How to cultivate and manage orange seedlings?

Orange is a widely grown citrus fruit with many varieties. Each production area will plant suitable orange varieties according to local climate and soil conditions. Common orange varieties include navel orange, blood orange, Emei orange, etc. So how to cultivate and manage orange seedlings ? Let’s take a look below.

1. Adapt to the environment

To plant oranges, you must first choose a seedbed. Oranges like to grow in a warm environment and have sufficient light time. Do not plant tall plants such as sugarcane, wheat, and corn within 2 kilometers of the orange planting distance. The acidity of the soil must not exceed pH 5.5. If the acidity is too high, you can use materials with a higher alkalinity index to improve the soil. You can spread lime in the soil to lower the acidity. If the previous crop of oranges appears to be withered and grows slowly, nitrogen fertilizer can be applied on the seedbed to promote nutrition in the soil and make the soil more fertile. The humidity is required to be above 60%, and the minimum temperature must not be below 10%. Too low a temperature will freeze the plants. The most suitable growth temperature is between 23 and 29 degrees Celsius.

2. Land preparation

After selecting a plot of land, it should be plowed and prepared in advance. When preparing the land, a drainage and irrigation ditch with a depth of about 30 cm should be opened. The soil should be deeply plowed with machinery or a plow. The depth of repeated plowing should not be less than 15 cm. Apply organic fertilizer and make the soil fine. Apply boron fertilizer once after 7 days. When applying boron fertilizer, you can mix it with fine sand and evenly spread it on the soil. Then plow it once. Organic fertilizer and boron fertilizer cannot be applied at the same time. After crushing, harrow it, dig furrows and make ridges. The depth of the furrows is about 30 cm. Apply weed and insecticides to thoroughly disinfect the soil to reduce the chance of diseases and pests. The propagation methods of oranges include branch pressing, seedling raising, and cuttings. Generally speaking, the survival rate of oranges by cuttings is low, and seedling raising or branch pressing is generally used for planting.

3. Pressing branches and cuttings

For branch pressing propagation, choose an older orange tree, select healthy branches and leaves from the mother plant with uniform thickness. If they are too thin, they will be malnourished, and if they are too thick, it will affect the healthy growth of the plant in the later stage. After selecting, do not separate them from the mother plant, but directly insert them into the soil. After the seedlings grow, separate them from the mother plant and you can plant them. The specific method of cuttings is similar to branch pressing. Choose healthy and uniform paper strips, cut the branches and insert them into the soil. After the branches grow roots, they can be transplanted. The temperature for branch pressing and cutting propagation should be kept between 25~30℃. Water the soil a little every day to maintain moisture and humidity.

4. Germination

For orange seedling raising and sowing, first take out the seeds from the ripe orange pulp, select plump and healthy seeds, and place them in a cool environment to dry before sowing. If the sowing time is delayed after taking out the seeds, you can store the seeds in wet sand, mix the seeds with wet sand, place them in a cool place, and turn them over every 5 days or so. This method can be used for short-term storage and take them out when sowing. Before sowing, place the seeds in warm water at a temperature of about 50°C and soak them for about 12 hours. Stir while soaking and stop after lowering the water temperature. After the seeds are dry, they can be sown, avoiding sun exposure.

5. Planting

Oranges can be transplanted twice a year. The best time for spring planting is March to April, and the best time for autumn planting is September to October. The soil temperature should reach about 10℃ when transplanting. Use 40 to 60 seedlings per mu. Generally, the hole depth, hole distance and hole width are 80cm each. The planting density should be reasonably controlled according to the size of the plants. Sprinkle wheat straw, rice straw and organic fertilizer mixed with soil in the hole, place the seedlings in the hole, straighten them to allow the roots to fully stretch, cover them with soil mixed with organic fertilizer, compact the soil, and fill the tree tray 10 to 15cm above the ground around the seedlings with soil after transplanting. Water them and irrigate them with enough water to make the soil moist.

6. Field management

About 20 days after planting, the plants need to be sprayed with mature human and animal manure to promote the growth of new shoots. Young fruit trees need to be fertilized every time they grow new shoots. The fertilizer should not be too concentrated to avoid burning the root system. The fertilizer is mainly composed of phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen and urea. Oranges are generally fertilized at least 5 times a year. When the plants grow too many dense branches, timely pruning should be carried out. First, weaken the branches and leaves that have been eroded by pests to promote the light range of the plants. Watering should be frequent and the amount should be small. If it rains continuously, the accumulated water should be drained in time.

That’s it