Ningbo gives citizens small packets of deodorized food waste that can be used as fertilizer for flowers
“Give me some, give me some! This organic fertilizer has the best fertility, it is completely natural, I will take it home to grow flowers!” Yesterday, at the Ningbo Biochemical Treatment Plant, citizen Aunt Zhang held the garbage residue she had received, her face full of smiles.
Yesterday, Ningbo held the “Where Does the Garbage Go——Ten Thousand People Public Welfare Environmental Inspection” activity. Citizens and students visited garbage transfer stations, the biochemical treatment plant, a landfill, a waste-to-energy plant and other facilities to learn about the garbage treatment process and to spread knowledge and awareness of garbage sorting.
The Ningbo Biochemical Treatment Plant is mainly responsible for the harmless treatment of food waste and feces in the urban area of Ningbo. In appearance, the plant is no different from an ordinary facility, and it does not give off any particular stench.
This plant can finely process 500 tons of feces and 100 tons of food waste every day. Plant director Wang Guangming said that the treated residue is very good fertilizer and is mainly sent to some larger farms for use as fertilizer.
At present, the plant produces about 10 tons of residue every day. The plant is working on deodorization technology for the residue, and it is expected that by the second half of the year the residue will have no smell at all. Wang Guangming said that after the garbage residue is deodorized, it will be put into small packages and given to citizens. This garbage residue is an excellent fertilizer for flowers, and young people who like growing succulents will certainly need it too.
Under the hot sun, citizens also visited the Yemao'ao Landfill in Yinzhou. This landfill was originally designed to bury 800 tons per day, but now it actually buries nearly 2,000 tons per day. Even if the amount of garbage does not increase, this landfill will be full in another 5 years. Since this landfill was put into use in 2006, it has raised a small mountain hollow by 27 meters.
Landfill director Liu Shida said that if citizens did a thorough job of garbage sorting at home, our landfill could receive half as much garbage every day.
After Spring Festival, how should New Year flowers be handled?
With the passing of the Lantern Festival, the traditional Lunar New Year has come to an end. Many people once again face a difficult problem: how should the New Year flowers displayed during Spring Festival be handled? It is understood that Shenzhen has very few New Year flower collection points, and even where they exist, they are relatively remote and receive little attention from citizens. As a result, after the New Year, most New Year flowers are discarded like ordinary garbage, which is not only not environmentally friendly but also puts great pressure on sanitation workers.
Most New Year flowers become garbage after the festival
"I have a pot of New Year kumquat and several pots of narcissus at home. Is there a dedicated agency to recycle them?" On the 10th, a reporter called the urban management hotline 12319 in the name of a resident of Futian District. The staff member who answered hesitated for a moment and replied: "We do not have a dedicated recycling department. Please consult your street office or residential property management." The reporter then asked whether the New Year flowers could be thrown into a trash bin like ordinary garbage and collected by sanitation workers, and the staff member said they were not sure.
If they are small pots of New Year flowers, handling them yourself is relatively easy, but something like a New Year kumquat about 1 meter tall gives people a headache. Ms. Huang, who lives in Longgang District Central City, felt very troubled: carrying the kumquat out to discard it herself was a hassle, and when she consulted the residential property management, they also could not find a solution. In the end, Ms. Huang paid 30 yuan and asked a scrap collector to come to her door and carry the kumquat away. "Treating New Year flowers as scrap and garbage is still not environmentally friendly, but we had no other choice."
The problem of New Year flowers troubles citizens, and it also troubles sanitation workers. "Every year after Spring Festival, there are many New Year flowers discarded by residents next to the trash bins. At the most, there are more than a dozen pots, and with flowers and pots together they are very heavy, adding a lot of work for us," sanitation worker Chen Bo told reporters. Besides trash bins, some green belts and community parks are also popular places for residents to dump New Year flowers. However, discarded New Year flowers generally find it hard to grow again, and throwing them in green areas not only fails to add greenery but instead becomes a form of pollution.
The government sets up unified collection points for New Year flowers
Regarding the handling of New Year flowers, many people have called for Shenzhen to learn from Guangzhou and set up unified recycling points for New Year flowers.
