What are the prospects for mulberry cultivation? How should pests be controlled when they appear during the growing process?
The mulberry is a tree cultivated in every part of our country and has a certain economic value. The leaves of the mulberry can serve as feed for silkworms, the branches can be made into baskets and other woven implements, the bark can be used to make paper, and the fruit can be eaten fresh or used to make wine. Let us take a look below at What are the prospects for mulberry cultivation? How should pests be controlled when they appear during the growing process?
1. What are the prospects for mulberry cultivation?
Large-scale mulberry plantations in contiguous tracts are the main form of mulberry cultivation in our country in the future. This form of mulberry planting mostly appears in rural areas where growing mulberry and raising silkworms is the main source of economic income, using contiguous cultivated land or newly reclaimed wasteland and, in accordance with the scientific requirements of modern rational close planting of mulberry, achieving large-scale mulberry cultivation. Large-scale contiguous mulberry plantations can, according to different uses, be further divided into more detailed types. For example, special mulberry plantations for young silkworms, mainly for raising young silkworms, and special mulberry plantations for grown silkworms, mainly for raising grown silkworms. For example, according to different silkworm rearing seasons and batches, they can also be divided into special mulberry plantations for spring silkworms, special mulberry plantations for summer and autumn silkworms, and mulberry plantations for both spring and autumn, etc. The main differences among different mulberry plantations lie in the varieties planted and the different methods of pruning and cutting, and there are also certain differences in row and plant spacing.
2. How should pests be controlled when they appear during the mulberry growing process?
1. Winter plowing of mulberry plantations
Winter plowing not only improves the physical and chemical properties of the soil, promotes mulberry growth, strengthens tree vigor, improves disease resistance, and increases mulberry leaf yield, but can also expose overwintering insects, which may either freeze to death at low temperatures or be eaten by poultry, helping to reduce the base number of diseases and pests harming mulberry trees the following year.
2. Bundling branches
Bundling branches facilitates winter plowing, fertilizing and other operations, and also has the effects of straightening the posture of the branches and luring pests to hide in the bundled grass to overwinter, making it easier to catch and kill them.
3. Protecting natural enemies
When scraping off the eggs of pests overwintering on mulberry branches and trunks in winter, the egg masses of the mulberry leaf roller and wild silkworm should be collected to protect parasitic wasps and use natural enemies to control pests.
4. Strengthening quarantine of mulberry seedlings
At mulberry seedling production areas and distribution centers, strict quarantine should be carried out. When plants infected with mulberry dwarf disease, bacterial disease, violet root rot and root-knot nematode disease are found, they should be removed in time, and the detected dwarf disease pathogens should be destroyed on the spot. If individual seedlings with mulberry root-knot nematode disease are found, first cut off the root knots and burn them in a centralized manner, then all mulberry seedlings should undergo root disinfection treatment, soaking the mulberry seedling roots in 0.3% bleaching powder solution for 30 minutes, or in warm water at 45°C for 20-30 minutes. For mulberry seedlings with mulberry leaf roller egg masses, soak them in a 2000-fold dilution of 90% trichlorfon for 1 minute to kill the mulberry leaf roller eggs.
5. Pruning branches, trimming knots and digging out diseased plants
Winter pruning and trimming, cutting off dead branches, dead stumps and diseased and pest-damaged branches, etc., can reduce the base number of pathogens of mulberry dieback disease, mulberry red rust, mulberry gray plaster disease and mulberry powdery mildew, as well as the number of overwintering pests such as mulberry weevils, mulberry longhorn beetles, mulberry borers, pile-sand borers, mulberry thrips, mulberry spiders, mulberry geometers, mulberry caterpillars, mulberry borers and rhombic-marked leafhoppers. At the same time, attention should be paid to protecting beneficial insects. When mulberry dwarf disease plants are found, dig them out in time and burn them in a centralized manner. If mulberry bud blight is found between February and March, cut it off at 0.5 cm below the diseased part and burn it in a centralized manner, or scrape off the diseased spots with a knife and then apply lime-sulfur mixture.