How should mandarin oranges be managed to ensure the quality of next year's flowering?

    My six-year-old mandarin orange trees put out a second autumn flush this year, and they are still continuously growing new leaves; the long ones have already reached 40 cm, and the short ones are over 20 cm, and their maturation is far from ideal. What measures should be taken to ensure the quality of next year's flowering?

    Mandarin orange trees generally enter flower bud differentiation from late October to early November, that is, they stop the vegetative growth of shooting new flushes and growing leaves and shift to reproductive growth for flower bud differentiation. If vegetative growth continues during the above period, even if the later temperatures are still suitable for the growth of late autumn shoots, the late autumn shoots can still mature later. However, because this affects the accumulation of carbohydrates in the tree and because the time for flower bud differentiation is too short, it ultimately affects flower formation or flower quality.

    Therefore, it is recommended that you immediately take the following measures. Shorten the growing final autumn flush back to the lower several pairs of leaves that have basically matured; carry out ring girdling on vigorous trees; for trees of medium vigor, spray 500-750 ppm paclobutrazol and add a 0.5% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution, spraying once every 15 days for 2 consecutive sprays (for girdled trees, potassium dihydrogen phosphate can be sprayed alone); if the soil moisture content is relatively high, after the above measures, weed the tree and shallowly turn the soil to speed up the evaporation of soil moisture.

    Through the above measures, on the one hand, promote the shortened final autumn flush to fully mature as soon as possible in early November, and on the other hand, inhibit root activity and control the sprouting of new shoots. This will prompt the trees to enter flower bud differentiation as soon as possible; after taking the above measures, the trees should still be inspected frequently, and once new buds are found sprouting, they should be removed by hand. This is to prevent the new buds from uselessly consuming the tree's nutrients.