It is understood that Guangzhou has had unified recycling points for New Year flowers for many years, and the number of points has continued to increase. This year, Guangzhou has as many as 456 temporary collection points for New Year flowers, distributed across all districts, streets and towns throughout the city. Among them, every street or town has at least 1 collection point, and larger streets and towns with more population even have more than ten collection points, basically covering all major residential communities or urban villages. At these collection points, New Year flowers are not simply taken away; there is a complete recycling process. Collection and transport must be sorted, with pots, soil and flower trees collected separately, reducing waste at the source of garbage sorting. The urban management department, in conjunction with garbage sorting work, sorts and handles the collected flowers, pots and soil. The collected flowers, pots and soil are arranged to be collected and transported separately by dedicated vehicles. Flower pots and flower soil are sent to garden nurseries, broken flower pots are sent to residual mud storage sites for processing, and New Year flowers and New Year kumquats are biochemically treated by each district itself or sent to the Xingfeng Sanitary Landfill for Domestic Waste (food waste zone). Guangzhou's Zengcheng District has also specially set up 12 replanting points for New Year flowers and New Year kumquats, distributed across 11 streets and towns in the district.
In Shenzhen, currently only Nanshan District and Bao'an District have such temporary collection points. Moreover, the recycling point in Nanshan District is located in Qianhai, and many residents feel it is still too remote and inconvenient for ordinary people to use.
Recycled by flower companies and other departments
In addition to setting up unified collection points, many citizens hope someone can collect the flowers at their door. At present, only Luohu District carries out post-festival flower pot recycling work, specifically handled by two commissioned flower companies, with the district providing a certain amount of financial subsidy. If citizens or companies need to discard New Year flowers and New Year kumquats, they can call the commissioned flower company to make an appointment, and workers will come to the door free of charge to collect them uniformly. After recycling, the flower company sorts and handles them: those that can survive are cultivated again, and flower pots are disposed of at low prices. This service in Luohu District also makes residents of other districts very envious: a large number of calls came in, and some residents of other districts also hoped door-to-door service could be provided. As of the 8th, the district had recycled more than 500,000 pots of New Year flowers and New Year kumquats.
In Hong Kong, China, separated from Shenzhen by a river, an environmental protection association specifically recycles New Year flowers, turning waste into treasure. The Hong Kong Environmental Protection Association launched a Christmas tree recycling activity at the end of 2012, and the results far exceeded expectations, recycling nearly 50 tons of Christmas trees. The Hong Kong Environmental Protection Association estimates that more than 10,000 peach blossom trees are cut down each year in Hong Kong, China, to meet Spring Festival demand, and the weight of peach blossom wood reaches about 50 tons. Because Hong Kong, China, has not carried out wood recycling and sorting work, and peach blossoms cannot be replanted after being cut, the relevant wood will all be discarded in landfills for processing.
Therefore, the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Association promotes a citywide "peach blossom" recycling plan, turning the recovered wood into a treasure by grinding it into sawdust and processing it into natural "organic compost," which is donated to schools for environmental greening. More than 300 institutions in Hong Kong, China, responded to this activity, including government bodies, public and private institutions, banks, hotels and others.
Narcissus bulbs can be made into organic fertilizer
In addition to taking them to collection points and handing them to dedicated agencies, for some varieties of New Year flowers, residents can also recycle and reuse them at home.
Chrysanthemum: Remove the withered flower heads, prune the branches to 3-5 cm high, and change the soil once after spring begins; chrysanthemums are afraid of heat, so in summer they should be placed in a cool, ventilated place, otherwise they may "die young"; by early autumn, they can bloom.
Azalea: Azaleas are relatively easy to grow and do not need special care; proper watering and pruning in daily care are enough; but they are also afraid of heat, so in summer they need to be shaded.
Phalaenopsis: First prune the branches, then take it out of the pot. The roots of Phalaenopsis are aerial roots and cannot be directly planted in soil; instead, a flower medium should be made by mixing wood chips, charcoal particles and the like. When planting, do not bury it too deep, and the flower medium should also be appropriately loose.
Money tree: No special care is needed; follow the principle of "water thoroughly only when dry" - do not water too many times, and depending on how dry the soil is, water once or twice a week; each watering should be thorough, until water leaks out from the bottom.
