Detailed Explanation of the Key Points of Red Beauty Mandarin Cultivation Techniques
Red Beauty is a hybrid variety of mandarin. It has a sweet-orange-like aroma, high sugar content, and relatively high planting returns. What are the cultivation techniques for Red Beauty mandarin?
Cultivation techniques for Red Beauty mandarin
1. The planting site requires fertile soil, good drainage and irrigation capacity, and sufficient light. Red Beauty has poor cold resistance and relatively high requirements for heat, light, and fertilizer. It is relatively sensitive to soil moisture content, so a site with convenient drainage and irrigation should be selected for planting, and moisture should be reasonably controlled according to actual conditions to control pests and diseases and improve quality.
2. The land must be fertile, with a soil layer more than 50 cm deep, and rocky land should be avoided; drainage must be unobstructed, and the groundwater level must not be higher than 60 cm; water supply must be convenient, and low-lying land should be avoided; choose south-facing and south-facing winter slopes with sufficient light, and avoid wind gaps and plots with strong winds; avoid places prone to freezing; it must be a place with no history of diseases such as huanglongbing, canker, fragmented leaf disease, and decline disease.
3. When preparing the land, apply sufficient base fertilizer. Dig trenches along the row spacing, with trenches 100 cm wide and 70 cm deep. Turn straw, weeds, compost, sheep manure, microbial agents, or microbial fertilizer into the trenches, with a turned-in amount of 15,000 jin-20,000 jin per mu; cover the excavated soil on top, and after 90-100 days of full fermentation, mix the soil and substrate evenly. When planting, dig holes, and spread 200 jin of lime or gypsum per mu around the seedling tray.
4. Choose virus-free seedlings with well-developed root systems, robust growth, and pure variety. In terms of seedling age, depending on your own investment cost, you can choose annual or perennial seedlings; the older the seedling, the higher the price.
5. When planting, it should not be too deep or too shallow. If too deep, the soil touches the graft union, which can easily cause pathogen invasion and lead to rot at the base of the rootstock; if too shallow, the root system cannot fully contact the soil and cannot quickly recover and take root. When planting, it is best to mix sand with the surrounding soil, carefully backfill soil, and avoid damaging the root system, then place a layer of sand on top. It is generally recommended to plant with a row spacing of 4 m × 3 m.
6. For newly purchased seedlings, observe the root growth. For deformed roots, cut off the part of the root system below the deformed section; for straight-growing roots, cut off the tail of the main root. Cut the top when the trunk height is 30-40 cm, and remove sprouts below 20 cm from the base to promote branching.
7. Use open-center or round-head shaping. In the young tree stage, the main focus is on expanding the canopy, cultivating scaffold branches, and increasing the branches, shoots, and leaves in the canopy. One year after planting, promote multiple flushes of spring, summer, and autumn shoots to accelerate canopy formation. For trees entering initial production, prune in time to cultivate effective fruiting branch groups, appropriately shorten the extension branches of the main branches and secondary main branches, and maintain a certain amount of growth and tree vigor. Adult fruiting trees should mainly be pruned in spring, combined with pruning throughout the year.
8. Young Red Beauty trees mainly use nitrogen fertilizer and organic fertilizer, following the principle of light fertilizer applied frequently. Apply bud-promoting fertilizer before spring shoots sprout, mainly quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer and potassium fertilizer, combined with applying Sea Elf biostimulant to the root system to awaken the roots and promote new shoots. In July, apply fruit-strengthening fertilizer, including organic fertilizer, balanced compound fertilizer, and medium and trace element fertilizer, and also drench with Sea Elf biostimulant to achieve the goals of strengthening fruit, promoting shoots, and nourishing roots. 10-15 days before fruit harvest, mainly use quick-acting compound fertilizer to quickly restore tree vigor.
9. In management, in addition to pruning to increase the fruit-setting rate, flower and fruit thinning and bagging are also necessary. Flower thinning is carried out from bud stage to flowering stage, mainly removing leafless inflorescences on thin and weak branches. Fruit thinning can be carried out twice. The first time is in late June, removing diseased and insect-damaged fruit, deformed fruit, damaged fruit, and excessively numerous and dense fruit in the inner canopy. The second time is in August-September, removing cracked fruit, diseased and insect-damaged fruit, small fruit, and fruit at the tips of shoots. Bagging is carried out from August to October. Bagging the retained fruit can effectively prevent pest and disease damage. Pest and disease control should be carried out once before bagging. White transparent paper bags are best as bagging material, and the bag opening should be tied tightly when bagging. Remove the bags 10 days before harvest, which is beneficial for coloring and improves marketability.
10. Citrus fruits have relatively many pests and diseases, so prevention should be emphasized in control, following the principle of combining prevention and control. First, strengthen cultivation management and improve tree resistance. Second, vigorously carry out winter orchard cleanup to reduce the pest and disease base. When using pesticides, use high-efficiency and low-toxicity ones as much as possible, and alternate them to protect natural enemies.
The cultivation techniques for Red Beauty mandarin are introduced here. I hope they have some reference value for everyone.