How much does a red-fleshed pomelo tree cost? A detailed guide to key cultivation techniques

Red-fleshed pomelo, also known as red-fleshed honey pomelo, red-fleshed pomelo, blood pomelo. In recent years, it has been widely popular in the market, and many farmers are eager to grow it, so how much does a red-fleshed pomelo tree cost? How to cultivate it? Next, let us find out together:

1. How much does a red-fleshed pomelo tree cost?

The red-fleshed pomelo tree is an evergreen tree. The leaves are large and thick; the leaf wings are large and heart-shaped. The flowers are large, often clustered in racemes. The fruit is large, round, oblate or broadly obovate; when ripe, it is orange. Young branches, leaf undersides, pedicels, calyx and ovary are all covered with soft hairs; young leaves are usually dark purplish red, and young branches are flat and ridged. The leaves are rather thick, dark green, broadly ovate or elliptic, including the wing leaf 9-16 cm long and 4-8 cm wide, or larger, with a blunt or rounded apex, sometimes short-pointed, and a rounded base; the wing leaf is 2-4 cm long and 0.5-3 cm wide, and in some varieties the wing leaf is very narrow. Racemes, sometimes also with axillary single flowers; flower buds pale purplish red, rarely milky white; calyx irregularly 5-3 lobed; petals 1.5-2 cm long; stamens 25-35, sometimes some stamens sterile; style thick and long, stigma slightly larger than the ovary. The fruit is spherical, oblate, pear-shaped or broadly conical, usually more than 10 cm in transverse diameter, pale yellow or yellow-green, with hybrids being vermilion red; the rind is very thick or thin, spongy, with large, raised oil cells; the fruit core is solid but soft and loose; the segments number 10-15 or up to 19; the juice sacs are white, pink or bright red; seeds number more than 200, and there are also seedless ones, irregular in shape, usually nearly rectangular, with the upper part thin and often truncate, and the lower part plump, often with some undeveloped ones, with obvious longitudinal ridges; cotyledons milky white, monoembryonic. Flowering period April-May, fruiting period September-December. Price of a 5-year-old red-fleshed pomelo tree: 800 yuan/tree.

2. Key cultivation techniques for red-fleshed pomelo trees:

1. Establishment of the pomelo orchard: choose a wind-sheltered, sunny zone with abundant water and deep, fertile sandy loam soil to establish the orchard.

2. Seedling selection: choose one-year-old grafted seedlings with well-developed root systems and robust growth for planting. Under relatively good management conditions, the seedlings can quickly resume growth, and the canopy also forms relatively quickly.

3. Hole expansion and soil improvement: an important measure to improve soil conditions and the foundation for early fruiting, high quality and high yield. Hole expansion and soil improvement generally begin in the second year after planting, and the best results are achieved when completed in the third year. The specific method is to dig trenches on both sides symmetrically below the canopy drip line, 60-70 cm deep and 40-50 cm wide, and fill them with one load each of green manure and burnt soil, 1.5 kg of calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer, an appropriate amount of lime and topsoil, applying them in layers and compacting them to improve the soil.

4. Reasonable pruning: adopt branch thinning, pruning more of the outer branches of the canopy and less of the inner branches. ① Pruning time: young pomelo trees are generally pruned twice, namely summer pruning and winter pruning; fruiting pomelo trees are generally pruned three times (namely spring pruning, summer pruning and winter pruning). Spring pruning is in February-March, summer pruning in May-July, and winter pruning half a month after fruit harvest, that is, October-November. ② Pruning method: do not use the “one-size-fits-all” method; focus on thinning the outer branches. For canopies that are relatively dense, the “skylight” pruning method can be used. This method can effectively control the canopy and promote the sprouting of inner branches, without causing reduced yield due to heavy pruning.

5. Fertilization method: use ring-shaped trench application, and carry out fertilization 3-4 times throughout the year according to the requirements of “apply base fertilizer in autumn, apply bud-promoting fertilizer cautiously, and apply fruit-preserving and fruit-strengthening fertilizer in combination.” Mainly use decomposed organic fertilizer, with inorganic fertilizer as a supplement, and apply more phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.

6. Reasonable fruit thinning: first thin out malformed fruit, small fruit and diseased or insect-damaged fruit with poor development. The fruit load is generally best at a leaf-to-fruit ratio of (160-200):1.

Red-fleshed pomelo can mature in September, and the largest fruit can reach 3.5 kg. It can bear fruit in the third year after planting. The rind is thin, there are few seeds, and the juice is abundant. The flesh is red and crisp-tender, contains lycopene and β-carotene, and has anti-cancer effects. It has good yielding ability, and the yield per 667 sq m can reach 2000 kg.