Crabapple Fruit: Planting Methods and Key Technical Points

Crabapple fruit is the fruit produced by the crabapple flowers that bloom on the crabapple tree. It is a fruit with excellent health benefits, and it can be both eaten and used as medicine. It has a fairly long history of cultivation in China, and quite a few people also love crabapple flowers, especially because they are very beautiful when the crabapple flowers bloom and when the flowers fall, while in autumn the fragrance of the fruit is also very alluring. Today let us take a look together at the planting methods for crabapple fruit.

1. Land preparation and fertilization

Crabapple fruit is suitable for planting in slightly acidic sandy loam soil that has no standing water, plenty of sunlight, a sunny aspect, and relatively sufficient soil fertility. At the same time, the land should be carefully prepared, holes should be dug at a certain spacing, and then sufficient fertilizer should be poured into the holes as base fertilizer. The base fertilizer is mainly farmyard manure, mixed with a small amount of compound fertilizer. Then fill a small amount of fine soil into the holes, and you can wait to plant.

2. Scientific planting

Crabapple fruit is generally planted around April and October each year, and a small number of regions also plant it in May and June, but the survival rate is not as high as planting in spring and autumn. There are three planting methods for crabapple fruit: seed propagation, division propagation, and grafting propagation. However, seed propagation is generally the planting method used for growing and selling nursery stock, because it grows very slowly, so it is generally only used for raising seedlings. The methods most commonly used at ordinary times are division and grafting, so that the crabapple tree grows faster, and the grafting planting method is now also relatively well developed, so the survival rate of planting is also very high.

3. Reasonable close planting

Because the growth habit of crabapple fruit is that it likes sunlight, the planting site is either sloped land or flat land, so when planting we also need to decide according to the specific situation. Secondly, the planting density is also greatly related to how fertile the soil of the planting site is. In general, for sloped land the planting density is row spacing of 3 m to 4 m and plant spacing of about 2.5 m to 3.5 m, while for flat land the density is generally row spacing of 4 m and plant spacing of 3 m. At the same time, note that when planting you must pay attention to the ratio of pollinator trees, because it can directly affect the success rate of pollination and the yield of crabapple fruit.

4. Field management

Crabapple fruit is a perennial plant, and it also needs to grow to a certain extent before it will bloom and bear fruit. Throughout its entire growth process, it needs multiple rounds of intertillage, weeding, loosening soil, and earthing up every year. This can enhance the permeability of the soil, promote the growth of the crabapple tree's root system, and thereby promote the growth of branches and leaves. When watering, what we need to pay attention to is avoiding excessive watering, because the crabapple tree is a plant that is very afraid of waterlogging. Generally, you should wait until the soil has dried before watering, and when watering you must water thoroughly, so that it can grow normally. Crabapple is a plant that very much likes fertilizer. During its growth stage, it generally needs a topdressing about every half a month to 20 days, mainly farmyard manure or organic fertilizer. When the crabapple flowers, you can increase the application of phosphorus fertilizer and potassium fertilizer, and at the same time an appropriate amount of nitrogen fertilizer is also needed to prevent the branches from aging. Finally, after the fruit is harvested, maintenance fertilizer should be applied to ensure the yield of the coming year. During the growth of crabapple fruit, branches and leaves also need to be pruned continuously to maintain reasonable light exposure and permeability.

5. Pest and disease control

The most common pests and diseases of crabapple fruit are rust disease, anthracnose, moldy core, as well as aphids and thrips. Therefore, during the planting process, field management should be strengthened. Secondly, in the early stage of the diseases, flusilazole water dispersible granules, polyoxin, zhongshengmycin plus borax, carbendazim mixed with imidacloprid, and acetamiprid water dispersible granules can be used respectively for control.