The following New Year flowers can only be discarded.
Narcissus: For narcissus that has already bloomed, the nutrients in the bulb have gradually been exhausted, and it is very difficult for it to bloom again. But citizens can dry and chop the narcissus bulb, mix it with other flower soil, and it becomes "organic fertilizer."
Flowers without roots: peach blossoms, gladiolus, "five generations under one roof" and others. These are cuttings and have no roots, so they cannot survive; after the flowers fade, they can be discarded.
How to grow peach trees
Peaches are very delicious, sweet and juicy with one bite, and are deeply loved by people, so growing peach trees is becoming increasingly popular. Different fruit trees have different growing methods, so let us talk about how peach trees are grown.
How to grow peach trees
1. Seed selection: Use naturally ripe fruit, that is, fruit harvested in early October of the same year. Peel off the skin and bury it shallowly under the soil (at a depth equal to one times the diameter of the fruit, or bury it together with mung bean sprouts; it may be buried slightly deeper, and after it sprouts, cut off the bean sprouts, but never pull them up, as this easily damages the seedling roots).
2. Soil selection: Sandy soil (with a coarse-to-fine mix of 3:7) has good drainage. Loam + garden soil (or fermented soil, which is even better) in a ratio (sandy soil, loam, garden soil) of 3:2:5.
3. Watering principle: Water thoroughly at one time (with a small amount of water droplets leaking from the bottom of the pot). Tap water needs to be left standing in a container in advance, and the upper 80% of the water is used for watering. Rainwater does not need this, and frequent watering with rainwater can appropriately reduce the use of fertilizer.
4. Making fermented soil: Dig a pit outdoors, 30-50 cm wide and half a meter deep (the specific dimensions can be arranged as you like).
5. Food waste: Eggshells, fish bones, beef and mutton bones, and stems of leafy vegetables are best, as they are rich in organic matter. After putting in the waste, bury it with soil to about 90% (for a pit one meter deep, bury with 80 cm of soil), tread it firm and water it, about 1-2 L is enough. Dig it out for use the following year; it works well as a base fertilizer.
Establishing a peach orchard
1. Site selection: For peaches, it is best to choose sandy loam with good drainage and loose soil, with a south-facing slope being best, but continuous cropping is taboo, meaning land that has already been planted with peach trees cannot be planted with peach trees again.
2. Soil improvement before planting: Before planting peaches, deep plowing and soil improvement must be carried out. Sloped land should be converted into terraced land to thicken the soil layer, and then planting holes or planting trenches should be dug according to the spacing between plants and rows. The holes should be 2.5—3 chi deep and wide, and each hole should be filled with at least 100 jin of residue fertilizer, pressed in 3—4 layers, so as to achieve looseness and air permeability and improve the physical and chemical properties of the soil. Flat dam land and clay soil also need improvement, using deep furrow and high bed cultivation, with drainage ditches more than 2.5 chi deep. Inside the beds, soil should be improved by strip trenches, with trenches 80 cm deep and 70 cm wide, and garbage and residue fertilizer pressed in in three layers.
3. Planting time: Both spring and autumn planting are possible, but autumn planting is best. In autumn, temperatures are high and there is more rain, so after root damage the roots recover easily, and the following year the seedling establishment time can be reduced and sprouting will be uniform. Planting from October to December is appropriate.
4. Planting density: Generally, it should be determined according to variety characteristics, terrain, soil conditions, training system and cultivation method. Varieties with strong tree vigor can be planted more sparsely, while varieties with weak tree vigor can be planted more densely; flat land has greater planting distance than mountainous land; fertile soil has greater planting distance than poor soil; planned dense planting orchards have greater planting density than fixed planting orchards; "Y"-shaped training has greater planting density than open-center training. The general spacing between plants and rows is 3×4 m2 or 3×3 m2, with 56 or 74 plants per mu.
5. Planting: Before planting, prune the damaged roots and any overly large main roots, then straighten the plant, spread out the root system, cover with 5-10 cm of soil, tread it firm with your feet, build a soil ridge around the seedling to form a circular basin, then irrigate thoroughly. After the water seeps down, cover with a layer of fine soil, and a layer of grass may also be added to reduce water evaporation, which helps survival.
