What are the excellent varieties of honeysuckle?
At present, Pingyi County has 21 varieties of honeysuckle, planted throughout the county. Due to the long history of cultivation and long-term propagation by cuttings and sexual reproduction, many varieties or strains have naturally formed, with the good and the poor mixed together and it being difficult to tell the superior from the inferior. The currently common varieties include the Mao Hua (hairy flower) series: Da Mao Hua, Xiao Mao Hua; and the Ji Zhua (chicken claw) series: Da Ji Zhua Hua, Xiao Ji Zhua Hua, Shan Yin Hua, Xian Hua Zi, Zi Jing Zi, Da Ma Ye, Xiao Ma Ye, E Ling Tong, Hong Hua Zi, Ye Li Cang, Ye Li Qi, etc. In recent years, the center has, through repeated purification and rejuvenation and variety testing of the Mao Hua series and the Ji Zhua Hua series, bred excellent varieties and named them "Meng Hua No. 1 and No. 2". Their main advantages are: 1. They send out many branches as seedlings; 2. Where there is a branch, there is a flower; 3. Fewer seedlings are needed for planting; 4. Branches and leaves develop quickly; 5. The flower buds are large and the yield is high; 6. They enter the full-production period 1-2 years earlier. The excellent varieties are mainly developed as economic forests, while the mixed varieties are mainly developed as ecological forests.
Characteristics:
Well-developed root system and wide adaptability. At temperatures below 3°C, honeysuckle shows quite weak activity and its growth is in an extremely slow state; above 5°C it begins to sprout and send out new branches; above 16°C new shoots grow rapidly and it begins to form flower buds; at around 20°C the flower buds grow and develop well.
It grows vigorously and has a very wide range of adaptability. It can grow whether in mountainous areas, plains, clay loam, sandy soil, slightly acidic soil or alkaline soil. Its growing conditions in Pingyi are: mostly gravelly sandy soil, with a pH value of 5.8-8.5 and an organic matter content of 0.5-0.6%; under conditions of 30-40 ppm hydrolyzable nitrogen, it can still flourish with abundant branches and leaves.
Vigorous growth and strong stress resistance. As long as honeysuckle is not attacked by insect pests, its branches and leaves are very luxuriant. This is of course related to fertilizer and water management, but the most important thing is its extraordinary stress resistance. It is both drought-resistant and waterlogging-resistant, cold-resistant and barren-tolerant. Some grow on hilltops, some grow by ditches; as long as they are sheltered from the wind and face the sun, their branches and leaves do not wither even in deep winter. Buds that sprout in late autumn can resist cold and survive the winter, and continue to grow the following year. It can still form buds in soil with an organic matter content below 0.4. There is a local farming proverb that says: "Waterlogging kills the crops, drought kills the grass, freezing damages the pomegranates, and sunburn damages the melons, but none of this will affect honeysuckle." This vividly illustrates the tenacious vitality of honeysuckle.
In addition, it also has strong disease resistance. According to our investigations, up to now, apart from mild infection by honeysuckle brown spot disease, southern blight and powdery mildew, no other diseases causing serious damage have been found in honeysuckle. It is precisely because of these physiological and biochemical characteristics that it displays its unique vitality and is widely distributed throughout the motherland. In recent years, planting developed through the center in Yunnan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi, Jilin, Shenyang and other provinces has proven that it grows well everywhere.