A detailed guide to kumquat cultivation methods, easy for beginners to learn too
Everyone has surely eaten small mandarin oranges. Although they are called small mandarin oranges, their taste is completely different from that of mandarins, and their growing method is also different from that of mandarin trees. The peel of the kumquat can be eaten directly and has certain medicinal value. Its market price only keeps rising now, making it a fairly promising planting project. So how should this kumquat be cultivated? Today the editor brings you the kumquat cultivation methods. Let's take a look!
1. Select superior seeds
When choosing seeds for planting, choose seeds that are disease-free and high-yielding. You can also take seeds from the fruit and wash the liquid off the seeds clean. Discard shriveled seeds with no flesh, air-dry them and then sow. If not sowing immediately, store them in sand, piled in separate heaps, placed in a dry place with strong permeability. This can both prevent disease and avoid the seeds losing their germination ability.
2. Site selection and land preparation
The orchard site should be chosen in plains or hills, requiring fertile soil, deep and loose soil layers, and soil with strong permeability. If the soil layer is thin and poor, it is not suitable for planting. Try to ensure the surrounding transportation is fairly convenient, which is good for transporting the fruit after it ripens and for adding seedlings. Before sowing, the soil needs to be deep-plowed once, and plowed again in the spring of the second year, with a depth of no less than 1 m. Build the field beds well for easy management.
3. Sow at the right time
Spring is the best time to sow kumquats, though you can also sow in November. Determine the sowing density according to the orchard area; it should not be sown too densely. Apply enough base fertilizer, at least 15 kg of fully decomposed farmyard manure per ditch of the field bed. Then sow, cover well with grass material, and spread rice straw, in order to prevent water loss and field drought. After the seeds sprout and grow leaves, temporary planting should begin. If you do not know how to do temporary planting, appropriately increase and expand the density.
4. Field management
After sowing, when the seedlings have not yet emerged, water frequently to ensure the moisture needed for the seedlings to emerge, and loosen the soil around the seeds to facilitate the seeds' germination. After the seedlings emerge, apply additional fertilizer appropriately, being careful not to let the fertilizer touch the leaves, otherwise the leaves will be burned. Before fertilizing, do the soil work well and remove the weeds. In dry, high-temperature weather, water in time to prevent the fruit trees from lacking water and growing weakly.
5. Orchard management
After the seedlings emerge, observe the seedlings' condition in time. If dead seedlings are found, they must be pulled out promptly and replanted. You can plant some crops between the rows that need less fertilizer, which not only adds an extra source of income, but also, when they mature, can be turned into the soil as fertilizer for the kumquats. To prevent the kumquats from growing too vigorously, if leggy branches appear, prune the leggy branches in time and control upright growth from getting too tall. This not only makes later harvesting work easier, but also increases yield.
The above five points are a simple introduction to kumquat cultivation. One advantage of growing kumquats is that you do not need to worry about diseases occurring, because with such a long cultivation history, there have basically been no cases of disease. However, everyone still must not let their guard down; do all the preparation work well, prevent unexpected situations, and provide enough water and nutrients for the kumquats' growth. That is all for today's introduction. If you want to learn more related information, please continue to follow Qinnong Web!