A Detailed Guide to the Latest Methods and Key Techniques for Longan Seedling Propagation
Longan is a very popular fruit with relatively high nutritional value, offering various benefits such as nourishing the blood and calming the mind, and tonifying the heart and spleen. It is a fruit that serves both as food and medicine. It has a very extensive cultivation area in the tropical provinces of our country. The seedling propagation work for growing longan is very important, and the most common method for longan is seed propagation. So today, the editor brings you the longan seedling propagation methods. Let's take a look below!
1. Site Selection and Fertilization
The longan seedling bed should be chosen on soil with normal drainage and irrigation, flat terrain, and a thick, soft soil layer with sufficient fertility. After selecting the soil, the soil should be prepared by clearing stones, previous crop residues, and so on from the field. Then deep-plow the soil about 26-29 cm, and then make beds and dig furrows. During soil preparation, we should also apply sufficient base fertilizer, mainly decomposed farmyard manure, combined with nutrients such as calcium magnesium phosphate, and fully ferment it. Then mix the fertilizer with the soil, stir it evenly with the topsoil, and then prepare for sowing.
2. Seed Treatment
The longan seeds used for seedling propagation must be plump and must not be allowed to dry out and shrink. When sowing, wash the fruit flesh and mucus off the seeds thoroughly, then select out inferior seeds to ensure the overall quality of the seeds. Then soak the seeds in water to promote germination. After soaking, spread a layer of sand in a cool area, place the seeds flat on the sand, then put another layer of sand on top of the seeds, and then cover with grass to maintain the seeds' moisture and increase the germination rate. The germination-promoting temperature should be kept at around 25 degrees, and must not be too high, to prevent high temperatures from causing the seeds to lose viability. After about 4 days, when most of the seeds show white sprouts, they can be sown.
3. Timely Sowing
Before sowing, first dig the sowing holes, with a plant-to-row spacing of about 30 cm. Place 1 seed in each sowing hole. After sowing, cover with fine soil, then cover the bed surface with another layer of grass to improve water retention and prevent water shortage. To promote the seeds to sprout as quickly as possible, we should control the number of seedlings according to the planting area. Generally, the optimal number of seedlings per mu should be around 6,500 plants. If the seedlings are too dense, it will affect the thickness of the longan tree, and it will reduce the survival rate after transplanting as well as the speed of canopy expansion after survival.
4. Seedling Stage Management
When sowing longan, it is generally in summer, and the high-temperature environment is very unfavorable to the growth of longan seedlings. So before sowing, we can plant some green manure such as soybeans in the field. When the green manure grows to about 20 cm, that is the time to sow longan. At this time, the green manure can provide good shade for the longan seedlings and improve their survival rate. After the temperature gradually drops, the green manure can be pulled up and laid on the bed surface as fertilizer. Then, when the longan seedlings grow 4 leaves and begin to turn green, we can cut the root of the main root shorter. This can effectively improve the survival rate after planting and promote early fruiting.
The above is a brief introduction to longan seedling propagation methods. The longan seedling propagation method is very important, and we must pay close attention to it when planting. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!