Key Points of Jujube Tree Cultivation Techniques and a Detailed Guide to Planting and Management Methods

The jujube tree is also known as jujube fruit, Chinese date, spiny jujube, and guanzao. It is a plant of the genus Ziziphus in the Rhamnaceae family, a deciduous small tree, rarely a shrub, reaching more than 10 m in height, with brown or grayish-brown bark. It grows in mountainous areas, hills or plains below 1700 m in altitude. It is widely cultivated. Below is an introduction to jujube tree cultivation techniques as follows:

I. Orchard Selection and Planting

The jujube tree has strong adaptability, but it grows and develops better under conditions of loose soil, deep layers, and sufficient fertilizer and water. Planting jujube trees in cultivated land in a planned way and implementing jujube-grain intercropping is an effective way to develop three-dimensional agriculture and achieve a double harvest of jujubes and grain. Both sides of canals and roads, field edges and ridges, and courtyards are all good places for developing jujube trees. It can also be combined with the establishment of farmland shelterbelts to build a multifunctional, high-benefit composite forest-fruit commercial production base.

The planting season can be either spring or autumn, but spring is preferable. Generally, it is carried out within one week before the jujube tree buds. Planting density: for contiguous jujube orchards, the spacing between plants and rows is 4-5 m × 5-6 m, with 22-33 trees per mu; for long-term jujube-grain intercropping, the row spacing is 8-15 m and the plant spacing is 4-6 m, and north-south rows are used for planting. The size of the planting hole is generally 80 cm square, and more than 10 kg of farmyard manure is applied. The planting depth should be level with the root collar, backfilling while tamping down, straightening the seedling, and irrigating immediately after planting. When planting, dipping the seedling roots in phosphate fertilizer mud slurry helps survival.

II. Fertilizer and Water Management

In order to promote early fruiting and early high yield of jujube trees, soil, fertilizer, and water management must be strengthened. In the Hexi irrigation district, apart from winter irrigation, the number of irrigations is mostly the same as that for wheat; for fertilization, apply 0.15-0.25 kg of diammonium phosphate per tree, choose reasonable intercrops to facilitate ventilation and light penetration; leave enough tree to ensure nutritional area, and promptly determine the trunk height after planting and pay attention to pruning.

1. After the soil thaws, deep plow within a 2 m radius around the jujube tree to improve soil aeration. Loosen the soil and remove weeds in time; spring plowing should be shallow, and autumn plowing should be deep;

2. Apply base fertilizer before freezing at the end of autumn, and apply topdressing before sprouting in spring. Generally, for a single tree producing 50 kg of fresh jujubes, apply 100 kg of coarse fertilizer or a mixture of 1.5 kg each of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer and 0.5 kg of potassium fertilizer in furrows. When fertilizing, dig a 40 × 40 cm ring-shaped trench 1-1.5 m from the trunk and apply the fertilizer into it. During the flowering period and young fruit growth period, apply 0.5-1 kg of urea per tree by the radial trench method;

3. In places with irrigation conditions, irrigate in time before the flowering period, during fruit setting, during the fruit expansion period, and before the onset of winter.

III. Regular Pruning

The pruning period of jujube trees is generally divided into winter pruning and summer pruning. Winter pruning can generally be carried out from after leaf fall until before sap flow in the following year, but because jujube trees have a long dormancy period, poor healing ability, and strong spring winds, winter pruning is not easy to carry out, so it is generally advisable in March-April. That is to say, spring pruning is best, but it is still customarily called winter pruning. Summer pruning is carried out from late June to early July, after the vigorous growth stage of the jujube shoot has passed and when it begins to slow down.