How should apples be planted to harvest high-quality fruit?
How do you grow high-quality apples? Where should improvements be made? We also ask netizens with apple-growing experience to help explain. Apples are the most common fruit. The apple fruit is spherical, sweet, crisp in texture, and rich in nutrients. It ranks first among the world's four major fruits. The apple is a low-calorie food, producing only 6... per 100 grams.
Apples are the most common fruit. The apple fruit is spherical, sweet, crisp in texture, and rich in nutrients. It ranks first among the world's four major fruits. The apple is a low-calorie food, producing only 60 kilocalories per 100 grams. The nutrients in apples are highly soluble and easily absorbed by the human body, which is why it is called "living water"; it helps dissolve sulfur and makes the skin smooth and supple. Therefore, Zhongdiwang has compiled methods for improving apple quality, listed in detail below for netizens' reference.
1. Improve the structure of apple varieties:
Introduce and promote varieties such as Yanfu, Royal Gala and Sasa to gradually replace old, mixed and inferior varieties. Changfu and Qiufu should also be replaced by superior strains of Fuji varieties. New apple orchards should all use new varieties and new rootstocks.
2. Reasonable close planting, scientific field planting, and improved orchard establishment quality:
① Prepare the land strictly and apply sufficient base fertilizer. Before planting, dig planting holes according to the required density, with a size of 0.8m x O.8m x O.8m, or dig planting trenches along the rows, with a depth of 0.6m and a width of 0.8m. Keep the subsoil and topsoil separate, apply 10000kg of base fertilizer per 667 sq m, mix it with the topsoil and backfill, fill to 20cm from the ground, and tread firmly.
② Reasonable close planting. In order to use land resources reasonably and fully, newly built apple orchards adopt close planting, with a spacing of 2-3m x 4-5m.
③ Scientific planting. Plant in late March to early April in spring. 3-4 days before planting, irrigate the planting holes with sufficient water so that the active soil settles. Use first-grade seedlings; soak them in clean water for 24 hours before planting, then dip them in mud slurry, treat the roots with rooting powder, and plant immediately. Water promptly after planting, cover the soil with plastic film to preserve moisture, and then cover the film with a layer of soil to protect the plastic film.
3. Scientific fertilization of apple trees:
① Apply base fertilizer in autumn. The method for applying base fertilizer in autumn is to apply 3000kg of organic fertilizer per 667 sq m for trees that have not yet fruited, and 5000kg of organic fertilizer per 667 sq m for fruiting trees, after the harvest of mid-season fruit and before the harvest of late-season fruit, in combination with deep plowing of the orchard, to a depth of 20-30cm.
② Control nitrogen fertilizer and promote the use of compound fertilizer. Excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer easily causes a decline in fruit quality and soil compaction. Fruit-tree-specific compound fertilizer and three-dimensional compound fertilizer should be used, generally 0.25kg per tree for one-year-old trees, increasing by 0.25kg each year thereafter. For fruiting trees, calculate according to fruit yield: for every 100kg of fruit produced, apply 100kg of compound fertilizer.
③ Foliar spraying. Foliar spraying is a fertilization method with fast absorption and high fertilizer utilization. High-efficiency humic acid spray fertilizer is a liquid fertilizer rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other trace elements. This fertilizer is non-toxic and pollution-free, and is an ideal fertilizer for developing green food. Usage: spray a 200-fold solution 3-5 times during the growing season.
4. Reasonable shaping and pruning of apple trees:
New orchards adopt different shaping methods according to planting density. Orchards with a spacing of 2m x 4m use the slender spindle shape, and orchards with a spacing of 3-4m x 4-5m use the spindle shape. The main shaping task for fruiting trees is tree-form transformation, developing them toward the improved spindle shape and the open-center stratified shape.
① Shaping and pruning of young trees. Pruning of young trees focuses on shaping and is generally carried out in early spring. Skirt branches below 50cm on the trunk are not retained at all and are all removed; branches above 50cm retain one branch every 20cm, and the direction should be chosen well. Branches longer than 70cm are not pruned at all; all are left unpruned, laid flat and notched for buds; those about 50cm long are lightly headed; branches less than 30cm are heavily headed to promote new shoots, and will be handled again the following year. The central leader is generally not headed, but a ring cut is made every 20cm to promote uniform growth of branches. In May-June, promptly twist shoots and pinch tips to control growth; vigorous trees undergo ring cutting on the main branches to promote flower bud differentiation.
② Pruning of newly fruiting trees. Newly fruiting trees adopt a combination of winter and summer pruning, mainly summer pruning, changing the past practice of only one winter pruning. Winter pruning focuses on thinning, supplemented by renewal pruning, to cultivate main branches extending on a single axis. For upright branches within the canopy, those with space should be laid flat, and those without space should be thinned out; water sprouts and thin, weak branches must be thinned out; auxiliary branches that affect the growth of scaffold branches should mainly be renewal-pruned and transformed into large fruiting branch groups; for moderate branches or moderately vigorous branches, leave them unpruned to promote flower formation. Summer pruning mainly adopts methods such as bud notching, branch bending, shoot twisting and girdling. In mid-May, when new shoots grow to 15cm, twist them promptly; those exceeding 20cm should be pinched to control growth; those without growth space should be removed promptly, and those with space may be heavily headed to promote new shoots. In early June, carry out girdling; for vigorous trees, use trunk girdling, and for weak trees, methods such as ring cutting and tying may be used to promote flower bud differentiation and fruit enlargement. In August, bend or pull branches, bringing them to nearly 80 degrees. Through reasonable pruning and shaping, the budbreak rate and flower formation rate can be increased.
5. Strengthen management of apple trees during the flowering and fruiting period to improve fruit quality:
① Set fruit by flowers, thin flowers and thin fruit. Starting from the inflorescence separation stage, leave one inflorescence every 20-25cm, and within each inflorescence leave one central flower, removing all the rest. Orchards with unstable flowering may appropriately leave more central flowers, and after fruit set, carry out fruit thinning, leaving one fruit every 20-25cm.
② Fruit bagging. Bagging starts two weeks after flowering and ends 45 days after flowering. Before bagging, spray the whole orchard once with insecticide and fungicide, and choose freely hanging central fruit for bagging. Remove bags 20-25 days before harvest; for double-layer bags, first tear open the outer bag, then remove the inner bag 5 days later. Along with bag removal, remove leaves beside the fruit that block light, and lay reflective film under the trees.
③ Produce selenium-enriched health apples. A large number of experiments have proved that selenium is the protector of important human organs. Supplementing 200μg (micrograms) of selenium daily can effectively prevent and treat various diseases of the liver and heart. A 5000-fold solution of sterilization fertilizer type II can be sprayed on the leaves 1 week before flowering, 10 days after petal fall and 1 month before fruit harvest to produce selenium-enriched health apples.
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