The Latest Guide to Four-Season Honeysuckle Tree Planting Techniques and Methods
Four-Season Honeysuckle is an excellent honeysuckle variety developed over many years by the Four-Season Honeysuckle Professional Cooperative of Shandong Province in cooperation with relevant experts, characterized by stable growth, high yield and medicinal value, and excellent economic returns. It has the advantages of fast growth, wide adaptability, strong stress resistance, a well-developed root system and stable yield. Now let us take a look at the planting techniques for the Four-Season Honeysuckle tree!
Planting at the Right Time
Four-Season Honeysuckle is highly adaptable and can be planted in wasteland, on slopes, in ditch land, by riversides, along field edges, and in front of and behind houses. It is best planted before early-spring sprouting or before the autumn-winter dormant period. On the prepared planting site, dig holes at a row spacing of 1.5 m and a plant spacing of 1 m, fill the holes with evenly mixed fertile soil, and after planting the seedlings be sure to press the soil down firmly and water thoroughly to settle the roots. If you want to save land, you can heel in the seedlings for 1.5 mu in one mu of land, and then transplant them out by alternate rows and alternate plants in the second or third year, which will greatly improve the returns.
Intertillage and Weeding
Weeding Four-Season Honeysuckle is simple and easy. Weeding can be done before and after early-spring sprouting and during intertillage from May to August. Chemical weeding can be used during the weed-growing season, but herbicide damage must never be left on the branches and leaves of the honeysuckle. After the plants are 3-year-old large seedlings and only a few weeds remain, chemical weeding must not be used. During intertillage, cultivate shallowly near the plants to avoid injuring the roots, and slightly deeper between the rows.
Rational Topdressing
Four-Season Honeysuckle generally only needs topdressing twice a year. The first is done before and after early-spring sprouting, and thereafter topdressing is done after each flower bud harvest according to the vigor of the plants, applying livestock and poultry manure or nitrogen fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate and urea, scattered into opened furrows and covered with soil to conceal the fertilizer. After entering the high-yield period, winter manure needs to be applied every winter. In addition, every winter foliar spraying should also be done according to the vigor of the plants.
Pruning at the Right Time
Pruning is the key to planting Four-Season Honeysuckle. It is divided into planting pruning, young-plant pruning and full-bloom-period pruning, with the aim of shaping the tree well to increase yield. Pruning at planting can establish the basic tree form and lay a good foundation for the shaping and pruning of the first and second years. Annual pruning can be divided into winter pruning and summer pruning. The principle of winter pruning is to prune vigorous branches lightly, prune weak branches heavily, prune dead branches completely, and prune every branch, cutting back all the remaining branches. The principle of summer pruning is to cut out shaded branches, small and weak branches, cut back vigorous branches, and remove water sprouts. For trees that have entered the high-yield period, summer pruning consists of tipping and clearing out the center, removing the weak and keeping the strong, picking off all soil-covered leaves, providing ventilation and light penetration, thinning branches into clumps, and shaping the tree like an umbrella, generally maintaining a tree height of about 1.3 m to facilitate picking.
Pest and Disease Control
Pest and disease control for Four-Season Honeysuckle is based on prevention, using highly effective, low-toxicity and low-residue pesticides, and avoiding the use of pesticides during the flowering period as much as possible. Generally, aphids and cotton bollworms harm the honeysuckle, and the main diseases are powdery mildew and anthracnose. There are now many pesticide varieties, so attention must be paid to the authenticity and quality of the pesticides, and they should be applied according to the instructions marked on the pesticide label.
⟦NL>Picking at the Right Time
Pest and disease control and picking at the right time can improve quality and price. Picking after the flowers have opened results in poor quality, while picking too early results in low yield. Therefore, it is best to pick on the day when the flowers are about to open, and it is most suitable to pick when the upper part of the flower is swollen but not yet open and is greenish-white.