As the temperature gradually warms up, it is now the time when the peach blossoms are in full bloom, in the peach forest of Xinyi Village, Fengjing Town, pink and gorgeous peach blossoms are hanging all over the branches, delicate and moving. The fruit growers shuttled among the flowers, thinning the flowers for the peach trees, and a scene full of spring jumped in front of them.
As one of the famous melons and fruits in Fengjing Town, the juicy "Splendid Yellow Peach" will be sold to many places every year. Behind the ripening of every high-quality yellow peach, in fact, it embodies the hard work and perseverance of peach farmers.
Spring thinning of peach trees is one of the most important aspects of year-round management, which can not only reduce the consumption of stored nutrients, promote the growth and development of young fruits, but also improve the fruit setting rate and ensure the yield and quality of fruits. In addition, thinning can also reduce the workload of fruit thinning and alleviate the pressure of insufficient manpower in the later stage of work.
In 2009, Sun Xizhou contracted nearly 240 acres of land to plant peach trees in Xinyi Village, and established Shanghai Fengjin Fruit and Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative. In the past 15 years, every time the peach blossoms are in full bloom and tourists are busy enjoying the flowers, it is also the beginning of his busy year.
At present, the cooperative has planted nearly 200 acres of yellow peach trees of various varieties, and the whole flower thinning process takes about a week. After that, it is fruit thinning and bagging, and after these steps are completed, the high-quality yellow peaches are ripened and marketed. "Now it is the flowering period, there are more flower bones, remove the excess flowers, can maintain the nutrients of the tree, improve the fruit setting rate, after the nutrients are sufficient, the quality of peaches will naturally be high. Sun Xizhou said.
Talking about yellow peaches, Sun Xizhou is full of feelings. He said that although the history of yellow peach planting in Fengjing is not long, after more than ten years of accumulation, it has formed a development model of famous and high-quality agricultural products. In the past, the vitality of "independent management" praised by peach farmers and the flexibility of "small ship and good U-turn" once made Fengjing yellow peaches face many challenges in sales. During the harvest season, the sales volume of roadside "stalls" was unstable, and the price of entering the wholesale market was not enough, which made peach farmers worried, and the quality of yellow peaches was also uneven at that time. However, with the guidance of the government, farmers have carried out large-scale planting and industrial structure adjustment, the planting quality has been optimized, and the sales market has also been developed.
Nowadays, Fengjing yellow peach has been difficult to find a trace of "roadside stalls", fresh supermarkets, online platforms have become its main sales channels, the production area is stable at nearly 1,000 acres, and the output has reached about 660 tons. When the yellow peaches are ripe, not only are many old customers come to buy, but they are also sold all over the country through express delivery, which also makes Sun Xizhou quite proud.
The yellow peach produced by Fengjin Fruit and Vegetable Professional Cooperative is large, colorful, thin-skinned, juicy and delicious, and has also won the title of "Fengjing Peach King" for many times. Speaking of so many years of experience in planting yellow peaches, paying attention to quality, daring to try, and relying on science and technology are Sun Xizhou's "secrets". "Planting yellow peaches also has to seek 'change', for example, our cooperative has planted a number of yellow peach varieties such as Jinchun and Jinxiu, and through careful matching, the yellow peaches produced have been extended from early June to mid-to-late September, and green certification has also been achieved."
In order to introduce digital empowerment of the yellow peach planting industry, and at the same time solve the problems of recruitment difficulties and labor shortages, Sun Xizhou has not only transformed the peach orchard in the past two years, purchased mechanized equipment to carry out weeding, spraying, and fruit selection operations, but also built more than 20 acres of special greenhouses for fruit trees.
"There are sensors in each greenhouse, which can be set accordingly. If 25°C is set, the system will automatically ventilate at this temperature. Now the work of rolling shutters, ventilation, and lighting does not need to be operated manually, and can be completed only through mobile phones, saving a lot of labor. Sun Xizhou showed the reporter the smart agriculture cloud platform installed on the mobile phone, only to see him click the button, and the roller shutter of the greenhouse slowly fell.
In the open-air peach orchard on the side, with the exchange of new and old peach trees in recent years, the original "intensive" planting mode has also been optimized by Sun Xizhou. The passage left is wider, which is convenient for mechanized operation on the one hand, and better ventilation and light transmission on the other hand.
Since the special greenhouse for fruit trees has only been put into use for more than a year, the peach trees planted in it are still in the seedling stage, and the land that has been "idle" at the next time in the forest has made Sun Xizhou think about it. So he planted more than 3 acres of small tomatoes, which can now produce more than 200 catties per day, and the price is 10 yuan per catty, and the picking period can be extended until June, and the income has been further increased.
"Last year, there were 8 peaches of about half a catty, and our selling price was about 100 yuan. The bigger the peaches, the more expensive they are. Looking at the peach blossoms in full bloom in the garden, Sun Xizhou's eyes were full of hope. Today, his greatest wish is to let more people taste high-quality and delicious Fengjing yellow peaches!
Correspondents | Yu Xiang
Edit | Zhang Yiqi (Intern)
Editor-in-charge | Yang Li, Chen Weiting