Detailed Explanation of Key Technical Points for Greenhouse Cherry Cultivation
Rare things are precious, and high-priced cherries have huge market opportunities. The greater the demand, the greater the opportunity, and cherry cultivation has become a major agricultural project for getting rich. But nowadays, growing cherries by contracting mountains has approached market saturation, so cultivating cherries in greenhouses has become another opportunity. Compared with ordinary cultivation, greenhouse cultivation is not limited by seasonal selection, and the ripening time is earlier than ordinary cultivation. Moreover, greenhouse cultivation can better protect against the effects of birds and insects on cherries and reduce costs.
Greenhouse Cherry Cultivation Techniques
1. Suitable varieties: For greenhouse cherries, excellent early-maturing varieties or mid-early-maturing varieties should be selected, and short-branch varieties and varieties with strong self-fruiting ability can also be selected. For the rootstock, Laiyang dwarf cherry is preferable, and the plant-row spacing can be 2.0-2.5 m × 3.0-3.5 m. Specific varieties vary by region.
2. Building the greenhouse: The timing of vegetable greenhouse construction should be determined according to the greenhouse facility conditions and the time when fresh fruit goes on the market. Generally, in the 3rd year after planting, when the plant has formed a certain amount of flower buds, the greenhouse can be covered. An arched circular vegetable greenhouse (large arched greenhouse with cotton quilts) should be selected, oriented north-south, with good light and uniform light inside the greenhouse, and a single greenhouse area of about 3 mu is preferable. The timing of vegetable greenhouse construction must be grasped accurately, and greenhouse construction should be carried out after the cherry trees have naturally entered dormancy (roughly from late January to early February).
3. Temperature and humidity management: Before germination, 18-20°C during the day, 2-5°C at night, relative air humidity 80%; during the flowering period, 20-22°C during the day, 5-7°C at night, relative air humidity 50-60%; from after flowering to the fruit enlargement stage, 22-25°C during the day, 10-12°C at night, relative air humidity 60%; from fruit coloring to the harvest period, 22-25°C during the day, 12-15°C at night, relative air humidity 50%.
4. Flowering period management: In vegetable greenhouse cultivation, limited by the environmental conditions inside the vegetable greenhouse, leaf quality before the fruit harvest period is relatively poor, leaf photosynthetic capacity is relatively low, and coupled with higher fruit yield, it is very easy to cause plant nutrient depletion and plant death. Therefore, flowering period management must be strengthened, with reasonable load, to improve the level of stored nutrients in the tree.
① Increase fruit set rate. The main technical measures to increase fruit set rate are: starting 10 days before flowering, ventilate every day at noon on sunny days so that the floral organs can undergo training as early as possible, receive a certain amount of direct light, and improve the quality of flower bud development; artificial pollination, which can be carried out from flowering to the 3rd day after flowering, but pollination on the same day is best; bee pollination; spraying 50×10-6 GA3 or rare earth micro-fertilizer 300 times solution at full bloom can effectively increase the fruit set rate; about 10 days after flowering, promptly pinch the new shoots to prevent new shoots from competing with young fruit for nutrients, which has a significant effect on increasing the fruit set rate.
② Thin flower buds. When thinning flower buds, the principles should be to thin late flowers, weak flowers, and flowers on vegetative branches.
③ Thin fruit. Fruit thinning should be carried out after the physiological fruit drop period, and the degree of fruit thinning should depend on the fruit set situation of the whole plant. Generally, 3-4 fruits are retained per bouquet short fruit branch, with a maximum of 4-5 fruits. When thinning fruit, attention should be paid to thinning small fruits and weak fruits, and retaining fruits in horizontal or upward-facing directions.
④ Promote fruit enlargement and coloring. Before calyx removal after flowering, foliar spraying of amino acid compound micro-fertilizer can significantly improve leaf quality and chlorophyll content, increase leaf thickness, improve photosynthetic efficiency, and promote fruit enlargement and coloring; during the fruit coloring period, remove leaves that block sunlight from the fruit, with special attention to removing leaves on fruit-bearing shoots that block light, but it should be noted that the photosynthetic products of leaves on fruit-bearing shoots affect flower bud formation in the 2nd year, so too many leaves should not be removed; in order to improve fruit coloring, 10-15 days before fruit harvest, lay reflective film under the canopy to increase light reflection under the canopy and promote fruit coloring.
5. Training and pruning: Vegetable greenhouse cultivation has relatively poor light conditions, so a delayed open-center shape or spindle shape with better light should be adopted; complete the whole year's pruning tasks in summer; pull branches before greenhouse construction to adjust branch angles; continuously pinch new shoots during their continuous growth period to control excessive growth.
Attention to Scale in Cherry Development
Control the scale of development, adhere to suitable planting in suitable places, and improve the quality of industrial development. Too much leads to rot, too little leads to shortage, which is the basic law of agricultural product development. For example, in the development of China's apple industry in previous years, the scale was too large, leading to overcapacity, and large-scale orchard destruction occurred in many places, causing great waste of financial and human resources in production. In large cherry production, attention should be paid to avoiding this phenomenon, since large cherries are seasonal fruits.
At present, because transportation and storage measures cannot keep up, the conditions for large-scale export are not available, and sales are mainly domestic. Due to high selling prices in domestic sales, the consumer group is limited, and excessive development carries a relatively large risk coefficient. Therefore, it is very necessary to control the scale of development and adhere to moderate development. The development of large cherries should adapt to their characteristics of poor storage and transportation tolerance. Production bases should be close to the market and should preferentially be developed in areas with convenient transportation so that products can enter the market and losses can be reduced. Large-scale development in remote mountainous areas and places with inconvenient transportation should be avoided to prevent leaving relatively large hidden dangers for the industry.
Excellent Cherry Varieties
Actively promote excellent varieties and implement cultivation with improved varieties. Different varieties have different production capacities and different resistance, so varieties with high production capacity and strong resistance should be selected for planting in production to lay a good foundation for efficient production. In large cherry cultivation, dwarfing has absolute advantages. Especially in protected cultivation, dwarfing helps control tree vigor, promote early fruiting, and increase yield.
Cherry Tree Body and Fruit
Strengthen the effect of tree body control, inhibit vegetative growth, and facilitate flower formation and fruiting. Large cherry is a vigorous-growing standard fruit tree. If the tree body is not controlled properly, the main branches are thick and strong, the amount of vigorous shoots is large, and ineffective nutrient consumption is high, which is not conducive to fruit set. In production, it shows a low fruit set rate and serious alternate bearing. Therefore, controlling tree vigor is one of the key measures in cherry management and must not be neglected.
Compared with traditional cultivation, greenhouse cherries may have higher early-stage cost input, but they can narrow this gap in many later aspects and can even reduce costs lower than traditional cultivation. The amount of pesticide use may be much less, which is a cost reduction for growers and, for consumers, synonymous with green health.