How to do spring orchard cleaning for apple trees? Keep these precautions in mind
As spring temperatures rise, it is once again the season when all things come back to life. Spring orchard cleaning for apple trees can eliminate overwintering sources of pests and diseases, reduce pests and diseases, and at the same time maintain tree nutrition and promote flower bud differentiation. However, orchard cleaning also requires attention to method. Let's take a look together with the editor at the precautions for spring orchard cleaning in apple orchards.
1. Clean the orchard
After winter, the orchard ground is covered with broken branches, fallen leaves, diseased and pest-damaged fruit, and some pathogens and insect eggs lie dormant in them. If left unchecked, when the suitable period arrives, they will multiply and develop, causing the plants to become diseased again, with great harm. Therefore, the first step is to clean the orchard, gathering broken branches, fallen leaves, diseased and pest-damaged fruit, discarded fruit bags and debris, and burning them in a centralized manner or burying them deeply. This can not only eliminate hidden pests and diseases, but also supplement nutrients for the plants and help the trees recover their strength.
2. Prune diseased and pest-damaged branches
In addition to cleaning the ground, there are still many diseased and damaged branches on the trees, and these will also continue to harm the plants, so these diseased and pest-damaged branches should be pruned off in time and taken outside the orchard to be burned. This is greatly beneficial for preventing the recurrence of apple rot disease, dieback, powdery mildew and anthracnose, as well as for controlling insect pests.
3. Scraping bark
Scraping bark means scraping off diseased bark or necrotic tissue, and at the same time digging out the pests in the cracks of the bark. The timing of scraping bark must be well controlled, and it should not be too late or too delayed. It is best to do it when the sap is flowing. Doing it too early will make the wounds difficult to heal, causing the tree to lose more water; doing it too late will induce rot disease, and by then the pests have already begun to spread. Rot scars must be completely scraped off, and diseased tumors must also be completely scraped off, without leaving a single diseased tumor. After scraping the bark, pay attention to applying a wound healing agent, so as to avoid water loss from the tree, prevent pathogen invasion, and promote wound healing.
4. Spray pesticide to clean the orchard
After doing the previous work well, the last step is spraying pesticide to clean the orchard. A total of two sprays are required. The first spray is lime sulfur mixture when the flower buds have just sprouted. This is because the main component of lime sulfur mixture is calcium polysulfide, which can kill pests and mites; in addition, lime sulfur mixture is a strongly alkaline agent that can play a sterilizing role; at the same time, it can also form a protective film that can suffocate pests and diseases to death, and has a good control effect on preventing pests and diseases. The second spray is during the flowering period, spraying 2000 times Lesben plus 5000 times Fuxing, which can further prevent and control pests and diseases.
The above is an introduction to the precautions for spring orchard cleaning in apple orchards. We hope it can help you. If you want to learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.