What are the precautions for propagating dragon fruit?
1. For cuttings, spring and summer are most suitable. Select plump, well-grown stem segments for the cuttings, about 15 cm long. After the wound air-dries, insert them into a sand bed. Roots can form in about 15-30 days, and when the roots reach 3-4 cm, they can be transplanted to the nursery bed. 2. For grafted seedlings, choose disease-free, pest-free, robustly growing "Liangtianchi" (a wild cactus genus plant) with plump stem flesh as the rootstock...
1 Cuttings Spring and summer are most suitable. Select plump, well-grown stem segments for the cuttings, about 15 cm long. After the wound air-dries, insert them into a sand bed. Roots can form in about 15-30 days, and when the roots reach 3-4 cm, they can be transplanted to the nursery bed. 2 Grafted seedlings Choose disease-free, pest-free, robustly growing "Liangtianchi" (a wild cactus genus plant) with plump stem flesh as the rootstock. Graft on a sunny day. Cut the dragon fruit plant horizontally into 3-4 cm stem segments. After the wound air-dries, cut a flat surface with a horizontal knife 10 cm above the rootstock stem, insert the scion, align the cambium, bind and fix it firmly with cotton thread, and place it indoors for cultivation. At 28-30°C, in 4-5 days a large amount of callus tissue will form on the wound junction surface. When the color of the scion and rootstock is close, it indicates that the vascular bundles of the two have healed and the grafting is successful. Then it can be moved into a temporary planting nursery bed to continue cultivation. 3 Seedling management The nursery bed should be selected as a field with good ventilation and sunlight, fertile soil, and convenient drainage and irrigation. Fine-cultivate and make beds, with the bed and ditch at 90 cm. Apply 1500-2000 kg of decomposed chicken manure or cow manure per mu, mix in 1000 kg of rice husk, stir thoroughly and evenly, and apply it to the surface soil layer 10-30 cm below the bed surface when preparing the land; then apply 100-150 kg of calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer per mu, stir thoroughly with a hoe, and apply it to the surface soil layer 4-5 cm deep. Then plant the young seedlings in the nursery bed at a plant-row spacing of 3 cm, water thoroughly, and spray 500 times carbendazim once. On sunny days, when the surface soil turns white, water once as appropriate (about 7-10 days). Every 10-15 days, apply 5-7 kg of compound fertilizer per mu. When a plump stem segment with 1 node has grown, they can be released from the nursery. Since this variety has just entered our country, the cultivation techniques still need improvement. Please explore experience and discuss better cultivation methods.
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