How to grow dragon fruit? Cultivation techniques, diseases and insect pests and control methods of dragon fruit

Many farmers continue to join the ranks of red dragon fruit cultivation, for the cultivation and management of red dragon fruit is bound to pay more attention to the growth of plants in the field, in order to reduce the occurrence of diseases and insect pests and other problems. In recent years, due to the improvement of varieties, cultivation techniques and the development of production period regulation techniques, a wave of cultivation trend has been created, and this cultivation trend has continued to spread, without stagnation. Obviously, red dragon fruit is still a fruit industry with development potential in the hearts of Chinese people.

Orchard planning points: drainage system and support construction

At present, most of the new red dragon fruit gardens are built from paddy fields, and paddy fields are usually located in low-lying places, which is easy to cause ponding or poor drainage in the fields. Therefore, the establishment of drainage system is the first essential factor for successful planting of red fruit, and the improvement of drainage system in field area and planting with high ridge should be carried out before the establishment of orchard; However, due to its shallow roots, it likes the soil environment with good air permeability, and its roots are mainly distributed in the soil layer of about 30 cm above the soil surface. If it encounters typhoon or heavy rain, the water in the field cannot be removed in time, which easily causes the soil to lack oxygen and cause the roots to die, resulting in the plants unable to absorb water and mineral nutrients, resulting in the branches of the ground to shrink and yellow, affecting the yield.

The red dragon orchard converted from paddy field should complete drainage system in the field and use high ridge planting mode to avoid plant death caused by flooding.

In recent years, the cultivation mode of A support is generally adopted in the cultivation of Red Dragon Fruit, and galvanized pipes are used as support materials. However, some farmers often use small diameter pipes or insufficient pipes to reduce material costs, resulting in insufficient support force of the support structure. Under the condition that the number of branches of Red Dragon Fruit is small in the early stage of garden construction, the support can still bear the load. When the tree structure is completed after 4 years, the weight of branches is easy to cause the support frame to bend and tilt when the number of branches is sufficient. There is a danger of toppling if it is attacked by strong winds. Therefore, the scaffolding construction should be completed in the early stage of garden construction. If the structural support is insufficient, the reinforcement work should be completed earlier to avoid the collapse of scaffolding.

Orchard field cleaning management

The main climate pattern of red dragon fruit production season is high temperature and rainy, at this time, the main diseases also began to occur actively, so the prevention and control of diseases and insect pests should be carried out in the field. At present, the red dragon fruit generally adopts a grass-growing cultivation mode, and the grass-growing cultivation easily leads to the situation that the base part of the red dragon fruit trunk is covered with grass in the orchard, and if the trunk has wounds, bacterial soft rot is easy to occur, so that the trunk close to the ground can fester.

The methods of improvement were to eliminate weeds around the trunk, increase ventilation, reduce humidity around the trunk, reduce the incidence of disease, spray fungicides or 8-8 Bordeaux mixture for protection, and reduce the occurrence of soft rot on the foundation. Secondly, stem canker disease and flower bud wet rot disease, which make red dragon fruit growers headache, also occur in large numbers at this time. Besides timely use of fungicides to control them, it is necessary to pay attention to field cleaning and thoroughly clean the garden.

In the stem canker disease part, as long as the branches and fruits with stem canker disease symptoms are observed, do not be soft, cut off and bagged and removed from the field; in the flower bud wet rot part, when large-scale rot of flower buds is observed, remove them as soon as possible, bag them, remove them from the field, and disinfect them with fungicides and other materials to reduce the number of pathogens. At the same time, during the fruit harvest period, try to avoid picking fruit in rainy days. If it is impossible to adjust the harvest time, it is also necessary to pay attention to the disinfection of harvesting tools, and store or ship the harvested fruit after treatment with non-pesticide sterilization products. This can reduce the incidence of fruit rot.

Stem canker is an important disease of red dragon fruit, and it has various symptoms. Once infected branches are found, they should be cut off as soon as possible to avoid continuous spread of the disease.

Key points of fruit retention: annual production batch planning

According to the distribution of output and price of red dragon fruit in each month over the years, it can be observed that the output peak of red dragon fruit is from late June to July, and the market price is low. Back to the growth state of field plants, most of the fruits at this stage are the fruits of the first three batches of natural flowering in the central region. Since the buds sprouted at this stage symbolize the source of income, and the plants are in a healthy state, the fruits develop greatly, even if the plants bear excessive fruits, they can grow smoothly. Therefore, farmers are accustomed to keeping a large number of fruits at this stage, which leads to a large increase in market arrival volume and a fall in prices.

