A Detailed Guide to Large-Fruited Hawthorn Planting Techniques and Management Key Points

The large-fruited hawthorn is a type of hawthorn with relatively large fruit and a sour taste, and it has the effect of stimulating the appetite and aiding digestion. The hawthorn's value in use is also very rich and great: it can not only be processed into desserts, hawthorn slices, and hawthorn cakes, but can also be sun-dried into dried hawthorn and steeped in water to drink. So how exactly should this large-fruited hawthorn, with so many benefits, be planted?

Large-Fruited Hawthorn Planting Techniques

1. Propagation and planting. Grafting is mostly used for the mass propagation of hawthorn nursery stock. Wild hawthorn or cultivated varieties can both be used as rootstock. The seed kernels inside the pits of cultivated varieties often show degeneration, and in severe cases only 25%-30% have seed kernels, so the sowing rate should be increased when raising seedlings. Because the pit shell outside the seed kernel is ossified, making ventilation and water absorption difficult, when seeds are collected and stratified by conventional methods, the germination rate after sowing is extremely low, and sometimes seedlings only emerge 2-3 years after sowing. Therefore, seeds need to be collected and stratified early, when the embryo has formed but the pit shell has not yet hardened. For normally harvested seeds, after cracking the shell and treating them with gibberellin at a concentration of one hundred parts per million (100Ppm) and then storing them in sand, the germination rate of the seeds the following spring can also be greatly increased.

2. Training and pruning. In hawthorn trees allowed to grow freely, there are often too many large branches on the whole tree, while the small branches within the canopy are dense, affecting yield and quality. According to the growth characteristics of hawthorn branches, tree shapes such as the delayed open-center form, the multi-main-branch natural round-head form, or the natural open-center form can be used for training. The delayed open-center form has the same tree structure as apple, and can be followed accordingly. Only the hawthorn trunk is weaker in apical dominance and prone to leaning trunks and lopsided crowns; during training, the direction of the pruning cut bud or replacement of the extension shoot of the central leader can be used to control and adjust this. When the central leader is seriously tilted and difficult to train, the central leader can also be removed in accordance with its growth tendency and the tree changed to the natural open-center form. Keep 3-4 main branches on the whole tree, with a basal angle of 45 degrees-50 degrees, and then properly train secondary main branches on each main branch to occupy space. When using the multi-main-branch natural round-head form for training, according to the natural growth tendency of the branches, keep an interval of about 30 cm between main branches and arrange them with proper spacing, extending outward in all directions, cultivating 6-7 main branches in total on the whole tree.

Fertilization Techniques

Pre-flowering fertilizer: for weak trees, mainly nitrogen fertilizer, combined with phosphorus and potassium fertilizer; for strong vigorous trees, mainly phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, with no or little nitrogen fertilizer. Fruit-setting fertilizer: when leaf color is deep green or green, no fruit-setting fertilizer is needed; when leaf color is pale yellow, supplementary fertilization is needed, mainly compound fertilizer, without partial application of nitrogen fertilizer, to prevent flushing new shoots and fruit drop. Fruit-swelling fertilizer: applied in mid- to late May, still mainly compound fertilizer, with the amount determined by the fruit load and canopy size; apply more when the fruit load is large and the canopy is large, otherwise apply less; generally apply 1-2 kg of compound fertilizer and 0.5-1 kg of urea per tree, and for a small number of vigorously growing trees apply no nitrogen fertilizer, only phosphorus and potassium fertilizer. Fruit-harvest fertilizer is applied 7-15 days before harvest. Skillfully spray foliar fertilizer and growth regulators. At full bloom, spray once with 0.2% borax + 0.2% monopotassium phosphate + 0.3% urea, which can increase the fruit-setting rate. Spray 2,4-D 7-10 days before the first and second physiological fruit drops to reduce fruit drop. In mid- to late June, spray 1-2 times with 0.2% monopotassium phosphate + 0.3% urea solution.

