The Latest Technical Methods and Tutorial for Controlling Shoot Growth in Lychee
Controlling shoot growth and promoting flowering in lychee is a very important management task when growing lychee. How well it is controlled directly affects the amount of flowers and fruit the lychee tree produces the following year. Therefore, we must pay attention to timing the shoot control properly and do the shoot control work well. Generally, lychee shoot control should be carried out after the autumn shoots have matured, so how exactly should it be done? Below, the editor brings you the shoot control techniques for lychee, let's take a look!
1. Use potassium to control nitrogen
For lychee shoot control, we first need to use the method of using potassium to control nitrogen to promote flower bud differentiation. This is because lychee trees have a very large demand for potassium during flower bud differentiation. So after the last flush of shoots turns green, we should appropriately apply an extra round of potassium fertilizer. Moreover, potassium fertilizer has a certain inhibitory effect on nitrogen fertilizer and can prevent the lychee tree from absorbing too much nitrogen. In this way, we can also achieve the goal of controlling winter shoots, but we must also pay attention to controlling the application amount. If a tree carries 50kg of fruit, then the application amount of potassium chloride is generally about 0.5-0.7kg.
2. Deep hoeing to cut roots
After the last autumn shoots of the lychee tree have matured, we should carry out deep hoeing to cut roots in combination with orchard cleanup work. First, at a position about 30cm from the main trunk of the lychee tree, loosen the surface soil, going from shallow to deep, and cut the floating roots on the tree surface, with the deepest hoeing reaching about 20cm. But if it is an old tree, then be careful not to hoe too deep. Avoid damaging the roots too severely and weakening the tree's vigor. When deep hoeing, a ring-shaped trench can be dug to cut some of the tree's lateral roots, then backfilled after about 20 days. Also scatter an appropriate amount of lime powder to control root absorption and inhibit the growth of winter shoots.
3. Ring cutting and ring girdling
When the lychee tree's autumn shoots transition to the flower bud differentiation stage, the leaves will gradually lose their green color, which is a sign of flower bud differentiation in the lychee tree. However, because some trees absorb too much nitrogen fertilizer, they do not lose green normally during flower bud differentiation, so at this time ring cutting or ring girdling is needed. Ring cutting should be done according to the lychee variety and tree vigor, cutting about two rings, with a width of 4cm, in a spiral cut. Ring girdling, on the other hand, requires removing a certain width of bark, and it is best not to perform closed-ring girdling. If the tree is weak in growth or is an old tree, then ring cutting is not suitable, and the timing should be after the autumn shoots mature and before flower bud differentiation.
4. Manual removal
In late autumn, if the temperature is warmer and there is more rain, then the lychee tree is very prone to producing winter shoots. Especially for young trees and vigorously growing trees, winter shoots are very common. If the tree is not large or few winter shoots emerge, then we can remove them manually. Winter shoot removal should also be carried out before flower bud differentiation to avoid affecting flower bud differentiation. When the winter shoots grow to about 5cm, remove them at the position of the first pair of compound leaves, keeping about 1cm of tender shoot, and then appropriately spray twice with a shoot-control and flower-promoting agent.
The above is a brief introduction to lychee shoot control techniques. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!