How to Protect Flowers and Fruits of Orange Trees? A Detailed Explanation of the Latest Technical Methods

Orange trees have a large number of flowers but poor flower quality, so flower and fruit drop is quite serious during cultivation, causing huge losses to yield. How to protect flowers and fruits is one of the important measures for oranges or high yield. Let's learn about it together with the editor below.

1. Timely pruning and bud removal

After orange trees bud in spring, careful thinning and pruning should be carried out: remove the winter shoots at the top, water sprouts, diseased and pest-infested branches, and overly dense branches around the outer canopy. Leafless spherical flowers and deformed flowers should also be pruned off. Cut back overly long autumn shoots, leaving 3-4 flower clusters, while keeping the strong and removing the weak, cutting away clustered branches, and removing strong spring vegetative shoots at the top and outer canopy as well as overly dense weak spring shoots. Spring shoots should be promptly pinched and cut back, and spring shoots, summer shoots and early autumn shoots should be thoroughly removed.

Spray once each at the bud stage, petal-fall stage and young fruit stage with a mixture of 0.3% urea + 0.3% monopotassium phosphate + 0.2% borax. After the first physiological fruit drop and before the second physiological fruit drop, spray once with a low-concentration compound fertilizer solution. In late May, spray once more with a mixture of 0.3% urea + 0.3% monopotassium phosphate, or apply it onto the young fruits; the effect of protecting flowers and fruits is relatively good.

3. Preventing navel yellow fruit drop

At petal fall, in combination with flower and fruit protection, spray thiophanate-methyl solution once. From late month to early May, spray the canopy with foliar fertilizers such as amino acid compound fertilizer at 300 times or Greenfenwei No. 2 at 800 times. For the second physiological fruit drop, spray the canopy with a mixed solution of compound fertilizer + thiophanate-methyl at 800 times, or apply a low-concentration thiophanate-methyl solution to the navel of the fruit, which can inhibit the occurrence of navel yellow and prevent fruit drop.

4. Water management

For fruit drop caused by fruit cracking, irrigate promptly during dry seasons and cover the tree disk with rice straw, with a covering thickness of about 10-15 cm. Before covering with straw, perform shallow intertillage and loosening of the soil near the tree disk. From June to August, increase the application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. For the second physiological fruit drop, use a phosphorus-potassium fertilizer solution to spot-apply onto the navel of young fruits. For slightly initially cracked fruits, add 70% thiophanate-methyl at 800 times solution.

The above is an introduction to orange flower and fruit protection techniques. We hope it can help you. To learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.