How to grow wintersweet? Detailed growing methods and tips

Introduction: When wintersweet blooms, its fragrance carries for miles, and being able to smell wintersweet's fragrance in the cold winter is a delight. I do not know whether many people love wintersweet, but there are certainly plenty who love its scent. Potted wintersweet is also used in home decoration. So how do you grow wintersweet? Let me introduce it to you below.

Cut grafting method. Wintersweet grafting commonly uses the cut grafting method. For cut grafting, it is advisable to use dog-tooth wintersweet or wintersweet seedlings as rootstock. Select thick two-year-old wintersweet branches, take the middle section and cut it into pieces 6-8 cm long as scions. The key to the survival rate of cut grafting lies in mastering the suitable grafting time.

Side grafting method. The suitable time for side grafting is from mid-June to mid-July. If done too early, it affects the tender scions' survival; if done too late, although they may survive, it is not good for overwintering. For rootstock, you can choose robust 1-2 year old wintersweet or dog-tooth wintersweet seedlings; for scions, choose tender, strong current-year branches of superior wintersweet varieties.

Shaping and pruning is an important task in wintersweet management. The method of shaping and pruning depends on the tree form decided in advance. If cultivating a tree-like form, select and keep one thick branch at the seedling stage, do not pinch it back, and let it form the trunk. After the trunk reaches the expected height, pinch it back to encourage branching.

Wintersweet does not demand much water either. As the saying goes, "wintersweet will not die of drought," which shows that wintersweet is more drought-tolerant than ordinary shrubs. However, in dry seasons, the soil should still be replenished with water to ensure its normal growth and development needs. For potted wintersweet in spring and autumn, do not water unless the potting soil is dry; in summer, evaporation is fast and water demand is high, so water once each morning and evening, with the amount controlled according to how dry or wet the potting soil is.

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