Sharing the planting experience of large cherry growing specialist Zhang Zhilan

    In Hetoudian Town, Laixi City, Shandong, there is a widely known large cherry specialist, and she is Zhang Zhilan, director of the Women's Congress of Yangjiazhai Village. In 2006, the large cherry orchard she contracted brought in a net income of more than 100,000 yuan, making her a top woman grower in Laixi City in one stroke. Zhang Zhilan not only enriched herself, but also took the lead in helping the many sisters in the village get onto the road to prosperity through large cherry growing. At present, Yangjiazhai Village has 296 mu of large cherries, more than 100 households are engaged in large cherry production, and each mu of large cherries can bring in about 15,000 yuan in income. From this one item alone, the villagers can increase their income by 4.5 million yuan, and Yangjiazhai Village has become a truly wealthy village.

Zhang Zhilan

The development of large cherry production in Yangjiazhai Village is inseparable from the active guidance and support of Zhang Zhilan, a member of the village Party branch and director of the Women's Congress. Starting in 1992, Party branch members, through inspections elsewhere, became firmly convinced of the path of developing large cherry production and mobilized the villagers throughout the village to plant large cherries. At that time, because most villagers lacked understanding of this and could not make up their minds, the village cadres took the lead in developing it. Zhang Zhilan, director of the Women's Congress, first persuaded her husband, who worked elsewhere, and contracted 4.7 mu of land, investing 10,000 yuan to plant large cherries. That year, only 13 households in the whole village developed 50 mu of large cherries.

As the saying goes: "Cherries are delicious, but the trees are hard to grow; without effort, the flowers will not open." Zhang Zhilan, who understood this principle well, put all her thoughts into these cherry trees, tending them as carefully as if they were children. Three years later, Zhang Zhilan's efforts were finally rewarded. In 1995, her large cherries brought in more than 5,000 yuan. Solid economic benefits are more persuasive than any words, and the villagers who had previously wavered about developing large cherries came one after another on their own initiative to the village committee to request to develop large cherries. Zhang Zhilan, director of the Women's Congress, actively played her role, traveling to Yantai and Laiyang to help the villagers contact suppliers for seedlings, so that almost all parts of the village suitable for planting large cherries were planted with them, and the number of large cherry growing households reached 100.

After large cherry development began to take shape, management became the most important issue. Because large cherry growing was mostly managed by the village's women laborers, Zhang Zhilan led the Women's Congress group, through carrying out the "Double Learn, Double Compare" activity, to vigorously develop a women's demonstration base for large cherries, fully give play to the base's demonstration and guidance role, and earnestly increase training and guidance for women, so that the women gradually mastered the techniques for managing large cherries, and the economic benefits were noticeably enhanced.

In the practice of large cherry management, Zhang Zhilan worked out a complete set of successful experience in managing large cherries and new techniques for spring management of large cherries, mainly: (1) Branch bending. After spring budbreak, pull long branches to a horizontal position, which can weaken the apical dominance of the branches. (2) Notching. Before spring budbreak, make a horizontal cut about 1 cm above the bud on the lateral buds and upper-side buds on the central leader and long branches, reaching deep into the xylem, which can promote the growth of short branches and fruiting branches. (3) Pinching. After budbreak, when the upright new shoots on horizontal branches grow to 10-15 cm, cut off 5-8 cm from the tip, which can promote flower formation at the base of the new shoots in the same year. Apply growth inhibitors: in early April, open a ring-shaped ditch below the outer canopy, mix the chemical with water and apply it into the ditch, and cover with soil after the water seeps down. (4) Soil, water, and fertilizer management. Soil: after spring watering or rainfall, promptly hoe and loosen the soil to benefit root growth; fertilizer: the growth and fruiting of large cherries are concentrated in the first half of the growing season, so topdressing should preferably be done from after petal fall to before fruit pit hardening, mainly with quick-acting fertilizers and phosphorus-potassium compound fertilizers; water: water before flowering, water at pit hardening, and water before fruit harvest. For pollination during the flowering period, for bee pollination generally place one box of honeybees or Japanese mason bees per mu; about 300 mason bees can be placed per mu, plus artificial pollination. Zhang Zhilan unconditionally passed on the fruit-growing experience she had summarized to her neighbors, and printed these experiences and techniques into small booklets and distributed them to every woman growing large cherries, which was deeply welcomed by everyone.

With management techniques, the large cherries produced fruit, but because of a lack of water, most dried up and fell to the ground. Yangjiazhai Village is a water-scarce village, with little spring rain and no nearby convenient water source. At first, Zhang Zhilan thought of a way to lead the villagers to transport water from Gaogezhuang Reservoir more than 10 li away, but a tractor could only bring back 4 barrels of water a day, which was time-consuming and laborious and far from enough to save the parched large cherry trees. Watching the large cherries that had grown dry up alive really hurt people's hearts! Zhang Zhilan thought that a way must be found to solve the water source problem nearby. She first invested 1,500 yuan to dig a deep well, and the water source was very good. Then, on her active suggestion, the village's two committees issued a well-drilling incentive policy, awarding 100 yuan for each well drilled, to encourage villagers to drill more wells. As a result, all large cherry growers drilled their own wells. With the water source guaranteed, plus scientific and well-targeted management techniques, the large cherries had a bumper harvest.

The large cherries had a bumper harvest, but sales once became a difficult problem. In order to open up the sales market for large cherries, Zhang Zhilan and three Women's Congress members traveled to cities, hotels, and supermarkets, promoting large cherries everywhere. Hard work pays off, and the high-quality Yangjiazhai large cherries with excellent color, aroma, and taste won the affection of customers and people. Laixi Television conducted a special interview and report on the large cherries of Yangjiazhai Village, greatly increasing the fame of the large cherries. Now, out-of-town customers from Qingdao, Yantai, Dalian, Weifang, and other places are rushing to the village to buy large cherries.