What are the latest measures for protecting plum trees from freezing in winter?
The plum is a fruit that many people quite like to eat, and its planting area in our country is also relatively large. When growing plum trees, we should pay attention to doing a good job of management according to the changes of the seasons. If management is poor, then various problems are very likely to appear. Especially in winter, plum trees can very easily be damaged by freezing. So how should plum trees be protected from freezing in winter? Now let's take a look together with the editor!
1. Irrigation and whitewashing
In winter and early spring, the temperature is very low, and at this time plum trees are very easily damaged by freezing. In spring, when plum trees begin to show signs of budding, appropriate watering can lower the ground temperature and delay the budding time of the plum trees. It is best to water about two more times after the plum trees bud and before flowering, and the flowering time can be delayed by about three days. Moreover, appropriate watering before freezing damage can also appropriately raise the tree temperature and prevent the tree body from freezing damage. Whitewashing plum trees in winter can not only play a role in freeze protection, but also prevent and control pests and diseases.
2. Strengthening tree vigor
Freezing damage will cause damage to various organs of plum trees, such as young fruit, leaf tips, and so on. Therefore, we should strengthen the tree vigor of plum trees, strengthen fertilizer and water management, and supplement nutrients for plum trees. To enhance the growth vigor and cold resistance and disease resistance of plum trees, more fertilizer should be applied before and after the flowering period, mainly special fertilizer for fruit trees. It can also be combined with an appropriate amount of potassium dihydrogen phosphate or urea, etc., about once a week. It can not only enhance the growth vigor of plum trees, but also promote the recovery of tree vigor after plum trees suffer freezing damage, increasing the fruit setting rate and the weight of single fruit.
3. Reasonable pruning
After discovering that branches, leaves, and fruit have suffered freezing damage, in the short term there is no need to rush to prune. The principle should be late fruit thinning and keeping as much fruit as possible. Keep some fruit that is not seriously damaged or not damaged, increase the fruit load, and reduce the losses caused by freezing damage as much as possible. Then the plum tree branches should be pulled and the angle opened to inhibit the vegetative growth of the plum trees, so that the tree vigor can recover naturally. If the branches cannot recover due to freezing damage, then they should be timely pruned to the healthy part of the branch, so that they can quickly recover and sprout and grow branches again. Damaged branches and buds should also be removed to promote the germination and fruiting of latent buds.
4. Smoke fumigation for freeze protection
Smoke fumigation for freeze protection is a commonly used method for preventing freezing damage when growing plum trees. Its effect mainly depends on the quality of the smoke produced. When the orchard temperature is two degrees, the number of smoke piles per mu should be kept at least around 5 piles. The height and diameter of the grass piles can both be kept at around 150 cm, and then several wooden sticks should be inserted into the grass piles as ventilation holes. Then cover the surroundings of the grass piles with a layer of wet grass or wet mud to increase the amount of smoke and the smoking time. The smoking material can be straw, weeds, and other substances. At temperatures above minus two degrees, the effect on freezing damage is very good. If it is below minus two degrees, then the effect will be affected.
The above is a brief introduction to the winter freeze protection measures for plum trees. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and I hope it can help everyone!