers, tissue culture materials, and tree seedlings, the annual yield of plug tray seedling culture had surpassed 25 billion plants. With the development of the seedling industry, the production scale of seedling culture companies expanded rapidly. In the early 1990s, Speedling Transplanting and Green Heart Farms ranked in the top two in terms of the production scale of plug plantlets, respectively with an annual yield of 500 million-600 million commercial seedlings including flowers. Now, the annual yield of each of the two seedling culture companies has doubled, and surpassed 1 billion plants (including more than 80% of vegetable seedlings), respectively. In addition to the above-mentioned two largest seedling culture companies in the world, other companies such as Grower Transplanting, Plantel Nursery, Golden Fields, Santafe Nursery, Nativadad Nursery, and Craven Transplant has an annual yield of 200 million-800 million commercial seedlings. Although the number of commercial seedlings on seedling culture farms in Western European countries is lower than that in the United States, each of Van De Bekerom and Beekeh Kamp in the Netherlands and Restyra Seedling Culture Company in Italy has an annual yield of more than 200 million commercial seedlings respectively. The development of plug tray seedling culture has changed the traditional production mode and planting system of vegetables. For example, the area of transplanting vegetables dramatically increased in the United States. As early as the 1960s to the 1970s, in the United States, more than 95% of vegetable crops were directly sown and then artificially or mechanically thinned after seedling emergence. For vegetables with expensive seeds or particularly slow growth at the seedling stage, wooden box sand seedling culture was adopted for seedling culture, and then bare-rooted transplanting was carried out. Since the emergence of the plug tray seedling culture, the transplanting area of vegetable seedling culture has been increasing rapidly. By now, 100% of celery, fresh tomatoes, and Brussels sprouts, 90% of green peppers, 75% of cauliflower and broccoli, 70% of winter and spring lettuce, and 30% of cabbage and processed tomatoes in the United States are subject to transplanting by plug tray seedling culture. Although the cost of purchasing commercial seedlings is 20% higher than that of direct sowing on the open farm, the planting density of transplanting seedlings can be guaranteed and the yield can be increased by 20%. More importantly, transplanting crops grow more uniformly than direct sowing crops, and this is conducive to mechanized harvesting operations. Therefore, the emergence of the industrialized plug tray seedling culture has revolutionized modern vegetable cultivation methods in the United States. (2) Seedling culture to local conditions, decentralized seedling supply, and a high degree of specialization in seedling production. The United States and other developed countries place emphasis on the largescale operation of agriculture, and this kind of operation is premised on establishing a complete set of socialized service systems. The specialized production of commercial vegetable seedlings just meets the needs of modern large-scale agricultural development. For example, California is a major vegetable production base in the United States. The yield of vegetables (especially fresh vegetables) in California accounts for about 1/2 of the total market size in the United States. Likewise, California produces about 2/3 of the total market demand for commercial vegetable seedlings in the United States. In 1995, there were a total of 44 vegetable farms with a production and operation scale of more than 2,400 hm2 in the United States, including 20 in California. Moreover, there were 25 seedling culture farms with an annual yield of more than 150 million commercial seedlings, including 13 in California. Thus, it can be seen that seedling production is carried out by largescale seedling production companies. Farmers engaged in vegetable planting do not need to carry out the seedling culture themselves, but they entrust specialized seedling production companies to produce them. The seedlings are produced in a centralized manner and supplied in a decentralized manner to form a complete socialized service system for seedling production and supply, and this kind of system cannot be realized by traditional nutritive cubes and other seedling culture methods.