What are the cultivation techniques and precautions for the Cape gooseberry?
When it comes to the Cape gooseberry, most people are probably fairly familiar with it. It is a relatively common plant in daily life, and its fruit is edible. Especially when ripe, the fruit is sweet and delicious, and it is extremely nutritious, while also having certain medicinal value! So do you know how to grow the Cape gooseberry? Below, the editor will introduce it to you in detail!
How to grow the Cape gooseberry
1. Selection of a planting site for the Cape gooseberry. The Chinese lantern plant likes to grow in soil with more humus that is loose and fertile. When building an orchard on a hillside, a gentle slope with a gradient of no more than 10 degrees should be chosen.
2. Planting. The spacing between plants and rows is 1 m × 1 m, and the planting holes are 40 cm deep and 40 cm wide, with 5 kg of farmyard manure applied to each hole. When planting, place the seedling in the hole, with one person holding the seedling and another covering it with soil, firm it down, and water it thoroughly. After planting, the surface of the hole should be 8-10 cm lower than the ground so that moisture can be retained during the growing season.
3. Pruning. The Chinese lantern plant begins to bear fruit in the second year after planting, and 2-3 fruits grow on one fruit cluster. In the year the seedlings are planted, 4-5 robust basal branches should be selected and retained. From the second year onward, 4-5 robust basal branches should be retained each year, and a clump generally keeps 16-20 basal branches. In 4-5 years, each plant can form a high yield of 5-15 kg. However, if the branches within the clump are too dense, ventilation and light penetration are poor, the lower parts of the main branches tend to become bare, there is no fruit in the inner canopy, and the yield is low. Therefore, once the plant enters the fruiting stage, special attention must be paid to pruning work to maintain ventilation and light penetration. The method is: for overly dense clumps, thin out weak branches, cut back perennial branches, and remove excess basal branches.
4. Field management. Special attention should be paid to strengthening soil management, clearing weeds, and reducing the occurrence of pests and diseases. Before flowering and during the new shoot growth period, timely irrigation should be carried out in dry weather, and fertilization should be done 2--3 times each year. After leaf fall in mid-to-late October each year, soil should be mounded over the plants to protect them from the cold, with the thickness of the mounded soil being just enough not to expose the branches. Cold protection should be removed around mid-April, which can ensure normal growth and fruiting of the clump.
Cultivation techniques and precautions for the Cape gooseberry
1. Seedling raising method. Plastic large tunnels or medium tunnels are mainly used for raising seedlings. The seedbed should be set up in a place with higher terrain and good drainage, and a plot should be selected where fruit vegetables have not been grown in the previous crop. For each mu of Cape gooseberry, a large tunnel or medium tunnel seedling-raising area of 30 sq m is needed.
2. Seed soaking. Usually, warm water at about 50°C is used for soaking seeds, with the amount of water being about 4~5 times that of the seeds. Pour the water while stirring, until the water temperature drops to about 30°C, then leave it at room temperature to soak the seeds. During the soaking period, replace the water with warm water at about 30°C every 8~10 hours, and the soaking time is generally 24 hours.
3. Germination. Because the Cape gooseberry seeds are small and the amount used is small, the fine sand mixing method is generally used for germination. The amount of fine sand used is about 8~10 times the amount of seeds (the fine sand needs to be sterilized with boiling water). Wrap the seeds well with a damp cloth and germinate them at 20°C~25°C. Turn them twice a day and rinse them with warm clean water, so as to help release a large amount of respiration heat, breathe in oxygen, and expel carbon dioxide. After rinsing, continue germination. They will sprout in 3~4 days.
4. Preparation of bed soil. The bed soil should be neutral soil that does not contain pathogens or pests, is rich in humus and nutrient elements, has good structure, is loose and not compacted, and comes from field soil with no herbicide or other phytotoxicity. The bed soil should be fully turned and sunned, the fertilizer should be fully decomposed, and the fertilizer and soil should be mixed evenly.
5. Preparation of nutrient soil. Garden soil: organic fertilizer = 1:1 or 2:1. If the soil is heavy and sticky, 10% fine sand can be added, mixed evenly, sieved, and piled for later use. The bed soil of the sowing bed is generally 6~10 cm thick, and each sq m of seedbed requires 100~125 kg of nutrient soil. The bed soil of the transplanting bed is generally 12~17 cm thick, and each sq m of seedbed requires 150~200 kg of nutrient soil. Disinfection of nutrient soil: mix 70% dexon and 70% thiophanate-methyl at 1:1 evenly, dilute with water to a 1000-fold solution, and evenly spray the bed soil until moist.
6. Sowing. For raising seedlings under plastic film mulch and transplanting, late March to early April is the suitable sowing period; for direct sowing cultivation under plastic film mulch, sowing can be done in early May. Transplanting 1 mu requires sowing 40~50 g. Sowing should preferably be done on a windless sunny afternoon. Water the flat bed surface thoroughly with bottom water. The depth of the bottom water seepage layer is 6~8 cm. After the water seeps down, spread a thin layer of nutrient soil on the bed surface, then sow the pre-germinated seeds in holes, 10 seeds per hole, and then cover with fine dry soil 0.5~1 cm. The covering soil should be timely and even. After covering with soil, add a layer of clean plastic film to raise temperature and preserve moisture, and remove it when the seedlings emerge from the soil.
7. Precautions: The amount of field fertilizer applied to the Cape gooseberry should be comprehensively considered according to the soil, variety habits, cultivation density, water conservancy conditions, and so on. Generally, 1500 kg of stable manure and 30 kg of three-element compound fertilizer are applied per mu. Mix farmyard manure and chemical fertilizer and use them as base fertilizer, applying them when making ridges. After flowering and fruit setting, foliar fertilizer should be sprayed appropriately.
Harvesting
After the fruit of the Chinese lantern plant matures, it falls off naturally, and harvesting by manual picking gives the best quality. On mature fruit, the persistent calyx outside the fruit is withered and yellow, the fruit is pale yellow, and the fragrance is rich. If the fruit is not ripe enough and tastes poor, it should be ripened. A 2000-fold ethephon solution can be sprayed on the fruit and then piled up until it is fully ripe. For fruit intended for storage or long-distance transport, it is advisable to keep the persistent calyx outside the fruit.
Distribution of the Cape gooseberry's production areas
The Cape gooseberry's production areas are distributed in Northeast China, North China, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hainan, Shandong, and other places in China. It is also distributed in Hong Kong, China, where it is called the Colombian dragon fruit, while in Northeast China it is called yellow Cape gooseberry, and in Jining, Shandong, it is called suan suan beng.
Through the above content, I believe everyone has gained a certain understanding of the cultivation methods of the Cape gooseberry. The fruit of the Cape gooseberry is both food and medicine, and there are many ways to eat it. It can be eaten directly or made into preserves, jam, and so on. Eating it regularly is of great help to health.