Detailed Explanation of Key Management Techniques for Blueberries During the Dormancy Period
Blueberry is a relatively popular berry plant in China, and its planting area in China is very large. Blueberries enter dormancy every year in winter and early spring due to temperature, roughly from October to March. After entering dormancy, blueberries stop growing and show phenomena such as leaf drop and reddening. So how should blueberries be managed during the dormancy period? Below, the editor brings you the management techniques for the blueberry dormancy period. Let's take a look together!
1. Cover the greenhouse at the right time
Around late October each year, the temperature gradually drops. When the nighttime temperature drops to about 5°C, the weak-light dormancy promotion work should be done well. In the evening, roll up the coverings in the greenhouse, then open the ventilation openings. Every morning, close the ventilation openings again, re-cover the coverings, and keep the temperature at about 5°C. Maintain this for about 30 days, and the requirements for blueberries to enter dormancy can be met.
Then do a good job of clearing the orchard, removing fallen leaves, diseased and residual plant material, and other debris from the field, and then carry out thorough disinfection work. Before covering the greenhouse with plastic film in winter, water sufficiently first to improve the cold resistance of the blueberry plants and ensure they can overwinter safely. Moreover, during overwintering, blueberries need sufficient chilling requirement, generally about 1000 hours. If the chilling requirement is insufficient, it will lead to various problems such as poor sprouting and insufficient flowering in blueberries, affecting both yield and quality.
2. Shaping and pruning
The pruning work for blueberry plants before budbreak can be carried out after entering the dormancy period and before sap flow. During pruning, attention should be paid to doing a good job of cultivating the tree shape. Commonly used pruning methods include thinning branches and heading back. Remove the inner canopy branches, overly dense branches, and pest- and disease-affected branches of the blueberry plants. The main purpose is to improve the ventilation and light penetration of the blueberry plants, coordinate the relationship between reproductive growth and vegetative growth of the blueberry trees, improve tree vigor, and achieve the goal of high yield year after year. The number of flower buds on blueberry trees should be properly controlled, and corresponding pruning should be carried out according to the varietal characteristics of the blueberries and the length of fruiting branches, thinning out dense, weak, and thin fruiting branches, etc.
3. Water and fertilizer management before budbreak
Before the branches of blueberry trees sprout, attention should be paid to doing a good job of water and fertilizer management. Apply an appropriate amount of compound fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate and potassium sulfate. Control the application amount according to tree age; for example, mature trees are generally given about 80 grams per tree. The fertilization method is mainly ring trench application, digging trenches around the tree disk and applying fertilizer therein. At the same time, attention should be paid to controlling the width and depth of the trenches, keeping the width at about 25 cm and the depth at about 15 cm. Then, after fertilizing, attention should be paid to watering an appropriate amount of bud-promoting water.
The above is a brief introduction to blueberry dormancy period management techniques. That is all for today's introduction. This article is for reference only, and I hope it can help everyone!