The Latest Post-Harvest Management Tips for Plums

Plums are a very popular fruit, and their planting area in our country is very large. Although plum trees cannot bear fruit in the first few years, after getting past the early planting stage, plums can be harvested every year, and their economic value is still very high. However, after harvesting plums, we must strengthen management to ensure that the plum trees bloom and bear fruit the following year. So today, the editor has brought you the key points of post-harvest management for plums. Let's take a look!

1. Proper pruning

After harvesting, we should carry out a pruning job on the plum trees. Pruning should mainly be thinning, cutting out dense branches, overly long branches and various other branches to avoid excessive nutrient consumption that would affect the plum trees' flowering and fruiting the following year. In particular, the outer branches of the plum trees and the overly dense branches growing in the upper part should be thinned regularly. If the canopy is closed and there are too many branches, then some of the large branches should be cut off. This not only reduces nutrient consumption, but also improves the tree's ventilation and light penetration, increases the nutrient accumulation of the plum trees, and lays the groundwork for the plum trees' flowering and fruiting the next year.

2. Deep soil turning

The harvest time for plums is generally around September each year. Therefore, after harvesting, we should carry out a deep turning of the orchard soil, keeping the depth at about 25 cm. This breaks up soil compaction, improves soil permeability, and achieves the goal of soil improvement. It promotes the metabolism of the plum tree roots, extends and expands them, and enhances root growth capacity. It can effectively improve the tree's drought resistance and disease resistance. It can also destroy the overwintering sites of pathogens, reduce the base number of overwintering pathogens, and ensure the healthy growth of the plum trees the following year.

3. Scientific fertilization

After the plums are harvested, most of the nutrients in the tree have left the tree along with the fruit. Therefore, fertilization must be carried out after harvest, along with proper watering, to provide the tree with sufficient nutrients and prompt it to recover its vigor. The fertilizer for topdressing should mainly be nitrogen fertilizer, and the amount applied should be controlled according to tree vigor and fruit yield. Then, during deep turning, care should be taken to apply sufficient base fertilizer, which is the key to ensuring a high and abundant yield the following year. It should be applied before leaf fall to promote root growth and ensure the flowering and fruiting rate the following year.

4. Pest and disease control

Pest and disease control is a management task we cannot neglect throughout the year. This is especially true after harvest, because after harvest most of the nutrients have flowed out of the fruit trees, and at this time the trees' growth capacity is very weak. Therefore, after harvest, we should disinfect properly, strengthen water and fertilizer management, and take diseased and disabled plant material and weeds in the orchard out of the orchard in a centralized way. Then we should understand the symptoms of several common pests and diseases of plum trees, such as leafhoppers, shot hole disease and so on. This makes it easier to know promptly what pest or disease is occurring after an outbreak and then take the corresponding treatment measures.

The above is a brief introduction to the key points of post-harvest management for plums. Management after plum harvest is very important, as it directly affects the growth of plums the following year, so everyone should pay close attention to it. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!