A Detailed Guide to Planting Crape Myrtle: Even Beginners Can Master It Easily
When people hear "Ziwei," they may think of Princess Ziwei from "My Fair Princess," but in fact, crape myrtle is a very famous flowering plant in China. It is widely distributed across various provinces in China, mainly concentrated in tropical provinces. Moreover, crape myrtle's wood is extremely hard and can be used to make furniture, farm tools, and more. Crape myrtle also has medicinal effects such as clearing heat and detoxifying, and dispersing blood stasis and stopping bleeding. So how do you plant crape myrtle? Below, let us introduce the planting methods for crape myrtle!
1. Site selection and land preparation
Crape myrtle likes to grow in places with ample sunlight and dry conditions, has strong cold and drought tolerance, and also has relatively strong adaptability. It can grow normally in most soils, but if you want to plant it on a large scale, you should still choose slightly acidic soil that is fertile, thick and loose, and has good drainage and irrigation. Suitable soil can extend crape myrtle's flowering period and improve its ornamental value. After selecting the site, do a good job of land preparation by deep plowing and fine harrowing to about 26 cm to improve soil permeability. Then apply sufficient farmyard manure and an appropriate amount of superphosphate, control the fertilization amount according to the planting area, and finally level the land and make beds ready for planting.
2. Sowing at the right time
Crape myrtle's flowering period is about 3 months, which is relatively long, and flowers and fruits grow together. Around October, harvest the fruit, take the seeds out of the fruit, dry them, and store them in a container. Before sowing, carry out seed germination and disinfection work: soak the seeds in a solution such as potassium permanganate for about 2 days, then rinse them clean. Then soak them in warm water at about 48 degrees for about 3 days, and after soaking, dry them again. Then sow at the right time according to the planting region, weather, and so on. After sowing, cover with fine soil, water thoroughly, and seedlings will emerge after about two weeks.
3. Water and fertilizer management
In winter and spring, keep the soil moist. After entering summer and as temperatures rise, water twice a day. When water is lacking, appropriately increase the watering frequency each day to prevent crape myrtle from dying of thirst. Crape myrtle has relatively high nutritional needs during growth, but its tolerance for fertilizer is not high. Excessive fertilization can easily cause crape myrtle trees to grow leggy, reduce permeability, and affect crape myrtle's growth. However, the amount of fertilizer should not be too small either, otherwise it can easily lead to insufficient nutrition in crape myrtle, weak branches, withered and yellow leaves, reduced growth, a lower flowering rate, or even failure to bloom, seriously reducing its ornamental value. Therefore, fertilize reasonably: apply more during peak growing seasons such as spring and summer, and control fertilizer application in the other two seasons.
4. Field management
Crape myrtle has relatively strong growth ability, so managing it is fairly simple. However, when planting, pay attention to pruning old dead branches, pest- and disease-damaged branches, and other weak branches that are unfavorable to growth, and burn them in a centralized manner. Also, in order to extend crape myrtle's flowering period, prune branches that have already flowered to promote regrowth and the development of new branches. If you want to focus on cultivating the trunk, then cut off most of the flowering branches and concentrate nutrients on the main trunk. In addition, crape myrtle's growth has a relatively large demand for light, and doing a good job of pruning can also improve light penetration. We also need to provide sufficient light for crape myrtle to promote its growth.
The above is a brief introduction to crape myrtle planting methods. Crape myrtle has relatively strong growth ability, but in order to improve its ornamental value, we should pay attention to field management, enhance crape myrtle's growth ability, and protect our planting returns. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and we hope it can help everyone!