How to prune Kadsura coccinea? Latest pruning techniques and methods tutorial
Kadsura coccinea has been a relatively popular fruit in China in recent years. It also has a relatively large planting area in China. When growing Kadsura coccinea, if you want to increase its yield, then management work is very important, especially pruning work. Reasonable pruning is also the key to ensuring the yield of Kadsura coccinea, so how should Kadsura coccinea be pruned during cultivation? Below, the editor brings you the pruning techniques for Kadsura coccinea. Let's take a look!
1. Pruning key points
Before pruning Kadsura coccinea, we must first understand the different uses of its branches. Generally, the main branches and water shoots are the vegetative branches on the Kadsura coccinea plant, mainly used for adjusting the tree shape, while the side branches are the fruit-bearing branches, mainly used to control fruiting. Pruning mainly focuses on overly dense and vigorously growing branches, diseased and pest-infested branches, and weak branches. Each tree should retain about 3 thick branches for cultivation, and excess basal shoots should be cut off. Under normal circumstances, pruning should be carried out every year except in autumn, among which summer pruning and winter pruning are more important.
2. Summer pruning
During pruning in summer, the main focus is on removing sprouts, that is, wiping out the suckers growing from the rootstock of Kadsura coccinea and the water shoots sprouting from the main trunk and main vines. Apart from retaining some as reserved branches, all the excess should be wiped out. Then, during the fruit-setting period, do the pinching work well. When the spring shoots grow to a semi-lignified degree, for excessively vigorous branches, pinch at the position of the 10th leaf. If they are vegetative branches, then pinch at the 15th leaf. If there is a second flush of shoots, then retain 3 leaves for pinching. In addition, overly dense and overly long summer shoots should be thinned out to avoid affecting fruit growth.
3. Winter pruning
Winter pruning mainly focuses on thinning branches, and the targets for thinning are water shoots, overlapping and crossing branches, and diseased and pest-infested branches, etc. For thick current-year branches, they can be cultivated into fruit-bearing mother branches for the next year, and according to actual conditions such as growth vigor and variety, about 10 buds should be retained for short cutting. If the branches grow weakly, then fewer buds should be retained; on the contrary, more should be retained. For fruit-bearing mother branches that have reached three years of fruiting, they can be retracted to a place with strong branches and strong buds to renew them. If a water shoot bears fruit, then it should be short-cut at 3 buds at the fruiting position; the same applies to long and medium fruit branches. If it is a short fruit branch, then it may not be pruned.
4. Tying vines and thinning flowers
In addition to doing the pruning work well, we must also do a good job of tying vines and thinning flowers. When tying vines, an open tree shape should be the main form, and the Kadsura coccinea vines should be tied to the trellis. If it is a young tree, then the growth direction of the main branches should also be guided and fixed in the intended direction, so that it forms a high-yielding tree shape. Then, some water shoots with useful value should be pinched to cultivate them into vegetative branches. Finally, according to the tree shape of the Kadsura coccinea plant, do a good job of flower and fruit thinning to enhance fruit quality. The standard for fruit thinning is generally one fruit per 50 leaves.
The above is a brief introduction to the pruning techniques for Kadsura coccinea. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and I hope it can help everyone!