Detailed Explanation of Key Techniques for Planting the Four-Season Honeysuckle Tree
The Four-Season Honeysuckle is an excellent honeysuckle variety bred over many years by the Shandong Four-Season Honeysuckle Professional Cooperative in cooperation with relevant experts. It has stable growth, high yield and medicinal value, and excellent economic benefits. It offers the advantages of fast growth, wide adaptability, strong stress resistance, a well-developed root system, and stable yield. Now let us take a look at the planting techniques for the Four-Season Honeysuckle tree!
Plant at the Right Time
The Four-Season Honeysuckle has very wide adaptability and can be planted in wasteland, sloping land, ditch land, riversides, field edges, and around houses, front and back. It is best to plant before early-spring sprouting or before the dormant period in autumn and winter. On the prepared planting site, dig holes with a row spacing of 1.5 m and a plant spacing of 1 m, fill the holes with evenly mixed fertile soil, and after planting the seedlings, be sure to press them down firmly and water thoroughly to settle the roots. If you want to save land, you can heel in the seedlings for 1.5 mu in one mu of land, and then move them out every other row and every other plant in the second or third year, which will greatly increase the benefits.
Intertillage and Weeding
Weeding the Four-Season Honeysuckle is simple and easy. Weeding can be done before and after early-spring sprouting and during intertillage from May to August. Chemical weeding can be used during the season when weeds are growing, but herbicide damage must never be left on the branches and leaves of the honeysuckle. After 3-year-old large seedlings, when there are only a few weeds, chemical weeding must not be used. During intertillage, cultivate shallowly near the plants to avoid damaging the roots, and slightly deeper between the rows.
Reasonable Topdressing
The Four-Season Honeysuckle generally only needs topdressing twice a year. The first is done before and after early-spring sprouting, and afterward topdressing is done after each flower bud harvest according to the seedling vigor. Apply livestock and poultry manure or nitrogen fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate and urea, spread them into opened furrows, and cover with soil to bury the fertilizer. After entering the high-yield period, wintering fertilizer needs to be applied every winter. In addition, every winter, foliar fertilizer spraying should also be done according to the seedling vigor.
Timely Pruning
Pruning is the key to planting the Four-Season Honeysuckle. It is divided into planting pruning, young-plant pruning, and full-bloom pruning, with the aim of organizing a good tree shape to increase yield. Pruning at planting can determine the basic tree shape and lay a good foundation for shaping and pruning in the first and second years. Annual pruning can be divided into winter pruning and summer pruning. The principle of winter pruning is to prune vigorous branches lightly, prune weak branches heavily, prune dead branches completely, and prune every branch, cutting back all remaining branches. The principle of summer pruning is to cut shaded branches, small and weak branches, and vigorous branches, and remove excessive vegetative branches. For trees that have entered the high-yield period, summer pruning consists of tipping and clearing the interior, removing the weak and keeping the strong, removing all soil-covered leaves, improving ventilation and light penetration, thinning branches into clumps, and shaping the tree like an umbrella. Generally, maintaining a tree height of about 1.3 m is suitable for picking.
Pest and Disease Control
Pest and disease control for the Four-Season Honeysuckle is based on prevention, using pesticides with high efficiency, low toxicity, and low residue, and avoiding the use of pesticides during the flowering period as much as possible. Generally, aphids and cotton bollworms damage honeysuckle, and diseases generally include powdery mildew and anthracnose. There are many pesticide varieties now, so attention must be paid to the authenticity and quality of pesticides and they should be applied according to the instructions on the pesticide label.
Timely Harvesting
Pest and disease control and timely harvesting can improve quality and price. Picking only after the flowers open results in poor quality, while picking too early results in low yield. Therefore, it is best to pick on the day when the flowers are about to open. It is most suitable to pick when the upper part of the flower is swollen but not yet open and is greenish-white.