A Detailed Guide to Pomegranate Planting Techniques and Management Methods

Pomegranate (Latin name: Punica granatum L.) is a deciduous tree or shrub; leaves simple, usually opposite or clustered, without stipules. Flowers terminal or nearly terminal, solitary or several clustered or forming cymes, nearly bell-shaped, lobes 5-9, petals 5-9, mostly wrinkled, imbricate; ovules numerous. Berry spherical, with persistent calyx lobes at the apex, pericarp thick; seeds numerous, berry nearly spherical, fruit ripening period September-October. Outer seed coat fleshy and semi-transparent, juicy; inner seed coat leathery.

Pomegranate Planting Techniques

I. Pomegranate Planting Models

1. Fruit-grain intercropping model

With grain as the main crop, on sloping farmland and cultivated land, a configuration of wide row spacing and small plant spacing is used, with two rows of pomegranate belts at 2 m plant spacing and 10-20 m row spacing, for intercropping pomegranate with grain crops or pomegranate with Chinese medicinal herbs, achieving a double harvest of fruit and grain and of fruit and medicine.

2. Plantation in contiguous stands on hilly land

With fruit as the main crop, on hills and cultivated land with good soil conditions, orchards are established, ponds are built for fish farming, duck houses, goose houses and cattle sheds are built, and comprehensive ecological combined planting and breeding is practiced to increase economic benefits.

II. Key Points of Cultivation Techniques

1. Selection of improved varieties

The main improved varieties suitable for cultivation in southern Henan include Taishan Hong pomegranate, Dahong Tian pomegranate, Lintong Fenhong Tian pomegranate, Yudali pomegranate, etc.

2. High-standard orchard establishment

When establishing an orchard, in addition to selecting improved varieties and strong seedlings, according to the planned planting distance, deep trenches are opened or large holes are dug, 1 m deep and 1 m wide, with topsoil and subsoil separated; when backfilling, 10,000 kg of weeds or barnyard manure per mu and 500 kg each of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer are filled in, which can be applied in layers. Because pomegranate roots easily, in order to enhance its drought resistance, it can be planted 2-3 cm deeper at planting. When establishing an orchard on mountainous land, terraces with a high outer edge and a low inner edge should be built to facilitate water storage and thicken the soil layer, improving the soil.

3. Planting density

In order to improve light energy utilization and increase early yield, moderate close planting is advocated. In plain areas, a plant-row spacing of 3 m * 4 m can be used, planting 56 plants per mu, and production areas often have the habit of planting 2 plants per hole; in shallow hill and hilly areas, a plant-row spacing of 2 m * 3 m can be used, planting 111 plants per mu. In the first 2 years after young trees are planted, they mainly grow the tree and expand the crown, and are generally not allowed to bear fruit.

4. Training and pruning

Training

After planting, in the *** year it is allowed to grow freely, but 1-3 strong branches with suitable directions are selected and retained to train the trunk, forming a single-trunk, double-trunk or three-trunk form, and basal sprouting branches or suckers are removed in time. In the second spring, 4-5 vigorous branches are selected and cut back by 1/3 to train main and lateral branches, while the remaining issued branches are generally left unpruned; long and vigorous branches are pinched or cut back in summer to lower the branching position. In the third spring, methods such as propping, pulling, bending and hanging are used to open the angle of the main branches, making the crown open-centered, promoting effective short branches, and continuously expanding the crown so that it forms a semicircular or circular shape. For trees that grow excessively vigorously, attention should be paid to thinning out water sprouts and competing branches to reduce nutrient consumption, so that they form mixed buds and increase the number of fruiting branches.

