Detailed Explanation of Cherry Tree Planting Techniques and Cultivation Key Points
When it comes to cherries, I believe everyone is very familiar with them. Although cherries are not an everyday fruit, I believe anyone who has eaten them finds them hard to forget, because cherries are very beautiful and attractive in appearance, and their taste is even more delicious. Although cherries are delicious, growing them is not that easy, and growing cherries requires mastering their planting techniques.
Techniques for Planting Cherry Trees
1. First, choose suitable planting soil and environment. Cherry trees grow relatively large, so you must leave enough space for them. Choose a sufficiently large space, and the soil must be fertile and well aerated. As for environmental requirements, when planting in the north, choose a place with little rain when the cherries ripen, otherwise the cherries will crack.
2. Choose a suitable planting season. It is best to plant just after winter has passed and spring has arrived, otherwise survival is difficult. When planting cherries, plant at least two next to each other for cross-pollination, otherwise they may fail to bear fruit.
3. Many people think that using cherry seeds to grow cherries is relatively unworkable. Usually people buy grown cherry seedlings to plant, or use the layering method to obtain cherry seedlings. When layering, cover the cherry branch two to three cm under the soil, and by the second year roots will have formed, so it can be moved.
Fertilizer and Water Management
For cherry soil management, according to our experimental observations: spring irrigation plus mulching, with intertillage and weeding in other seasons, is the better management method. Because mulching reduces the impact of spring drought on the plants, it has a good effect on fruit growth. After the cherries are harvested, remove or turn under the mulch. According to calculations, an ordinary mature orchard should mulch with 2000-2500 kg of wheat straw per mu. Cherry trees should be fertilized 3-4 times a year. That is:
1. Fertilize after fruit harvest, mainly to restore tree vigor, promote flower bud differentiation, and increase next year's yield. Immediately after harvest, apply barnyard manure and livestock and poultry manure and urine, and add an appropriate amount of chemical fertilizer. Apply 30-60 kg of livestock and poultry manure per tree depending on the number of fruits.
2. Fertilize before budding and flowering, with a topdressing mainly of quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer. Apply 15-20 kg of livestock and poultry manure water per tree, or 0.5 kg of urea.
3. Fertilize during rapid fruit growth. After petal fall, the fruit enters development. For large fruiting trees, apply one topdressing of quick-acting chemical fertilizer, together with an appropriate amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.
4. Apply base fertilizer well. In spring from September to October (in warm northern regions, October to November), before leaf fall, apply base fertilizer well to restore tree vigor and increase the stored nutrient content in the plant. Because cherries need only more than 40 days from flowering to fruit maturity, the amount of stored nutrients largely affects fruit size and quality. Therefore, the application of base fertilizer is very important and needs to account for 50-70% of the annual fertilizer application. It should be mainly organic fertilizer, such as compost, pen manure, chicken manure, decomposed soybean cake, etc., and an appropriate amount of superphosphate or calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer should also be added.
Pest and Disease Control
The main pests and diseases harming cherry trees include white peach scale, slug moths, peach red-necked longhorn beetle, apple clearwing moth, golden bronze buprestid, scarab beetles, oriental fruit moth, and anthracnose, cherry leaf spot, bacterial shot hole, gummosis, and crown and root collar rot, etc. Comprehensive measures should be taken for their control. During summer pruning, cut off and burn diseased and pest-infested branches, and at the same time spray once with 5 degrees Baume lime sulfur mixture during the leaf fall period; before the spring shoot leaves stop growing, spray once with 40% dimethoate 1200x solution plus 70% thiophanate-methyl 800x solution; in July-August, spray once with 50% malathion emulsion 1000x solution plus 65% zineb 400-500x solution.
Precautions for Planting Cherries
1. Test planting first, then develop
Large cherries like warmth, are not cold-tolerant, not drought-tolerant, not waterlogging-tolerant, and fear strong wind. They are suitable for cultivation in areas with an annual average temperature of 10°C-15°C. Practice has proved that when the annual average temperature is above 15°C, large cherries often flower heavily but set little fruit. To introduce and develop large cherries, you must not only look at local factors such as annual average temperature, rainfall, sunshine, and frost-free period, but also carefully analyze the local microclimate characteristics. Test plant first, then develop.
2. Develop firm-fleshed varieties that store and transport well
At present, there are only a dozen or so excellent large cherry varieties verified through cultivation, and each variety has certain shortcomings. For example, Hongdeng, bred in our country, has large fruit, bright color, juicy and sweet flesh, and high and stable yield, but it enters full fruiting late, and the fruit skin is thin and the flesh is soft, so it is not suitable for processing, storage, and transport, and is only suitable for small-area planting. In the future, large cherry cultivation should choose varieties with beautiful appearance, firm flesh, good quality, slight cracking, good storage and transport tolerance, and suitability for both fresh eating and processing.
3. Focus on preventing crown gall and viral diseases
Choosing excellent rootstocks suitable for local cultivation is the key to successful large cherry cultivation. The most important thing is to see whether the rootstock is resistant to crown gall and whether it has viral diseases. In old large cherry production areas, to develop large cherries, you must not use continuous cropping land, and even less should you use continuous cropping land to raise large cherry seedlings; in newly developed large cherry production areas, on the premise of identifying good varieties and good rootstocks, you must strictly control crown gall and viral diseases.
4. Both pollination and fruit thinning are needed
Most large cherry varieties are self-incompatible or have very low fruit set and require cross-pollination. Some large cherry orchards that have not produced well for years and bear few fruits at the proper age are not mainly affected by freeze damage; the main reason is unreasonable pollinator arrangement, non-overlapping flowering periods, and poor pollination. Xianfeng, Lapins, and others are all very ideal pollinator varieties. Also, promptly thin out weaker fruiting branches, remove smaller flowers, and thin out small fruits and deformed fruits with irregular shape or improper position. It is appropriate to leave 2-3 fruits on each vigorous fruiting branch.
Through the above content, I believe everyone has gained some understanding of cherry planting techniques. Cherries are a relatively difficult fruit to grow, not only because they have strict environmental requirements, but also because later management requires great attention. Cherries are a very popular fruit, with astonishing sales every year, so planting cherries well and increasing yield will also bring very considerable later returns.