The Latest Soft-Seed Pomegranate Planting Techniques and Methods Tutorial
Pomegranate is a fruit with excellent market prospects at present. It is rich in nutrients and has beauty and skincare benefits, and is widely used in skincare products and cosmetics, so market demand has been enormous in recent years. Among pomegranates there is a soft-seed pomegranate variety, which has higher yield and better economic returns than ordinary pomegranates, and its most notable feature is that its seeds are soft and edible, changing the drawback of hard kernels being difficult to swallow. It is suitable for the elderly and children to eat, and also helps digestion. So how should soft-seed pomegranates be planted? Let's take a look.
1. Site Selection and Orchard Establishment
The requirements for establishing an orchard are a area with convenient transportation, flat and open terrain, loose and fertile soil, a wind-sheltered sunny side, and complete drainage and irrigation facilities. Before planting, prepare the land and apply fertilizer, applying 5000 kg of decomposed compost per mu, and raking it together with the soil until broken up and level. Then dig planting holes at a spacing of 2×3 m or 2.5×3 m between plants and rows, with the length, width, and depth of the holes all required to be 0.8 m. In this way the orchard site is ready, and a small area in the orchard can also be reserved as a nursery plot for raising seedlings.
2. Propagation Methods
Soft-seed pomegranate has extremely strong asexual reproductive capacity, so when planting on a large scale, cuttings are used for propagation and seedling raising. Select and collect cuttings from November to March, cutting from the mother plant one-year-old root suckers or robust water sprouts growing inside the canopy to use as cuttings. Cuttings should not be selected from branches damaged by pests or diseases, with mechanical injury, or with abnormal growth. The length of the cuttings is between 15-20 cm, and they should have 1-2 plump buds on them to ensure smooth sprouting. The cutting time is generally February to March in spring, when the temperature is favorable for rooting. Cutting can be done with professional tools, which is convenient and quick. After cutting, cover with soil, firm it down, and water. Also pay attention to the cutting density, with a plant and row spacing of 20×50 cm being suitable.
3. Seedling Raising
After cutting, seedling-stage management should be strengthened. In the early stage after cutting, the main tasks are loosening the soil, weeding, preserving soil moisture, and increasing temperature. This period generally lasts 40 days. After that, the cuttings have already rooted and become seedlings. At this time, it is necessary to promote the growth and development of the young seedlings, so fertilizer and water management should be strengthened at this stage, with 1-2 topdressings, each time applying 5-7 kg of urea per mu, and spraying the leaves with potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution 1-2 times to increase the trace elements needed for young seedling growth. Also pay attention to underground pests to avoid damage to the root system.
4. Planting
After the young seedlings shed their leaves, they can be lifted from the nursery. When lifting the seedlings, open a 30 cm deep trench on one side of the young seedling, then cut vertically downward about 20-30 cm from the seedling on the other side, and dig out the young seedling with soil. When digging, the main thing is not to damage the root system and trunk. After digging out, prune the diseased and pest-infested branches of the young seedling, then transplant by grade. When transplanting, hold the young seedling upright and place it into the planting hole, spread the root system out, then cover with soil and firm it down, and water once to help the seedling recover, improving the survival rate.
The above are soft-seed pomegranate planting techniques. We hope they can help you. To learn more about pomegranate planting knowledge, please stay tuned to us.