Pruning

Pomegranate mixed buds are mostly borne at the top or near the top of robust short branches. Except for a few water sprouts and vegetative branches that are cut back, pruning is generally mainly thinning. For fruiting trees over 4 years old, winter pruning is the main practice, focusing on removing root suckers and cutting off water sprouts, overly dense branches, thin and weak branches, diseased and pest-infested branches, drooping branches, crossing branches, overlapping branches, etc. Targeted cutting back and heading back of long branches and empty water sprouts or weak branches are done in order to restore tree vigor, train fruiting branch groups, improve ventilation and light conditions, and achieve consistent high yields year after year. In summer pruning, on the basis of winter pruning, according to the situation after fruit set, water sprouts are thinned in time, thin and weak branches are cut back, and through bud removal and pinching, fruiting branch groups are trained.

III. Soil, Fertilizer and Water Management

1. Soil management

After fruit harvest each year or in autumn and winter, the orchard is deep-plowed 20-40 cm. In the early stage, wheat, beans, vegetables or Chinese medicinal herbs can be interplanted. In summer, timely intertillage and weeding are carried out to keep the soil between plants or within the tree loose and free of weeds. Mulching with grass around the root zone plays an important role in retaining moisture, lowering temperature, conserving soil and water, and increasing organic matter.

2. Fertilization and irrigation

Fertilization is mostly carried out in 3 applications each year. The first is applied before flowering, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer, by trench application or hole application. Each plant is given 0.5 kg each of urea and diammonium phosphate. The second is applied in July, during the fruit enlargement period, with 0.5 kg of ammonium phosphate per plant. The third is applied after autumn shoots stop growing, by radial trench application, with 25-30 kg of organic fertilizer per plant. Combined with fertilization and orchard drought conditions, irrigation is carried out in time.

IV. Flowering Period Management

1. Spraying fertilizer during flowering

From the early flowering stage to the full fruit stage, fruit tree high-yield hormone can be sprayed. According to experiments: it can increase the fruit-setting rate by 21.8% and increase yield by 18.7%.

2. Bee release and artificial pollination

Releasing bees can increase the fruit-setting rate of tubular flowers by 30%, artificial pollination can reach 45.8%, while the natural pollination fruit-setting rate is 21.5%.

3. Girdling or ring barking

In the early flowering period, for vigorous trees with few flowers or at the base of large auxiliary feeding branches, 2-3 girdles should be made, and the ring spacing should be kept at more than 4 cm. According to experiments, compared with no girdling, it can increase the fruit-setting rate by 13.4% and can promote flower bud differentiation. Vigorous trees can also be ring-barked; the trunk diameter should be more than 5 cm, and 2 horizontal cuts are made at a smooth place, deep to the xylem; to facilitate healing, the ring spacing is 0.3-0.5 cm.

4. Flower and fruit thinning

Flower thinning can be carried out in two rounds. The *** round is after flower buds appear, promptly removing underdeveloped "bell-shaped flowers"; the second round is about 2 weeks later, still mainly thinning out incomplete flowers.

V. Pest and Disease Control

1. Pomegranate stem window moth

It is a major pest harming pomegranate branches and trunks. Control methods:

(1) Starting in early July, check branches frequently, and promptly cut off and remove damaged new shoots to destroy the larvae inside.

(2) After sprouting in spring, completely cut off and burn dead branches that have not leafed out, to destroy overwintering larvae.

(3) For larvae inside damaged 2-3-year-old branches, 500 times diluted dichlorvos solution or 800 times diluted dimethoate-mixture can be injected into the *** lower frass hole, then the insect opening is plugged with medicated mud to poison and kill them.

(4) At the peak of hatching, based on the characteristic that newly hatched larvae crawl on tender shoots for 2-3 days before boring into new shoots, promptly spray 1500 times diluted 40% omethoate, 50% methamidophos or 40% monocrotophos for control, with an effect of up to 84.9-98.4%. On the basis of good forecasting, changing from the past injection of pesticide into insect openings to spraying on the tree not only saves labor and time and improves efficacy, but can also simultaneously control other leaf-eating pests such as the yellow slug moth; generally after the *** first spraying, spraying once more 20 days later gives a better effect.