How to Grow Crape Myrtle? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Planting Methods
When it comes to crape myrtle, you may think of Princess Ziwei in My Fair Princess, but in fact, crape myrtle is a very famous flowering plant in China. It is widely distributed across all provinces in China, mainly concentrated in tropical provinces. Moreover, crape myrtle's wood is very hard and can be used to make furniture, farm tools and so on. Crape myrtle also has medicinal effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, and dispersing blood stasis to stop bleeding. So how should crape myrtle be planted? Now let the editor introduce the planting methods of crape myrtle to you!
1. Site selection and land preparation
Crape myrtle likes to grow in places with sufficient light and dry conditions, has strong cold and drought tolerance, and also has fairly strong adaptability. It can grow normally in most soils, but if you want to plant it on a large scale, you should still choose slightly acidic soil with sufficient fertility, that is thick and loose, and with good drainage and irrigation. Suitable soil can extend crape myrtle's flowering period and improve its ornamental value. After selecting the site, do a good job of land preparation, deep plowing and fine harrowing to about 26 cm to improve soil permeability. Then apply sufficient farmyard manure and an appropriate amount of superphosphate, control the fertilizer amount according to the planting area, and finally level the land and make beds ready for planting.
2. Sow at the right time
Crape myrtle's flowering period is about 3 months, which is relatively long, with flowers and fruits growing together. Around October, harvest the fruit, take the seeds out of the fruit, dry them, and store them in a container. Before sowing, carry out germination promotion and disinfection work: soak the seeds in a solution such as potassium permanganate for about 2 days, then wash them clean. Then soak them in warm water at about 48 degrees for about 3 days, and after soaking, dry them again. Then sow at the right time according to the planting region, weather and so on. After sowing, cover with fine soil, water thoroughly, and seedlings will emerge after about two weeks.
3. Water and fertilizer management
In winter and spring, keep the soil moist. After entering summer and as temperatures rise, water twice a day. When water is lacking, appropriately increase the watering frequency each day to prevent crape myrtle from dying of dehydration. Crape myrtle has relatively large nutritional needs during growth, but its fertilizer tolerance is not high. Excessive fertilization can easily cause crape myrtle trees to grow excessively, reduce permeability, and affect crape myrtle's growth. However, the amount of fertilizer should not be too small either, otherwise it can easily lead to insufficient nutrition in crape myrtle, weak branches, withered and yellow leaves, reduced growth, a lower flowering rate, or even failure to bloom, seriously reducing ornamental value. So we should fertilize reasonably, applying more during peak growing seasons such as spring and summer, while controlling fertilizer application in the other two seasons.
4. Field management
Crape myrtle has relatively strong growth ability, so managing it is fairly simple. However, when planting, we should pay attention to pruning out old withered branches, pest- and disease-damaged branches, and other weak-growing branches that are unfavorable to growth, and burn them in a centralized way. Also, in order to extend crape myrtle's flowering period, prune out branches that have already flowered to promote sprouting again and the growth of branches. If you want to focus on cultivating the trunk, then prune away most of the flowering branches and concentrate nutrients on the main trunk. In addition, crape myrtle's growth has a relatively large demand for light, and doing pruning work well can also improve light penetration. We also need to pay attention to providing sufficient light for crape myrtle to promote its growth.
The above is a brief introduction to crape myrtle planting methods. Crape myrtle has relatively strong growth ability, but in order to improve its ornamental value, we should pay attention to doing field management work well, enhance crape myrtle's growth ability, and protect our own planting benefits. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!