Careful Peach Tree Management During the Flood Season: These Key Points You Need to Master
August is the main flood season in our province. During the flood season, there are many rainfall events and high rainfall intensity, which is not conducive to the normal growth of peach trees and the improvement of fruit quality. Corresponding measures must be taken to reduce losses to a minimum.
1. Drainage and waterlogging prevention. Peach trees are relatively sensitive to moisture, showing drought tolerance and fear of waterlogging. If water accumulates, oxygen in the soil is insufficient, root respiration is blocked, tree vigor weakens, and in severe cases the tree dies. The water must be drained away in time. For peach orchards on hillsides, drainage ditches should be dug along contour lines according to tree vigor. In flatland orchards, a drainage ditch is generally dug between every two rows of trees, and these ditches are connected to drain the water out of the orchard. If short-term water accumulation occurs on clay soil, the roots should be aired (after drainage, clear the soil under the tree so that the main roots remain in a state of being neither fully exposed nor fully covered for a few days, then bury them again).
2. Pest and disease control. In the rainy season, high temperature and high humidity make infection with diseases very easy, such as anthracnose, brown rot, fruit rot and soft rot, etc., especially when the fruit is nearly ripe, the diseases become even more serious. You can spray 80% thiophanate-methyl wettable powder at 1500 times dilution, or 50% carbendazim wettable powder at 600-800 times dilution, and alternate the medications. At the same time, pay attention to the control of various pests, such as red spider mites, red-necked longhorn beetles, leaf miners, tortricid moths, white-spotted flower chafers, etc.
Pay attention to weather forecasts and spray pesticides in time. If large-scale rainfall occurs within 24 hours after spraying, respray immediately to ensure the spraying effect.
3. Scientific fertilization. During the flood season, fertilization should be “small meals, many times”, especially in riverbank fields and thin hilly land. Topdressing should use hole application or strip trench application, mainly potassium fertilizer, accounting for more than 40% of the total fertilization amount, appropriately combined with nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. Foliar topdressing can also be carried out together with pesticide spraying, generally at concentrations of 0.4%-0.5% monopotassium phosphate, 0.5%-1% superphosphate, and 0.3%-0.5% urea.
4. Reasonable pruning. Early-maturing varieties can be pruned after fruit harvest, mainly cutting out diseased and pest-infested branches, water sprouts, crossing branches, overlapping branches, drooping branches, etc. within the canopy, so as to ensure that every branch receives light and to favor flower bud differentiation. In peach orchards with a dense canopy, diseases are more severe. Therefore, before the fruit ripens, overly dense branches and water sprouts must be thinned out to make the canopy ventilated and light-permeable, resist disease occurrence, and also help coloring and ripening. However, pruning should not be too heavy, so as to avoid sunburn on the fruit. For young trees that have not yet borne fruit, the flood season is a period of vigorous growth, so summer pruning should be done well to promote shaping and branch maturity.
5. Prop up the main branches. For varieties with low and relatively spreading main branches, such as Okubo, after entering full fruiting age, because of heavy fruiting, branches and fruit droop and are close to the ground. When there is a lot of rainfall, affected by water evaporation from the ground, the fruit and branches and leaves are prone to disease infection. Before the flood season arrives, the main branches should be propped up, away from the ground, which can reduce disease occurrence.
6. Timely intertillage and weeding. In the rainy season, high temperature and high humidity are very suitable for weed growth. If not controlled in time, it is easy to cause weeds to grow densely and increase the occurrence of pests and diseases.