Peach tree planting method
Use alternating row spacings of 3 meters and 2 meters, with a plant spacing of one meter. Plant about 270 plants per mu.
1. Use a single-trunk spindle tree shape, with a crown diameter of 1 meter and a tree height of about 3 meters, with good ventilation and light transmission, improving the fruit-setting rate and fruit quality.
2. The wide row (3 meters) is suitable for machines and vehicles to enter the rows for spraying, fertilizing, fruit picking, weeding and so on, saving a large amount of labor and making management convenient.
3. After reaching full production, side branches do not need to be propped up with supports every year. Winter pruning saves labor and is easy to master.
4. It is conducive to early production and high yield. In the second year after planting, the yield per plant can reach 15 jin, and the yield per mu can reach 4,000 jin; in the third year, the yield per plant reaches 30 jin, and the yield per mu reaches 8,000 jin; in the full-production period, the yield per mu exceeds ten thousand jin. In contrast, the traditional open-center tree shape takes 5 years after planting to reach the full-production period.
Soil management of peach trees
1. Intercropping: In young orchards, vegetables can be planted in summer and green manure in winter, which can both increase orchard income and improve soil fertility. Adult orchards are not intercropped;
2. In summer, carry out intertillage to loosen the soil and remove weeds;
3. In autumn and winter, carry out deep plowing and hole expansion, increase the application of organic fertilizer, and improve the physical and chemical properties of the soil.
Fertilizer and water management of peach trees
1. Fertilizer and water management of peach trees in the first year after planting: The first year after planting is the key period for peach trees to grow and take shape. In fertilizer and water management, "light fertilizer applied frequently" should be achieved. From March to June, apply fertilizer about once every half month, for a total of 8 applications. The first 6 applications are one carrying pole of clear manure water plus 2 liang of urea applied to 4 trees, to promote more branch growth and leaf development and rapid shaping. The last 2 applications are one carrying pole of clear manure water plus 2 liang of potassium dihydrogen phosphate applied to 4 trees, to promote branch maturity and flower bud differentiation.
2. Fertilizer and water management in the second year after planting and thereafter: Peach trees are more tolerant of poor soil than citrus, apples and others, but after coming into production they should be fertilized at least three times each year.
3. Fertilization methods: Soil fertilization methods include ring fertilization, trench fertilization and hole fertilization. Young trees use ring fertilization, large-area adult trees use trench fertilization, and mountainous land uses hole fertilization. Generally, fertilization holes are dug on the drip line of the tree crown.
Correct pruning methods for peach trees
Peach tree pruning is divided into summer pruning and winter pruning. Generally, the principle should be summer pruning as the main approach and winter pruning as supplementary.
1. Summer pruning
① Bud rubbing and sprout removal: Rub off the vigorous growth buds in the inner canopy of the tree crown, the competitive buds below the pruning cut, twin buds and overly dense buds; this is called bud rubbing. When buds grow to 5 cm, breaking off the young shoots is called sprout removal. Generally, for twin branches, "remove one and keep one." Through bud rubbing and sprout removal, useless new shoots can be reduced, light conditions improved, nutrients saved, the retained new shoots encouraged to grow robustly, and the amount of winter pruning reduced. This is especially important for young trees and vigorous trees, but this work is often easily overlooked.
② Pinching: Pinching is removing a small section of young branch together with the young bud at the top of a growing branch. It can stop the branch tip from elongating, direct nutrients toward strengthening the branch, and promote flower bud differentiation. Pinching peach trees is an indispensable technical measure during the growing period, and the vast majority of branches need pinching: pinching at 50 cm is appropriate.
③ Twisting shoots: This is twisting upright vigorous branches and other vigorously growing branches by 180 degrees, turning upward growth into downward growth, but do not twist them off. The main purpose is to weaken growth vigor and promote the conversion of vigorous branches into fruiting branches. At the same time, it also achieves the effect of improving light. This work is a remedial measure for incomplete bud rubbing work and should especially be adopted for vigorous trees.
④ Propping, pulling and hanging branches: This is mainly to open the angle, ease tree vigor, promote early fruiting, and prevent the lower part of the main trunk from becoming bare and branchless. Propping, pulling and hanging branches are generally carried out in May.
