Latest Key Orchard Management Techniques for Wax Apple
Wax apple is a tropical and subtropical fruit, native to Malaysia, Taiwan, China, and Hainan, China, among other places, and is a famous and high-quality fruit of its native regions. As wax apple has entered inland cities of our country in recent years, it has attracted more and more attention, and its price is also very enviable: one kilogram of wax apple can reach 60 or even over a hundred yuan. This has drawn many people to rush into planting it, but after all, it is a fruit that lives in the tropics, and it is not easy to grow. Many people also do not know how to manage it. Below, the editor brings you the orchard management of wax apple.
1. Shaping and pruning
After planting wax apple, leave the trunk and cut off everything above about 0.6 m from the ground. Select some vigorous, evenly distributed new shoots more than 0.25 m above the ground as the main growth framework. Except for leaving a few auxiliary nurturing branches, cut off all the rest, then set up a pole beside the plant and tie the main branches to it, and begin shaping according to the natural open-center form at a 45-degree angle. The purpose of shaping and pruning is to set the tree form of wax apple well and enhance the permeability between trees. If it is a winter-spring variety, then short pruning should begin every year at the Start of Spring, cutting off all the plant's leaves as well as diseased and dead branches, excessive water sprouts, and other useless branches, leaving the branches needed for growth in the second year.
2. Fertilizer and water management
Wax apple has very large fertilizer and water requirements. In the early planting stage, more phosphorus and potassium fertilizer should be applied. During the flower bud differentiation stage, care should be taken not to apply too much nitrogen fertilizer. For small fruits, the application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer should be strengthened to ensure the normal growth of wax apple. Water should be managed reasonably. Apart from maintaining dry conditions in autumn to favor flower bud differentiation, at all other times a moist state should be maintained, and watering should be done promptly when dryness is found, because lack of water will cause wax apple flowers and fruits to drop. When there is a large fruit set, an appropriate amount of foliar fertilizer can be sprayed during the fruiting stage. Wax apple is mostly grown in coastal areas, and the soil in coastal areas has high salt content, so fresh water can be used to reduce the salt content in the soil and promote normal growth of the plants.
3. Flower and fruit thinning
Wax apple has a very large amount of flowers and fruits. Under normal conditions, a tree of about five years can reach two thousand flower clusters. In order to speed up fruit development, effectively enlarge the fruit, and improve the fruit skin quality, when selecting fruiting positions, flower clusters with good development should be chosen, and flower clusters at the tips of long branches should be removed. Attention should also be paid to avoiding physical damage such as scraping and sunburn, and inferior fruits should be removed. When removing flower clusters, first cut off the flower clusters growing upward and keep the flower clusters growing sideways. The purpose is to prevent the fruit stalk from breaking under the weight after the fruit expands. Then bagging begins about three weeks after flowering, but before bagging, attention should be paid to disinfecting the whole orchard to prevent and control diseases.
4. Disease control
Pests and diseases are the most harmful problem for all fruits, and wax apple is no exception. The main diseases that threaten wax apple are anthracnose and fruit rot. Pests include fruit flies, scarab beetles, and others. But wax apple is also a fruit relatively sensitive to pesticides, so when controlling pests and diseases, attention should be paid to the use of pesticides. Agents such as carbendazim and thiophanate-methyl can be used instead of pesticides for control. After harvest, the orchard should be comprehensively disinfected and the soil plowed to reduce sources of disease. When selecting seeds, choose those with strong disease resistance or soak the seeds for disinfection to effectively reduce the incidence of disease.
The above is the orchard management technology for wax apple during cultivation. The market price of wax apple is very high, even comparable to mangosteen. Moreover, people nowadays have a high acceptance of new things and have a strong impression of the taste and appearance of wax apple. But the biggest drawback of planting it is that wax apple is only suitable for growing in tropical and subtropical regions, and a temperate climate is not suitable for growing wax apple. So planting friends who do not live in a tropical climate can only consider other projects.