Detailed guide to high-yield plum cultivation techniques, a practical guide for fruit growers

The plum is a common fruit native to China with a very long history of cultivation, and generally a few trees are planted around rural homes. But if you want to plant on a large scale and make a profit, then you must carry out some artificial management and apply certain techniques. Nowadays, whenever plums hit the market, there are a great many buyers, so I will now explain how to plant them to increase yields.

I. Planting density

When planting, about 40 trees can be planted per mu, with a plant spacing of about 2 m and a row spacing of about 3 m. When raising seedlings you can broadcast the seed freely, but once the seedlings emerge evenly you must immediately thin them, pulling out diseased seedlings, weak seedlings and weeds; then when they grow to about 3 cm you should prick them out once, and when they reach 70 to 80 cm you can begin transplanting, keeping the plant and row spacing mentioned above.

II. Planting time

Generally in the south they are planted in March in spring, or in the warm spell of October. These two periods are relatively warm but not hot, and the rainfall is not especially heavy, which favors root growth and tree survival; with less transpiration you can water less and reduce the workload. In the north, autumn enters the cold period quickly and the cold lasts a long time, so spring planting is best, but spring planting must also be done after the ground thaws, otherwise the trees easily freeze to death.

III. Planting method

First dig the planting pit. Although the seedling is less than one meter tall, it still needs to carry a soil ball of 30 to 40 cm when transplanted. And for later growth, the pit must be dug about 80 cm deep and about 70 cm wide. When digging, place the topsoil, middle-layer soil and subsoil separately. When planting, first mix the subsoil with base fertilizer and fallen leaves and backfill it, then cover the fertilizer soil with the middle-layer soil, put in the sapling, then cover with topsoil, gently lift the seedling, and then water with settling water. Be sure to plant the seedling upright and straight, and let the roots spread out naturally and hang down, rather than being tangled together haphazardly; it must be planted in the very center of the pit, leaving the same growing space on both sides so it does not grow lopsided. If it is a bought seedling, be sure to replenish water in time, and once it recovers its upright posture, trim off some roots before planting.

Plums are all grown the same way, yet some yields are high and some low. Besides being planted in different places, this is also because every detail of cultivation was optimized in the best possible way. So you can compare it with your own methods and seek the best approach.