Orchard management after peach harvest cannot stop
After peach fruit is harvested, the assimilation of the leaves continues, and nutrients begin to accumulate in the tree body. Summer and autumn are also the period of flower bud differentiation. From fruit harvest to leaf fall, the amount of nutrients accumulated by the tree body and the quality of flower bud differentiation are closely related to the yield and quality of next year's peaches. Therefore, after the peaches are picked from the trees, management is not over and still must be strengthened.
1. Apply post-harvest fertilizer. After fruiting, the tree body has consumed a large amount of nutrients, so nutrients must be replenished in time to restore tree vigor, enhance the photosynthetic capacity of the leaves, increase the accumulation of nutrients in the tree body, ensure sufficient nutrients are supplied for flower differentiation, and improve flower bud quality and overwintering cold resistance. After harvest, bury and apply 0.5 kg of urea per tree, and spray the leaves with a 0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate solution 2-3 times.
2. Prevent and control diseases and pests. After peach fruit is harvested, peach leaves are still harmed by various diseases and by leaf miners, leafhoppers, and others. If control is inadequate, the peach leaves will be damaged and fall early, affecting nutrient accumulation and flower bud differentiation, so inspection and timely control are necessary. For insect pests, pesticides such as dichlorvos and omethoate can be sprayed to kill them; for diseases, after harvest spray a fungicide once every 10-15 days, alternating 70% thiophanate-methyl wettable powder at 800-1000 times dilution, 65% mancozeb wettable powder at 500 times dilution, and 30% lvdubao emulsifiable concentrate at 400-500 times dilution.
3. Reasonable pruning. After peach fruit is harvested, new shoots grow faster and have a strong ability to form secondary shoots, which easily causes poor ventilation inside the canopy and increases nutrient consumption, affecting flower bud differentiation, so reasonable pruning is necessary. For vigorous shoots or branch groups on the upper part of the canopy, after thinning out the vigorous shoots, they can be twisted and bent down from the base so that the growth vigor at the base is controlled and nutrients are concentrated for flower bud differentiation; for competing branches, the twisting method can be used to control growth and transform them into fruiting branches; for overlapping branches, crossing branches, and old or weak branch groups, timely heading back should be done; for overly dense branches, thin and weak branches, and useless upright vigorous branches, they should be thinned out; for upright vigorous branches with space to retain, they can be bent down within the canopy to moderate their growth vigor.
4. Shallow tillage and mulching with straw. After harvest, use a four-tooth rake to shallowly dig the orchard soil 10-15 cm, then spread a thin layer of rice straw or wheat straw as mulch. In this way, the soil is loosened, soil aeration is increased, which is beneficial to root growth, and weeds are eliminated while soil organic matter is enriched.
5. Drought resistance and waterlogging prevention. Peach trees have shallow main roots and are afraid of both drought and waterlogging. Therefore, during summer drought, irrigate in time to resist drought; if there is a lot of rain, clear the ditches in time to drain waterlogging.
6. Apply base fertilizer in autumn. Combining base fertilizer application with deep plowing of the soil can improve the soil structure and physical properties of the peach orchard, improve the soil's fertilizer and water retention capacity, and create good conditions for root growth. Applying base fertilizer can increase the storage and accumulation of nutrients in the tree body and lay a solid foundation for a bumper peach harvest the next year. Dig a trench 80 cm deep and 50 cm wide from the outer edge of the planting hole, and in October-November apply 20-30 kg of decomposed pig and cattle manure and 1 kg of phosphate fertilizer per tree. It is best to mix the phosphate fertilizer evenly with organic fertilizer and compost it for more than half a month before application; when applying, mix it evenly with topsoil and fill it into the trench, and place the subsoil on the surface.