Detailed Guide to High-Yield Apple Growing Techniques and Harvesting Key Points

Apple is one of the most commonly eaten fruits in daily life, rich in intense fruity aroma, sweet in taste, with many varieties and fairly large price differences. Apples are grown relatively extensively in Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places in China, so how can you grow apples to achieve high yield? What are the key points for harvesting?

I. How can you grow apples to achieve high yield?

1. Key points for establishing the orchard

The best orchard location is a leeward, sunny hill, mountain or hillside with loose, fertile soil, convenient irrigation and convenient transport; it is not suitable to establish an orchard in low-lying places such as valleys. The irrigation water quality must be clean, and the orchard must have good ventilation and light penetration. Regularly clear away trash and dead branches and fallen leaves in the orchard to maintain a good environment. New orchards should be planted at low density to ensure the light requirements, with a row spacing of about 2m×4m being suitable.

1. Key points for fertilizing

The base fertilizer should mainly be poultry manure, which must first be fermented, and the fertilizing time is late October. Topdressing can be carried out in 3 periods: before bud break, after petal fall and during the fruit swelling stage. Before bud break, mainly use nitrogen fertilizer; after petal fall, use nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and other fertilizers together; during the fruit swelling stage, mainly use phosphorus and potassium fertilizers.

Apple trees have different nutritional needs at different growth stages, so fine-tuned fertilization must be carried out according to the growth stage to achieve efficient use of fertilizer.

3. Pruning work

Based on the development of new shoots below the cut on young trees in summer, leave suitable main branches. For new shoots that are not main branches, leave short stubs or treat them by twig twisting or branch bending. Winter pruning includes heading back, renewal pruning and thinning out. In order not to affect the growth of the main branches, temporary branches should be encouraged to bear fruit as early as possible. In the initial fruiting stage, the outward pull on the main branches should be appropriately increased, creating a weak interior and strong exterior, so that lateral branches grow and bear fruit steadily on the main branches; in this way, fruiting branch groups can be developed on the main branches.

4. Flower and fruit management

The number of fruits retained can be determined by branch-to-fruit ratio, leaf-to-fruit ratio or spacing. Excess flowers and fruits should be removed in time to control the tree's load, keep the tree vigorous, enlarge the fruit and avoid the problem of alternate bearing. Flower and fruit thinning should be carried out throughout the entire fruit growth cycle.

5. Pest and disease prevention

Pests and diseases are crucial during the growth and ripening of the fruit. After leaf fall and before bud break, the orchard needs to be thoroughly cleaned, and a fungicide and an insecticide should each be sprayed once to reduce the number of pests and diseases. During the fruit growing season, pesticides should be sprayed once about every 20d; if rain occurs, supplementary spraying can be carried out appropriately, until the end of September of that year. Pesticides should mainly be biological pesticides.

II. What are the key points for harvesting apples?

1. Removing the fruit bags

For bagged fruit, the bags are generally removed 10~20 days before harvest. First remove the outer paper bag while keeping the inner red paper bag, then remove the inner bag after 3~7 days. Choose cloudy or partly cloudy weather for bag removal; on sunny days, remove bags at 9-11 a.m. and again at 3-5 p.m., and strictly avoid removing bags during high-temperature periods to prevent sunburn.

2. Laying reflective film

Usually the upper part of the canopy has good light conditions, and apples color fully easily, while the middle and lower parts have poorer light conditions, making fruit coloring more difficult; in particular, the calyx cavity of the fruit is very difficult to color, affecting the apple's external quality. To solve this problem, after the apples are removed from their bags, silver reflective film can be laid flat in strips under the tree canopy or between rows, using reflected light to promote full and uniform coloring of the fruit surface.

3. Timely late harvest

According to surveys, for mid- and late-maturing red apple varieties, in the 20~30 days before maturity, the fruit's average daily weight gain is about 1g, and the anthocyanin content in the peel increases rapidly. Therefore, within the suitable harvest period, the later the harvest, the better the coloring, the better the quality, and the more beneficial it is for increasing the fruit's sugar and color.