A detailed guide to the grafting and seedling-raising method for Chinese bayberry, helping you grow Chinese bayberry well

Chinese bayberry is a specialty fruit tree of our country. Its fruit ripens in early summer, exactly when fresh fruit is scarce. It has bright color, and the fruit contains 12%-13% sugar, is sweet and sour and palatable, is rich in Vc, promotes salivation and relieves coughing, and is very popular on the market. However, seedlings grown from Chinese bayberry seed take about 10 years to bear fruit. In order to bear fruit earlier, grafting is generally used in production to raise seedlings, and in the 3rd year of planting, half of them can already bear fruit. The grafting and seedling-raising techniques for Chinese bayberry are summarized as follows:

1. Sowing. Harvest fully mature fruit from robust adult seedling-grown trees. After harvest, pile the fruit for 3-5 d. After the flesh rots, wash it clean and remove the shriveled seeds that float and are not plump. After drying slightly, stratify in sand and sow. The seed germination rate is 40%-70%. The sowing site should be sandy red-yellow soil with good drainage and loose texture. After sowing, press the seeds into the soil with a wooden board so they are level with the bed surface, cover with a layer of fine soil, and then cover with rice straw to prevent the soil surface from crusting. Generally, about one month after sowing, they can sprout and emerge.

2. Rootstock management. After the seedlings emerge, manage them diligently, replenish water in time, and promote the growth of young shoots. To make the seedlings thick and strong, begin watering with dilute liquid fertilizer (decomposed human and livestock manure and urine) when the seedlings are 3 cm high, applying once a month, and do a good job of weeding and pest and disease prevention. When the base of the young seedlings begins to lignify and the seedlings are about 6-10 cm high, they can be transplanted.

3. Selection of rootstock and scion. Cultivate robust rootstock; a rootstock diameter of about 1 cm is most suitable. Determine superior mother trees, and select from excellent individual plants in full bearing period the middle section of last year's spring shoot (free of pests and diseases, with plump buds) as scions. It is best to collect and graft immediately; if not all can be grafted the same day, wrap them in a wet cloth or store them in sand to keep them fresh.

4. Grafting method. Use the cut grafting method, generally after budding and leaf expansion (from Jingzhe to Chunfen). When grafting, first choose a relatively smooth side on the rootstock, use a grafting knife to cut through the bark from top to bottom, just reaching the xylem, cut the prepared branches with 1-2 buds retained per scion, then sharpen the scion's slanted surface and contact surface, insert the cut surface of the scion into the rootstock slit, and align the cambium on one side, then wrap with special grafting film without exposing the buds.

5. Management after grafting. New shoots sprouting below the grafting union should be removed in time. For young shoots sprouting from the scion, keep the strong and remove the weak, retain 2-3 buds for growth, and remove the rest. When the new shoots lignify, apply decomposed human manure and urine 1 time, then apply again after one month, applying thin fertilizer frequently. During the new shoot growth period, timely prevent and control pests and diseases, and timely use 70% thiophanate-methyl 800-fold solution and omethoate 800-fold solution to control anthracnose, yellow hairy caterpillar, and other damage.