Orchard planting management plan in March

March marks the Waking of Insects. As the air temperature and ground temperature rise, the sap starts to flow and the tree begins to sprout. Fruit trees must be managed at this time to ensure a high yield this year. Here is an introduction to the orchard planting management plan for March.

1. Garden cleaning work

The thick branches cut off during winter pruning should be transported away from the orchard, crushed and composted in a pile or allowed to ferment naturally, and then returned to the field after being fully composted. The diseased and insect-infested branches, insect-attracting tapes, grass bundles, and the scraped rough, old, and peeling bark, rotten and diseased tissues should be concentrated and buried deep. Do not clean up the twigs, fallen leaves, weeds, waste paper bags, etc. in the garden for the time being, so as to cover them and conserve moisture. When spraying the trees for the first time in spring, spray the ground carefully and disinfect it thoroughly to help increase soil organic matter.

2. Reasonable fertilization

Apply fertilizer immediately after the soil thaws in spring, the earlier the better. Dig a hole or trench under the outer projection of the tree crown, preferably 30 cm deep and wide. Sprinkle various fertilizers on the turned over soil, stir evenly when backfilling, so that there is fertilizer evenly in the ditch from top to bottom, with high utilization rate and no damage to the roots.

3. Early spring pruning

The main activities are pulling branches, cutting buds to promote branching, suppressing the top to promote sprouting, and repeated pruning before flowering. Pull the branches into place before flowering, extend the branches that need to be extended, level the base angle, and appropriately raise the waist angle and tip angle to facilitate crown expansion. For the bare areas on the central trunk and main branches, as well as the branch groups that need to be renewed, the bud positions should be selected well, and the holes should be cut with a small steel saw blade or hand saw above or in front of them to carve buds and promote branching, or the bare areas should be filled by cutting and grafting around the time of Grain Rain. For medium and long branches with a length of less than 15 cm, the excess terminal flower buds on the trees with good years or the large leaf buds on the trees with bad years should have their terminal buds cut off to promote the growth of buds to form short branches and slowly flower.

4. Re-pruning before flowering

If there is no fine pruning in winter, the trees have particularly large amounts of flowers and are particularly weak, it is necessary to carry out repeated pruning before flowering to reduce consumption, save nutrients, and ensure the normal flowering and growth of fruit trees. Cut off the thin parasitic branches, the single branches with insufficient buds, the chicken claw branches on the short-branch trees, and the thin and weak flower branches on the long-branch trees. The flower branches can also be shortened to leave 2 to 3 good flowers. The branches with thick branches and full buds must be left with more branches.

5. Disease and pest control

The high temperature this spring, coupled with the weak vigor of the trees, can easily cause an outbreak of rot. The old peeling skin should be carefully scraped off throughout the garden, rotten scars should be scraped in time, and the scraped diseased tissue should be burned or buried deeply. The cortex of the rotten lesion should be scraped into a prism shape with a knife to facilitate wound healing; it should be sealed after treatment with chemicals to prevent recurrence; and the scraping tools should be disinfected in time.

During the budding period, spray the whole tree with 4-5 degrees Baume lime sulfur mixture once to reduce the base number of diseases and insects in the orchard, and prevent and control rot, early leaf fall, red spider mites, scale insects, aphids, etc.

That’s it