How to Grow Blood Oranges: A Detailed Guide to Planting Techniques and Precautions

Blood orange is a type of orange and is a fairly common fruit on the market today. Blood oranges are rich in nutritional value and taste sweet and tart, making them very popular with consumers. As a result, many people now want to grow blood oranges, but before planting, what everyone most wants to know is surely the planting techniques!

How to Grow Blood Oranges

1. Orchard planning. The soil is required to have a deep soil layer (60 cm) and be fertile; the soil pH should be 5.5-7.0; the orchard slope should be less than 25 degrees. When planning the orchard site, there should be necessary roads, drainage and irrigation, water storage, and ancillary building facilities. In the specific planning, try to concentrate the planting in contiguous blocks and establish the orchard in places with good transportation and water source conditions.

2. Time. Generally, planting is done after the autumn shoots mature from September to November, or before the spring shoots sprout from February to March.

3. Density. On flat land, use a density of 3 m between plants × 4 m between rows, planting 55-60 plants per mu. On terraced terrain, use a density of 2.5 m between plants × 3 m between rows, with 80 plants per mu being suitable.

Blood Orange Planting Techniques and Precautions

I. Planting techniques:

1. Digging planting holes in soil: Set distances with lines, dig planting holes, with each hole 80 cm deep and 80 cm wide, then press in green manure to a depth of 50 cm, and backfill soil to a height of 40 cm for planting.

2. Raised-bed planting in fields: Open beds with 8 m including ditches (ditch width 60-80 cm, depth 40-60 cm), with 2 ridges per bed (ridge width 1.5 m, ridge center spacing 4 m, ridge height 20-30 cm).

3. When planting, moderately prune the seedling roots and place them in the center of the planting hole, spread out the roots, hold the seedling upright, and while filling with soil, gently lift the seedling upward and firm the soil so that the roots are in close contact with the soil. Water thoroughly to settle the roots, make a 1 m tree basin around the seedling, and cover it with rice husks.

II. Precautions:

1. When planting, keep the seedlings upright and the rows straight. The root crown should be exposed above the ground. If the soil layer is relatively thick and no planting basin has been made, you can directly dig a small hole at the planting point, place the nutrient soil ball vertically and completely into 1/3 of the hole, then backfill the surrounding soil up to the root crown, and make a tree basin with a diameter of 1 m.

2. After planting, water thoroughly in time to settle the roots, so that the soil comes into close contact with the outer roots of the original nutrient pot, and cover the tree basin with black plastic film or straw, etc., to increase temperature and retain moisture. After planting, it is best to set up supports to fix and straighten the tree. If drought occurs, irrigation should be applied to keep the tree basin soil moist.

How to Prune Blood Oranges

1. Young trees: Mainly light pruning. After selecting the central leader extension shoot and the extension shoots of each main branch and secondary main branch, carry out moderate or even heavy cutting back on them, and use the degree of cutting back and the direction of the cut bud to regulate the growth balance among the main branches. Apart from appropriately thinning overly dense branch groups, the inner canopy branches and the weaker shoots in the middle and lower parts of the canopy should generally be retained.

2. Early fruiting stage: Continue to select and cut back the extension shoots at all levels of the framework, remove summer shoots, and promote the growth of strong autumn shoots. In autumn, for vigorously growing trees, use measures such as ring-cutting, root pruning, and water control to promote flowering.

3. Full fruiting stage: Timely retract fruiting branch groups, flower-dropping fruiting branch groups, and declining branch groups, and prune out shading branches, dead branches, and diseased and pest-damaged branches.

Common Diseases and Pests of Blood Orange and Their Control

1. Aphids. When the damage rate on new shoots reaches 25%, pesticide spraying should be carried out immediately for control. Commonly used pesticides include acetamiprid, dimethoate, and carbosulfan. Attention should be paid to protecting ladybirds, green lacewings, hoverflies, and aphid parasitoid wasps, and cutting out overwintering eggs to reduce the pest population base.

2. Longhorn beetles. From May to August, manually capture adult star longhorn beetles and green citrus longhorn beetles at noon on sunny days, and capture adult brown longhorn beetles in the evening; promptly remove eggs and newly hatched larvae and cut off damaged shoots; soak cotton or cotton yarn with undiluted insecticides such as dimethoate and plug the insect holes, then seal the holes with mud to poison the larvae.

3. Anthracnose. Strengthen cultivation management and prevent excessive application of nitrogen fertilizer; during the spring and summer shoot emergence periods and before fruit ripening, mancozeb, copper pine acid, zineb, chlorothalonil, etc., can be selected to spray the canopy, spraying once about every 15 days, for 3-4 consecutive times.

The method of growing blood oranges is actually not difficult. Before planting, site selection must be done well, and then an appropriate time should be chosen for sowing. After planting, management needs to be strengthened; in particular, timely pruning and the prevention and control of diseases and pests are essential factors for ensuring the growth of blood oranges.