Impacts of plant-derived officinal fertilizer on soil environment and growth of cucumber in solar greenhouse

A field experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of plant-derived officinal fertilizer on greenhouse cucumber growth,quality,yield,soil microorganism and enzyme activities and their relations. Application of plantsourced officinal fertilizer significantly increased the plant height,stem diameter,number of leaves,leaf area,specific leaf area,total plant dry weight,number of female flowers,node rate of female flower and fruit setting rate,and lowered joint position of the first female flower. Application of plant-derived officinal fertilizer also could improve the total numbers of soil bacteria,actinomycetes,microorganism and B/F ratio,and enhance the activities of soil urease,phosphatase,invertase and catalase. Moreover,plant-derived officinal fertilizer could increase the contents of vitamin C,soluble sugar and soluble protein,and decrease nitrate content and the amount of fungi. Compared with conventional chemical fertilizers,plant-derived officinal fertilizer could increase cucumber yield and economic benefits by 11. 9% and 29 801 yuan per hm2. Correlation analysis showed that the soil phosphatase activity was significantly positive correlated to total numbers of bacteria and microorganisms. The activities of urease,invertase and catalase were significantly negative correlated to fungi number,and were significantly positive correlated to actinomycetes number and B/F ratio. However,the yield was positively related to total numbers of bacteria and microorganisms,and was independant on the numbers of fungi and actinomycetes and B/F ratio. In conclusion,application of plant-derived officinal fertilizer instead of conventional chemical fertilizers to cucumber in solar greenhouse was favorable for soil microbial community structure,soil microorganism quantity,soil enzyme activities and cucumber growth,nutrition quality and yield.