Come and learn the cultivation and management techniques of manew peaches on returned farmland!
Zhuang Yixuan
Due to the cold climate of the plateau and the special geographical environment, agricultural production in Gansu and other places has been facing many difficulties. After the implementation of the project of returning farmland to forest, how to strengthen the construction of ecological agriculture and realize ecological prosperity under the concept of green development has become the focus of local agricultural production. Honey peach has the characteristics of cold tolerance, drought tolerance and barrenness resistance, which is very suitable for the planting conditions in alpine areas, which is conducive to the benign development of returning farmland to forest and ecological economy in Northwest China.
1 Technical essentials of peach seedling
1.1 Seed selection techniques of hairy peaches
The seeds of the peach generally ripen in August and September, and when the skin of the fruit gradually turns yellow, dry and shrinks, and finally cracks open to reveal the kernel, at which time the seeds can be harvested. Because the seeds of the beech peach have a hard shell, it is difficult to emerge when sown directly, so it is necessary to treat the collected seeds as necessary. Under normal circumstances, the seeds can be stored at low temperatures in cool, dry sandy soil after harvesting, and further moved to specially excavated sand pits for sand storage around December of that year. The sand pit of hairy peach seeds is generally 1.5 meters long, 1 meter wide and 0.8 meters deep, and a layer of gravel and some coarse sand are placed at the bottom of the pit, and then covered with a layer of wet sand about 3 times the amount of seeds, and the humidity is basically controlled to the extent that it can be held into a sand ball but will not drip water, so as to ensure the storage environment of the sand pit and avoid mold and rot of seeds.
1.2 Germination technology of hairy peaches
In April of the following year after the seeds have been deposited, the grower should remove the seeds from the pit and move them to a sunny and leeward location for germination, turning them up and down frequently, trying to ensure that all the seeds are kept at the right temperature for germination (see Figure 1). At night, cotton cloth or cotton sacks and other materials can be used to cover the seeds, so as to achieve the effect of heat preservation and moisturizing, and avoid irreversible frostbite to the seeds caused by low temperature at night. Sowing can be carried out after 15 days of germination, and the peach usually adapts well to poor soil, but due to the poor soil of the uncultivated land, and in order to improve yield and fruit quality, sufficient fertilization is still required before sowing. According to the soil testing of the returned farmland, the soil types mainly include gray lime soil, chestnut lime soil or brown soil, and the fertility is generally relatively low, and there is a lack of organic phosphorus fertilizer and other fertilizers. Therefore, under normal circumstances, it is suitable to apply 500 kg of organic fertilizer to one acre of land, supplemented by about 20 kg of ammonium carbonate, about 50 kg of phosphate fertilizer and other fertilizers.
Fig.1 Seeds of a mancholy nut
1.3 Seedling raising technology of hairnut
Because the fertility of the farmland has been greatly weakened before the land is returned, especially in Gansu and other places, it is dominated by barren steep slopes and even severely desertified land, even if the adaptability of the peach is strong, the choice of nursery land is still very important. Due to the characteristics of mancholy peach that likes light and is afraid of waterlogging, the site selection of seedling sites can generally be selected in a sunny slope with relatively high terrain to ensure sufficient sunlight and effectively prevent water accumulation (see Fig. 2). After the seed germination, because the hairnut has the characteristics of drought tolerance, it generally does not need to carry out special sprinkling, of course, if the climate is too dry, the surface moisture is difficult to maintain the normal growth of the hairnut seedlings, it is necessary to carry out appropriate watering, but it is generally not suitable for a large amount of irrigation.
Fig.2 Seedling environment of manchopa fruit
2 Afforestation technology essentials for peach cultivation
2.1 Afforestation and land preparation of hairnut
As an important tree species for returning farmland to forest, the planting of manchophylla in the returned farmland should not only consider the cultivation technology of individual plants, but also plan and manage the overall afforestation of mangynut, and carry out overall implementation from the stage of land preparation. Because the purpose of returning farmland is to maintain the original vegetation and prevent soil erosion, the afforestation and land preparation of the hairy peach generally adopts the method of horizontal ditch land preparation, and the reverse slope ditch about 0.8 meters wide, 5 meters long and 0.5 meters deep is dug at the hillside position, so as to avoid large-scale invasion or even destruction of the original soil. The distance between the horizontal ditches is generally about 3 meters to ensure that the mancholy can maintain sufficient tree spacing after ripening.
2.2 Selection of seedlings of peaches
To cultivate beech peach on the returned land, it is necessary to select 1~2-year-old seedlings, of which the ground diameter of 1-year-old seedlings should be more than 0.5 cm, the height of seedlings should generally be higher than 50 cm, and the root system of seedlings should not be damaged by mechanical damage or pests and diseases. Before the afforestation of manchestnut, afforestation and seedling raising should be carried out simultaneously, and the seedlings should be raised line by line, so as to avoid mechanical damage to the root system. When seedlings are raised, the digging depth is generally about 70 cm, and the length of the root system is about 30 cm to facilitate normal growth after afforestation. After the seedlings emerge, the roots should be soaked in clean water as soon as possible, generally for 6~12 hours, and then bundled with wet straw bags and waited for afforestation (see Figure 3).