In fact, the reproductive period of red dragon fruit is as long as half a year. With the application of night lighting regulation technology, the period of production can exceed nine months. After the beginning of the red dragon fruit production season, one batch of flower buds can be formed in about 15 days, and generally there are at least 12 batches of flower buds. In addition, the formation time of each batch of flower buds of red dragon fruit is synchronous in the whole country, and the number of flower buds is similar in size. Therefore, batch planning and fruit retention control should be carried out in advance during the production season.

In practice, after each batch of flower buds are formed, it is best to carry out the thinning of flower buds when the flower buds grow to 1~2 cm, leaving the flower buds full and full in appearance without deformity, and using the management mode of leaving one flower bud for one fruiting branch. The size of each flower bud should be similar, and the difference should not be too large, so as not to cause inconsistent fruit maturity. At the same time, the fruit retention mode of alternate batches and fertilizer management technology (high nitrogen and low potassium for green fruit growth, low nitrogen and high potassium for color change fruit) can be adopted to ensure the best fruit quality and yield of each batch of fruits.

Attention should be paid to the protection of flower bud and young fruit stage

In the early stage of flower bud formation, the number of field pests such as thrips, stink bugs and scarabs should be controlled to avoid damage to the surface of flower bud, which will cause large areas of scars on mature fruit. In addition, if it encounters long-term rainfall in the early stage of flower bud formation, it is easy to be infected by fungal diseases, causing the tip of flower bud sepal to dry and brown, seriously affecting the appearance of fruit. Therefore, chemical protection should be carried out in advance if rainfall occurs at the early stage of flower bud growth.

The nectar secreted from flower bud or fruit scale leaf tip was the main cause of soot disease, and the nectar secretion of red flesh variety was more obvious than that of white flesh variety.

On the day of flowering, if it is predicted that rain will occur at night, you can cover the flower buds ready to bloom with plastic cups or plastic bags in the daytime, and tap the flowers in the evening or night to assist pollen release, increase the pollination probability and improve the fruit setting rate. Remove the plastic cups or plastic bags the next morning after flowering. In recent years, the occurrence frequency of wet rot of flower bud of red dragon fruit is high, so the withered petals (corolla tube) should be removed 3~4 days after flowering to reduce the occurrence of disease.

Other points to note: improve fruit soot disease

Soot disease of red dragon fruit causes great trouble in cultivation of red dragon fruit. After soot disease occurs, it will cause a large area of black-brown mold on the surface of fruit, which needs a lot of labor to remove. The main cause of soot disease is that the tips of scales and leaves of flower buds and fruits secrete a large amount of honeydew. When the honeydew cannot be removed smoothly, it will cause soot disease after being attached by fungi.

At present, the cause and improvement method of large amount of red dragon fruit honeydew have not been effectively established, but farmers have adopted a set of biological control methods, which have obvious effects, but sometimes there are side effects. This improvement method is to raise small ants in the field to feed on the nectar produced by flower buds. Once the nectar is eaten up by ants, soot disease will not occur naturally, and most of these small ants will not harm the fruits. However, there are risks in the mode of using ants to control soot disease in orchards. Some large ants have the habit of biting branches, flower buds and fruits, causing fruit damage. Therefore, these large ants should be removed and small ants that do not harm fruits should be retained instead.

In addition, when the number of ants is too large, the honeydew is not enough for ants to eat, ants will bite fruits, and even nest in bags, so reasonable control of ant population is the key to using ants to control soot disease.

Some farmers will raise small ants in the field to feed on the nectar secreted by the flower buds of red dragon fruit to reduce the occurrence of soot disease of red dragon fruit.

Avoid fruit field heat accumulation

Fruit harvesting is the last important step in field management. Every farmer is always careful when harvesting the fruit, fearing that the fruit will be damaged. However, when the fruit is placed in the basket, some farmers forget that there is a more important step to be taken: avoiding the fruit from being exposed to the sun. The fruit should be placed in shade as soon as possible after picking to reduce the heat generation in the field. Although this step is simple, it is an important key to affect the quality of subsequent fruits. Reducing fruit field heat can maintain fruit quality, slow down scale leaf withering, and increase shelf life of fruit.

The field management of red dragon fruit is comprehensive, including weed control, water supply pipeline maintenance, pest control, thinning flowers, picking petals, bagging and harvesting. Although a small negligence will not cause immediate harm, it will cause serious losses to a certain extent. For example, stem ulcer disease is only a small yellow spot on the branch at the initial stage, but if it is not paid attention to, it will cause fruit damage. When the disease is serious, not only can it not be controlled, but even the abandoned garden needs to be renewed. Therefore, the implementation of field management and garden cleaning work is the only way to maintain the health of red dragon fruit plants.