A Detailed Guide to Jabuticaba Planting Techniques and Management Methods
One of the most important reasons why jabuticaba is so expensive on the domestic market is that it is difficult to grow and few people cultivate it - rare things are precious. Therefore, if you want to open up the domestic market for jabuticaba, you need to accurately grasp its growing habits and then seriously study its planting techniques.
Jabuticaba Planting Techniques
1. Site selection and orchard establishment: When cultivating jabuticaba in flat paddy fields, drainage and irrigation ditches should be properly built, with a bed height of 30 cm, and the groundwater level should be below 100 cm. For slope cultivation, reclaim land along contour lines into terraces 3-4 m wide, with the terrace surface sloping inward at 3-5 degrees. Select native jabuticaba varieties for planting. Cultivation can be done by hole planting or trench planting, with specifications depending on the seedling or cultivation mode, generally 60×60 cm or 80×80 cm.
2. Planting specifications: Jabuticaba planting specifications include short-term, long-term, and short-term-supporting-long-term modes. The short-term mode has a plant spacing of 0.5×0.5 m with 2666 plants/mu, with one year as a planting cycle. The long-term mode has a plant spacing of 4×4 m with 88 plants/mu, with 15 years or longer as a cycle. The short-term-supporting-long-term mode has a plant spacing of 1×0.5 m with 1333 plants/mu, and after planting, half are thinned and removed from the nursery each year starting from the second year.
3. Bud removal and shoot setting: After jabuticaba sprouts, remove double buds, multiple-head buds, and overly weak buds. After new shoots form, tie them to wires on both sides, set shoots at 15-20 cm intervals, and promptly spray Huawang No. 3 to effectively control excessive shoot growth, promote more flowering branches, and promote flower bud differentiation. This can effectively balance large and small flower clusters and save the trouble of flower and fruit thinning.
4. Fertilizer and water management: Jabuticaba cultivation should emphasize the use of organic fertilizer, advocating the combined use of organic fertilizer, microbial fertilizer, and chemical fertilizer, with a nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium ratio of 1:2:1. Promote plant nutrient diagnosis and formula fertilization, which can be applied by hole or trench, using water-soluble fertilizers or slow-release fertilizers, with organic fertilizer, microbial fertilizer, and chemical fertilizer applied together in small amounts multiple times. Jabuticaba is a moisture-loving species and should maintain moist soil, but waterlogging should be avoided.
5. Pruning and training: Jabuticaba grows slowly and usually does not need heavy pruning, but to control plant height and potted tree shape, timely pruning of vigorously growing top branches is advisable. In cultivation, it is usually recommended to prune low and internal thin short branches to create a ventilated tree shape with beautiful branches. In autumn and winter, dense or leggy branches can be pruned.
6. Pest and disease control: Jabuticaba has few pests and diseases when cultivated in China, and pesticides are rarely used in management, making it an extremely easy tree to grow. However, during the fruiting period it is susceptible to bird damage. If tussock moth larvae harm the leaves, recommended pesticides from the plant protection manual can be applied. In addition, aphids, fruit flies, scale insects, and beetles have all been recorded, and these pests and diseases should also be noted during cultivation.
Jabuticaba Growing Habits
Jabuticaba is suitable for growing in the cooler tropics and subtropics with medium to high rainfall. Most varieties can tolerate low temperatures of -2.8°C, while some varieties can tolerate low temperatures of -4.4°C. It is a sun-loving tree species requiring full sun or tolerating slight shade, requiring moist soil but avoiding waterlogging, and can tolerate short-term drought. It has strong adaptability to soil, but the best is deep, fertile, well-drained slightly acidic (pH 5.5-6.5) sandy loam. It grows poorly on calcareous soil and is not tolerant of saline-alkaline conditions.
Jabuticaba Propagation Methods
1. Seed propagation: This is currently the main propagation method for jabuticaba. Each fruit has 1 to 4 seeds, irregularly angular, and polyembryonic. Fresh seeds germinate better. Generally, the seed coat is crushed and the seeds squeezed out. After 1-2 days, when the pulp acidifies and rots, wash off the pulp with clean water and sow. After harvest, fruits are stored in plastic bags and refrigerated at 5-8°C. When ready to sow, take out the seeds, wash them, and sow. Cold storage can maintain viability for 1-2 months with a certain germination rate. Seeds germinate 20-40 days after sowing, and germination is slower at low temperatures.
2. Grafting: Most jabuticaba varieties grown from seedlings need 6-10 years to begin fruiting. Grafting can advance fruiting, with fruit production about 3 years after grafting. Select two-year-old seedlings as rootstock, cut one-year-old branches from fruiting mother trees as scions, and cleft grafting or approach grafting in autumn and winter gives a higher survival rate. The success rate after March-April is poorer, and summer grafting is difficult to succeed.
3. Cutting: Jabuticaba is not easy to root from cuttings. Domestic research shows it is a typical difficult-to-root species. In May each year, semi-hardwood cuttings (2 nodes, 4 leaves) can be quickly dipped in NAA 2000 ppm, with peat soil as the rooting medium, and the rooting rate can reach 90%. Foreign research shows that using 10 cm long cuttings with 3-4 pairs of mature leaves, inserted in a sand and peat soil (ratio 1:1) medium is best, and longitudinal cuts at the base of the cutting with IBA 1000 ppm treatment can promote rooting.
4. Pruning: Because jabuticaba grows slowly, it usually does not need heavy pruning, but to control plant height and potted tree shape, timely pruning of vigorously growing top branches is advisable. In cultivation, it is usually recommended to prune low and internal thin short branches to create a ventilated tree shape with beautiful branches. In autumn and winter, dense or leggy branches can also be pruned.
How Many Years Until Jabuticaba Bears Fruit
It depends - some take 5 years, some take 10 years.
Because it looks like a grape, jabuticaba is also called tree grape. Jabuticaba is suitable for growing in tropical regions and needs moist soil to grow better.
As a shrub unique to Taiwan, China, jabuticaba belongs to the Myrtaceae family and is also called tree grape. It grows slowly and can bear fruit twice a year in spring and autumn. If it is a newly planted sapling, you need to wait five years before it bears fruit, but the first fruiting is limited in quantity - sometimes it bears many, but perhaps only one or two. Only after ten years can the amount of fruit produced by the jabuticaba tree reach a certain standard, and the quantity can basically stabilize. Therefore, it is rarely seen being sold by vendors on the market. It is recommended to buy a 4-year-old tree directly.
Besides mastering jabuticaba planting techniques, you also need enough patience to wait for jabuticaba to bloom and bear fruit. The wait is long, and jabuticaba needs at least 4-5 years to bear fruit. So those who want to make their fortune from jabuticaba should seize the opportunity and get started quickly, or others will grab the initiative first.