Analysis of Hawthorn Planting Prospects

The main effects of hawthorn are aiding digestion and strengthening the stomach, promoting the flow of qi and dissipating blood stasis, and so on. Hawthorn contains a variety of organic acids. After oral administration, it enhances gastric juice acidity, increases pepsin activity, and promotes the digestion of protein. Hawthorn has a regulatory effect on gastrointestinal motility function: it inhibits gastrointestinal smooth muscle in a spasmodic state and excites smooth muscle in a relaxed state. Hawthorn can lower blood lipids and resist atherosclerosis. It also has a certain effect on the cardiovascular system; in addition, hawthorn also has the effect of enhancing myocardial contractility and increasing cardiac output.

Hawthorn has a relatively strong antibacterial effect on Shigella, Proteus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and so on.

In summary, besides the appetite-promoting digestion aid we commonly know hawthorn for, it also has many medicinal effects. After measuring the antioxidant activity of 30 common fruits in China, relevant personnel at a certain institute of environmental medicine believed that hawthorn ranks first among all fruits in anti-aging effect. Therefore, planting hawthorn in 2017 has very far-reaching significance.

Distribution Range of the Large-Fruited Hawthorn

It is suitable for planting in both northern and southern China. Jingxi is the place of origin of the large-fruited hawthorn, and it is distributed in all townships; the people have a long history and habit of planting and processing large-fruited hawthorn. According to the Qing dynasty "Guishun Prefecture Gazetteer," Jingxi large-fruited hawthorn products were sold far to domestic and Southeast Asian markets and had a well-known reputation. According to surveys, hawthorn trees 50—80-plus years old in the county still grow vigorously and bear abundant fruit. Because it had long been in a state of natural reproduction in the past, the cultivated area was not large, output was low, and commodity utilization was low. After it was formally named, the Baise region was listed as one of the ten major commodity production bases for large-fruited hawthorn; thereafter, the area expanded year by year and output increased. At present, Jingxi County has 35,000 mu planted, with an annual total weight of 2,000 tons; the fruit is sold far to Guangdong and the southern provinces, and hawthorn products are one of the high-quality tourist commodities, selling well both domestically and abroad. The plan is that after a few years, the county's large-fruited hawthorn area will reach 100,000 mu, with an annual output of more than 10,000 tons, becoming a major pillar industry of Jingxi.

The large-fruited hawthorn is a famous and specialty fruit of Jingxi County. Its fruit is large, with a single fruit weight of 100-120g; the fruit color is bright, the flavor is delicate and fragrant, sweet and sour, and it is rich in nutrients, containing protein, fat, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, vitamin A, B, C, pectin, fruit acid, and so on. The fruit has a high processing rate, such as preserved fruit, hawthorn wedges (cakes), juice, wine, jam, medicinal preparations, and so on. It has relatively high medical value: it can enhance myocardial contractility, increase the amplitude of atrial and ventricular movement, increase coronary artery blood flow, prevent arrhythmia, lower serum cholesterol and glycerides, and have blood-pressure-lowering, diuretic, and sedative effects. It can eliminate food stagnation, dissipate stasis, resolve phlegm, detoxify, prevent heatstroke and cool down, refresh the mind, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and increase appetite. The current planting area is 35,000 mu, with an annual output of 2,000 tons; the planned planting area is 100,000 mu, with an annual output of more than 10,000 tons. In the mountainous areas of Hebei it is an important fruit tree, and the fruit is used for fresh eating, processing, or making sugar-coated haws. Generally, hawthorn is used as rootstock for grafting propagation.

As stated above, the large-fruited hawthorn is mostly planted in Jingxi County, and it is also a famous fruit of Jingxi County. The large-fruited hawthorn has especially tenacious vitality, will not easily die of disease, and has high annual output, good sales, and considerable profit prospects, making it a rare and good entrepreneurial project.