2. Winter pruning
① Pruning young trees: Mainly long pruning, making full use of summer pruning techniques to take shape as quickly as possible. Long branches retained for fruiting are generally not cut short, and more fruiting branches are retained to ease tree vigor and increase the fruit-setting rate. The extension branches of scaffold branches are cut short leaving 50-70 cm. For especially vigorous trees, attention should be paid to letting them bear more fruit, such as reverse branches, upright branches and drooping branches, all of which should be allowed to bear fruit, so as to ease tree vigor and increase the yield per plant. Experienced fruit growers often say, "Pruning to suppress the tree, the tree is not afraid; using fruit to suppress the tree, the tree obeys."
② Pruning during the full-production period: At this time, the main branches gradually open up, tree vigor gradually eases, the tree crown is relatively stable, branch growth decreases, vigorous branches decrease, fruiting branches increase, the proportion of short fruiting branches rises, the contradiction between growth and fruiting intensifies, and inner canopy and lower branches are prone to dying. At this time, the amount of pruning is heavier than in the young tree period. Scaffold branches should be retracted and renewed, using a combination of thinning and retraction, removing the weak and retaining the strong. If the inner canopy is already empty, attention should be paid to cultivating regenerated branches from the second lateral branch to fill the space and increase fruiting positions. As soon as peach trees enter the full-production period, attention must be paid to cultivating renewal branches from the base. For moderate trees, diseased and weak branches should be thinned. Generally, long and medium fruiting branches are shortened by removing the non-solid part at the tip. Short fruiting branches and bouquet-like short fruiting branches are thinned. Vigorous branches should be left long and pruned long, and robust fruiting branches about 1 chi long should not be cut short at all.
③ Pruning during the aging period: At this time, almost all branches on the tree are short fruiting branches. At this stage, scaffold branches should be retracted and heavily pruned, retracted to 2-3-year-old parts, and attention should be paid to cultivating vigorous branches from large wounds to re-form the tree crown and achieve the goal of renewing the tree crown.
Pest and disease control of peach trees
1. Bird-feather moth. Also known as red silk worm or hanging silk worm, it harms flowers and small fruit. It reproduces rapidly from June to July, and in severe cases can cause all flower buds and small fruit to drop completely. For control, 90% trichlorfon at 800 times dilution, derris extract and similar at corresponding concentrations can be used, sprayed before flowering, once every few days, 3-5 times per flowering cycle, stopping only when young fruit turns at the calyx and droops.
2. Black-dotted brown leaf roller. Commonly known as the fruit-boring worm, its larvae bore into the fruit core and feed on the flesh, causing fruit drop or making the fruit lose edible value. Control methods include paying attention to removing diseased fruit, picking and deeply burying affected fruit; using black light traps to kill adults; and spraying 90% trichlorfon.
3. Anthracnose. This disease mostly occurs in orchards during the fruit ripening period. During storage, the disease is mostly caused by wounds. It is a fungal disease. Affected fruit has dark brown round spots on the surface, and the internal tissue of the flesh rots and has a wine smell. The pathogen overwinters in rotten fruit, spreads through wind and rain, and invades through wounds on the fruit. Control methods mainly involve doing good orchard sanitation, removing and deeply burying diseased and fallen fruit; minimizing mechanical injury to fruit during harvesting and transport; and spraying double-strength 150 times Bordeaux mixture in diseased orchards once every 10-15 days, for 3-4 consecutive times.
4. Red spot disease. It mainly harms leaves and is a fungal disease. Affected leaves initially have extremely fine small yellow spots, which later expand into lesions. The center of the lesion is dark reddish brown, and the edge is bright red. It causes a large amount of leaf drop and seriously affects fruit yield and quality. The control method is the same as for anthracnose.
After reading the above methods for growing peach trees, everyone should have gained some understanding. Peach skin is thin and attached to the flesh, and some people do not like to peel it when eating. Therefore, when applying pesticides, it is not appropriate to use highly toxic drugs or drugs with an excessively long residual period. By reasonably adopting scientific methods, I believe the peach trees everyone grows will be healthy and flourishing.