How to Grow Pomelo? A Complete Guide from Site Selection to Seedling Management

China has a very long history of cultivating pomelo trees, with records of pomelo cultivation dating back to the Zhou and Qin dynasties before the Common Era. Pomelo leaves resemble those of mandarin and orange trees, mostly long oval or long ovate. The surface of the pomelo is mostly yellow or orange and has a pungent odor. The flesh is rich in vitamins, organic acids and minerals, and has effects such as relieving cough and reducing phlegm, moistening the lungs and clearing the intestines, making it deeply loved by the people. Here we introduce the points to note and methods needed from site selection through the seedling management period, hoping to offer some help to friends who are thinking about growing pomelo.

I. Site Selection

The first step before sowing is inevitably choosing the location of the nursery. The nursery site should be chosen facing south or southeast, with good ventilation and light transmission, and a slope not exceeding 10 degrees. The soil layer should be more than 20 cm deep. Generally, choose a place with good water retention and drainage, convenient irrigation, and medium-fertility sandy loam or sandy yellow loam soil, and with a certain resistance to wind damage and pests and diseases.

II. Land Preparation

After the sowing nursery is determined, before sowing, the nursery land should be deep-plowed and the soil sun-dried so that the soil is fully weathered. Drainage ditches should be opened around the nursery to facilitate irrigation and drainage. The nursery beds should be arranged in an east-west direction, generally 1.2 m wide and 15-20 cm high, with ditches 40 cm wide. The length of the beds depends on the terrain. The bed surface should be level and the soil particles fine and crumbly. A few days before sowing, apply grass fertilizer; generally use 1800 kg of farmyard manure and 150 kg of plant ash per mu, mix well with the topsoil, and then sow.

III. Sowing

For the sowing time, you can choose between September and December, sowing as soon as the seeds are obtained, or you can store the seeds in sand and keep them until the following spring to sow. When sowing, first open small horizontal furrows on the bed surface with a row spacing of 10 cm. Use about 15-18 kg of seed per mu, which can produce about 40,000-60,000 seedlings. After sowing, cover with about 10 cm of fine soil, then cover the bed surface with bracken fern grass, rice straw or other weeds, and water to keep moist. Where irrigation is convenient, you can also run one round of “horse-running water” to seep through and wet the ground. In dry conditions, pay attention to watering and always keep the nursery land moist to promote seed germination. After the seedlings emerge, remove the covering grass.

IV. Seedling Management

After the seedlings emerge, the seedbed should always be kept moist, but water must not accumulate. When the seedlings grow two true leaves and the leaves change from light to dark green, you can begin fertilizing. In the early stage, focus on light and frequent applications, similar to “small amounts, many meals”, applying once every ten days to half a month. After applying six or seven times in a row, you can fertilize as appropriate according to the growth of the seedlings. The fertilizer should mainly be nitrogen fertilizer such as human and animal manure and urine or ammonium sulfate, with an appropriate additional application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers such as plant ash or superphosphate. Generally, after one year of growth management, the small seedlings can grow to 30-50 cm tall. At this point, they can be planted directly or used as rootstock seedlings for grafted seedlings.

The above is an introduction to the initial seedling-raising techniques for pomelo seedlings. It should be added that the pomelo tree is a sun-loving plant and needs to grow in low-altitude areas with abundant sunlight and a warm climate, reaching as far north as the Xinyang and Nanyang areas of Henan Province. Before planting, geographical and environmental factors must be considered, and blind introduction must be avoided.