Fig.3 Seedlings of hairy peach are bundled
2.3 Afforestation of mancholy pit pit cultivation
After the beech seedlings are transported to the afforestation site, a square seedling pit about 30 cm long and wide should be dug in the ditch, with a depth of about 50 cm, and a distance of 20 cm between the pits. The afforestation of the beech peach should be planted with digging, and when the backfill reaches half, the seedlings need to be lifted upwards, and then the soil pit should be filled, and the overall depth should be controlled at about 40 cm. After the seedlings are planted, the tree pit needs to be repaired into a "V" shape, and a layer of plastic film for moisture retention and water accumulation needs to be spread on the surface to improve the survival rate of the seedlings. If the method of sowing is directly adopted, due to the relatively poor farmland in Gansu Province, the soil fertility can not meet the seedling conditions of the seeds of the peaches, so it is necessary to soak them with a solution of strong rooting agent and water quality ratio of 1:2000, and add about 10 grams of water-retaining agent to each sowing pit, so as to effectively improve the seedling emergence rate of the peaches.
3 Management techniques for the cultivation of beech peaches
3.1 Turning the soil and weeding of the peaches
Due to the steep slope and gentle slope of the cultivated land, the site conditions of peach cultivation are generally poor, and it is often difficult to carry out deep soil turning when digging pits, so it is necessary to turn over the soil many times in the cultivation process to provide suitable conditions for the growth of peach seedlings. In the first year of seedling growth, it is generally necessary to loosen the soil with a shallow hoe and trim the size of the tray to the same size as the canopy. In the spring and autumn of each year, there are also two loosening and weeding operations, and weeds can be used to cover the tree tray to keep the moisture of the beech peach from evaporating. If the soil quality of the land is good, it is also possible to only weed instead of repeatedly loosening the soil.
3.2 Fertilization and watering of the beech
Fruit peaches do not require much soil fertilizer and water, but in order to improve the yield and quality of the fruit, farmers still need to carry out regular irrigation and fertilization. Among them, the fertilizer applied at the seedling stage is mainly nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, and N, P 2 O 5 and K 2 O can be selected with a mass ratio of 2:1:3, and young trees need to pay attention to controlling the application of nitrogen fertilizer, otherwise it is easy to cause growth, and nitrogen fertilizer is added after the full fruit period to enhance the tree potential. The frequency of watering is generally determined according to the local climatic conditions, and the season with more rainfall can be done without additional watering, and the prolonged drought needs to be watered, generally spraying rather than flood irrigation, so as not to affect the growth of the beech peach with too much water.
3.3 Pruning and tillering of peaches
The cultivation of mancholy not only has ecological value, but also has certain economic value, which has an important impact on the production and life of local farmers. Therefore, after the beech peach plant reaches adulthood, the branches and leaves should be reshaped. The pruning time is generally suitable after the leaves fall in late autumn, or when the buds sprout in early spring, when the self-healing ability of the pruning wound of the mancholy peach is relatively strong. When pruning, extra twigs should be cut off with scissors close to the trunk, while thicker branches can be treated with special pruning shears (see Figure 4). In addition to pruning the branches and leaves, it is also necessary to carry out multiple tillering after afforestation, that is, to cut off the excess sprouts around the root neck, so as to ensure that the main trunk receives more sufficient light and nutrients.
3.4 Prevention and control of peach disease, pests and pikas
The damage of pikas and pests and diseases in the northwest of mainland China is an important factor affecting the growth and maturity of local plants, especially in Gansu Province, where the damage of pikas has a continuous and serious trend, and there have been many times the dilemma of "eating while planting" in afforestation land. Therefore, during the growth period of the beechnut, it is necessary to stack weeds, zinc phosphide and other materials around the base of the seedling to protect the base stem by blocking the pika. For areas where pikas are more seriously harmed, bows and arrows can also be placed near the peach forest, or poison bait can be put to cause effective killing to pikas. In addition, during the flowering and fruiting period, growers need to spray stone sulfur mixture or apply 1% Bordeaux liquid in advance to control common pests and diseases such as peach leaf shrinkage.
4 Summary
In order to improve the yield and quality of the cultivated land and increase the economic benefits of fruit farmers, it is necessary to pay attention to the scientific management of the seeds, seedlings and fruits of the cultivated land, do a good job in seed selection, seedling raising, cultivation and pruning, and strengthen the prevention and control of various pikas and pests and diseases, so as to ensure the healthy growth of the cultivated land.