How to Grow Cherries for High Yield? A Detailed Guide to Practical Growing Methods
The cherry is a fruit with a bright appearance and excellent taste. In recent years, the economic value of cherries on the market has been truly spectacular, and demand has exceeded supply, entering its peak era. Many people have started growing cherry trees in order to make money, but they find that the annual yield is not as good as expected, with a big gap from what they imagined. Below, Qinnong Network tells everyone a high-yield cherry growing method, hoping it will be of some help to all you dear friends.
1. Plant at the Right Time
Cherry trees are relatively fragile in growth. If they are not planted at the right time, either the survival rate of the plants will be low, or after surviving they will be crowded and very weak in growth, or the flowering and fruiting period will be extended, with slow fruiting and low yield. So the best planting season is the season when all things revive, that is, early spring each year. At this time, the survival rate of planted cherries can reach as high as 95 percent. Secondly, at this time their growth speed and physiological functions are relatively vigorous, which can shorten the fruiting period and let them bear fruit as soon as possible.
2. Reasonable Density
We generally do not let cherry trees grow very tall, because that makes harvesting inconvenient, so we try to let them grow horizontally. Therefore, when planting, attention must be paid to reasonable planting density. Under normal circumstances, an average of 200 cherry trees can be planted per mu, with a spacing of about 2 m between each row and each plant. This gives the branches and leaves of the cherry trees some room to spread, and also leaves some gaps during orchard management so that the branches and leaves are not bumped. Finally, it enhances the ventilation in the orchard, provides enough light, and lets the cherries grow better with more uniform coloring.
3. Fertilizer and Water Management
Fertilizer and water management play the most critical role in the mid-stage of cherry yield. Every year we need to water the cherries three times to ensure the water supply in the field, allow the cherry trees to grow normally, and provide enough water to the fruit. But do not water during the period when the fruit is about to ripen. During this time it needs to accumulate sugar. If there is too much water, the cherries will have no flavor and a very bland taste. Every year, at least three fertilizations are needed for the trees. The first is during the spring growth period of branches and leaves each year, which can accelerate the growth of branches and leaves and bring the flowering period forward. The second is at flowering time, which can extend the flowering period and increase the fruit-setting rate. The third is when the fruit swells, when boron fertilizer can be sprayed so the fruit will be fuller and the color brighter.
4. Orchard Management
Cherry orchard management generally refers to these three aspects: pruning of branches and leaves, flower and fruit thinning, and cleaning the orchard. Pruning branches and leaves is mainly to maintain reasonable density in the orchard, and secondly to cut off diseased branches, dense branches, thin branches, and old branches, so that the new branches that grow afterward are more vigorous and have a higher fruiting rate. During the flowering and fruiting periods, attention must be paid to controlling flowers and fruits. That is, we need to knock off some of the flowers in the orchard that are not growing well and keep the good ones to improve the fruit-setting rate. Then after fruit set, some diseased fruits, deformed fruits, and small fruits need to be knocked off, keeping large fruits and strong fruits. Finally, all weeds, debris, fallen leaves, and branches in the orchard need to be cleaned out, which can reduce the impact of pests and diseases on the orchard.
5. Disease Control
The main diseases of cherries include leaf spot, shot hole disease, dieback, and brown rot. Leaf spot and shot hole disease cause great damage to leaves. We can use 3 to 5 degree lime sulfur mixture for prevention, and use carbendazim for control in the early stage of the disease. The symptoms of dieback mainly appear on the trunk and branches of the tree. You will find that the branches slowly dry up and have no moisture. If we do a good job in orchard management, this can be avoided. The symptoms of brown rot appear as brown spots gradually appearing on the fruit and gradually deepening. We generally spray once before early flower drop with 1000-fold 50 percent procymidone or 800-fold 70 percent thiophanate-methyl for control. The most common pests include the peach fruit moth, peach tube aphid, white peach scale, and oriental moth, which can be controlled with pesticides such as fenvalerate, imidacloprid, methidathion, and fenpropathrin respectively. Of course, there is also the phenomenon of fruit cracking in cherries, which affects quality. We mainly need to pay attention to uniform water management and uniform light exposure.