What are the secrets to wealth of large longan growers?
Original title: Luo Jintai: Exploring the "three great secrets" of longan cultivation
Luo Jintai is picking longans
San Nong Zhi Tong Che comprehensive report: "This spring I was too busy to handle it, the flower buds were flushed into shoots, and the physiological flowering and fruiting branches grew into vegetative branches, which affected part of the yield." A few days ago, Luo Jintai, a large grower in Longhuiya Village, Zhutuo Town, Yongchuan District, told reporters that fortunately, over 15 years of growing longan, he had gradually figured out the "three great secrets," which reduced some of the losses.
Dwarfing the trees reduces weeds
"Look, the leaves of my trees, the lower ones almost touch the ground, so no wild grass grows around the trunks at all." Luo Jintai said as he led the reporter around his orchard and explained his secret.
On closer inspection, the reporter saw that many longan trees had clearly been pruned and dwarfed, with the leaves of the lowest layer of branches forming a ring, and the ground within the tree canopy completely clean. In other parts of the orchard, however, weeds grew in profusion.
Luo Jintai said he grows longan on more than 40 mu, about 1,400 trees, and never uses herbicides or manual weeding, but instead prunes and dwarfs the trees before the persistent high temperatures."This not only protects the surface soil, but the pruned branches naturally wither and become fertilizer, and the branches left on the trees can absorb richer nutrients." At the same time, for fruit trees beside the walkways, he prunes more to make it easier for tourists to pick.
Fallen leaves burned for smoke to prevent frost damage
Luo Jintai said that in recent years, Yongchuan has repeatedly experienced rain and snow weather."Especially on the first night after snow when it clears up, frost will cause devastating damage to longan trees." Therefore, whenever there is snowy weather, Luo Jintai pays even closer attention to the weather conditions and is always ready for emergencies.
"If there is frosty weather, how should it be handled?" the reporter asked. Pointing to piles and clumps of longan leaves here and there in the orchard, he said fallen leaves are good material for making smoke. Before the expected arrival of frosty weather, he lights the fallen leaves in advance, without open flame, letting only smoke drift, to break the damaging effect of frost on the fruit trees.
Avoiding spring "shoot flushing"
"However, I also have times when I am careless, like this spring when I forgot the third secret I had summed up myself." he said.
Because Yongchuan had snowy weather last year, many fruit trees entered dormancy for a relatively long time, and after the beginning of spring the excitement level of flower bud differentiation could not be reached - "just like a person sleeping too deeply and refusing to wake up for a long time."
In April this year, Luo Jintai was busy improving the longan trees in Shuidutan Village, Zhanggu Village, Tanzikou Village, and Longhuiya Village in Zhutuo Town, while his wife was busy digging beds and planting sweet potatoes. Being busy here and there, they missed the best period for applying fallen-leaf flower-promoting agent and flower-regulating agent. As a result, some flower bud branches in the orchard this year differentiated into vegetative branches, and there were many fewer flowers than in previous years. In addition, there was relatively more rain in April, and the flowering period encountered rain, so pollination and fruit set also decreased accordingly. Therefore, this year's yield was greatly reduced compared with last year.
Last year Luo Jintai's orchard produced more than 30,000 jin, while this year only 5,000 jin."One finger can still only pin down one flea!" Luo Jintai joked, saying that next year they definitely will not be distracted. Looking at the green longan leaves on the trees now, he said those are next year's fruiting branches, and he estimates next year's yield will be more than 40,000 jin.(Reporter Ling Zeying, text/photo)