How to propagate plum blossoms

Seed propagation

Direct sowing from the core. It is necessary to pay attention to collecting fully mature fruits from excellent mother plants with large fruits and small cores. It is generally best to sow them in autumn, and the specific time can be late September. Water it adequately and cover it with fine soil or sand. In the spring of the following year, when the seedlings grow to 10 cm to 15 cm, they can be transplanted from the seedbed. If sowing and propagation is done in spring, the seeds should be washed, dried, and stored in a layer of wet sand, then taken out and sown in rows in early spring. Plum trees propagated by seeds are drought tolerant. It has vigorous growth and is suitable for planting on hillsides. However, the plum trees bred using this method are genetically unstable and have large variations.

Grafting

Grafting

In addition to plum seedlings, peach, wild peach, plum, and apricot can also be used as rootstocks, with plum being the best. Either overlap grafting or cleft grafting can be performed. The so-called overlap grafting is to use a sharp knife to cut the lower end of the scion and the upper end of the rootstock obliquely into a horse ear shape, and then align one side with the green bark layer and tie it tightly. The so-called cleft grafting is to cut the lower end of the scion into a wedge shape, split the rootstock, insert the wedge-shaped scion, and pay attention to aligning one side with the green bark layer and tie it tightly. Both lap and cleft grafting use the branch grafting method, which is usually performed in early spring before the sap flows.

budding

During the growth period of plum trees, bud grafting can also be done on plum or apricot seedlings that serve as rootstocks. That is, at the base of the stem of the rootstock, use a budding knife to make a "T"-shaped cut deep into the wood. Gently open the cortex, and cut the buds on the branches of the plum variety to be propagated, with a little wood, into shield-shaped buds. Quickly insert them into the "T"-shaped cortex on the rootstock and tie them tightly. After 15 to 20 days, the bud of the scion has healed with the rootstock and can be untied.

Regardless of branch grafting or bud grafting, the plants should be cultivated in the nursery for 1 to 2 years after they survive before being used for planting.

In order to quickly obtain large plum trees, you can use transplantation, heavy pruning after the branches survive, and then graft the desired excellent plum varieties on the newly grown branches the following year. Using peach as the rootstock, grafting is easy to survive and is currently widely used in production.

The commonly used method is the root burying method. Peach grafted with plum blossoms will grow fast and bloom early, but the "big and small feet" phenomenon is likely to appear after three years. You can first use peach rootstock to graft plum blossoms. After one year of growth, all the grafts should be dug up. When planting, make the grafting part lower than the ground level, 4 to 7 cm into the soil. Use a sharp knife to cut several vertical cuts at the grafting part of the plum blossom, deep into the wood, and use 25ppm ABT rooting powder No. 2 solution mixed with mud to wrap the wound. Add another 15 to 25 centimeters of soil and make sure to retain moisture. After one year of growth, the plum tree will start to sprout roots. In this way, the plum tree will form two layers of roots when it grows up. The upper layer is the plum tree roots, and the lower layer is the peach rootstock roots. The upper roots play a role when planted in pots or in the ground for greening, and the lower roots can be removed. In this way, the plum blossoms can maintain normal growth.

Cutting propagation

The cutting propagation of plum blossoms is simple to operate and the technique is not complicated. The survival rate can be improved by quickly treating the cuttings with 500ppm indoleacetic acid or 1000ppm naphthylacetic acid aqueous solution, which can also promote rooting of varieties that are difficult to root. The best time to take plum cuttings is November, because the leaves fall at this time and the branches store sufficient nutrients, making it easy for them to take root and survive. Select one-year-old sturdy branches that are 10 to 12 cm long as cuttings. When cutting, bury most of the branches in the soil, leaving only two or three centimeters above the soil surface, and leave a bud outside. The soil in the cutting site is required to be loose and well-drained.