Shaping and pruning techniques of peach trees under the condition of wide row and close planting

Shaping and pruning techniques of peach trees under the condition of wide row and close planting

First, the distance between trees and rows in Taoyuan

The peach tree has medium to small body, early fruiting period and high yield, but it is very easy to senescence. If the plant spacing is not suitable and the shaping and pruning is not scientific, then the orchard will age in less than 10 years, and the yield and quality will decrease obviously.

In the design of peach orchard, the author suggests that 83 trees per mu should be planted according to row spacing of 4 meters, plant spacing of 2 meters, and the density of barren mountain can be slightly higher. Fruit trees with wide row spacing, narrow plant spacing, sufficient light, high fruit yield and high quality are conducive to mechanized operation, and are also convenient for field operations such as pesticide spraying, fruit thinning and harvest (see figure 1). Green manure crops such as clover and Astragalus membranaceus can be intercropped between rows.

Fig. 1 peach orchard with wide rows and close planting

Second, the peach tree adopts the natural happy shape of two main branches.

1. Cultivation of two main branches

In order to make rational use of the space, each peach tree should cultivate two large main branches. the pruning method is as follows: after the seedlings are planted at a distance of 2 meters × 4 meters in spring, they are cut short and dry at about 60 centimeters above the ground. however, a good full bud is needed to be used as a plastic band about 20 cm under the cut. After the young tree buds germinated, all the buds below the plastic band were wiped out, and then two new shoots with scattered growth, balanced growth and extending left and right to the rows were selected to form the main branches; the two main branches should be peeled in time to promote their secondary shoots and adjust the orientation of the two main branches. the opening angle of the two main branches can be used to pull the branch method, and the opening angle is 40 °to 45 °(see figure 2).

Fig. 2 opening angle by branch pulling method

two。 Pruning of two main branches and cultivation of lateral branches

When pruning in winter, the extended branch at the end of the two main branches is shortened, and one side of the branch is selected in the lower secondary shoot, and the cutting length is slightly shorter than that of the main branch. The branches of the other branches that are too strong should be cut off, and the thinner branches should be kept short. In the second summer, the growth potential of the elongated branches of the main branches and lateral branches should be maintained, and the second side branches should be arranged at the same time, and the rest of the branches can be coring many times to control the growth and promote the formation of fruiting branches.

After 3 years of shaping and pruning, the natural happy crown of the two main branches was basically completed. each peach tree had two main branches extending between rows, and there were 3-4 lateral branches on each main branch, and the upper, lower, left and right interlaced growth (see figure 3).

Fig. 3 Natural happy shape of two main branches

3. Cultivation of fruiting branches of peach trees.

The fruit of young peach trees is generally on a single fruiting branch, and the fruiting branches of adult peach trees are combined together to form a fruiting branch group, which is distributed around the main and lateral branches.

1. Configuration of the result branch group

Results the branch group grows on the main branch and lateral branch, and the configuration should be reasonable. Usually, the large fruiting branch group can be arranged in the lower part of the main branch, the medium fruiting branch group can be arranged in the middle part of the main branch and the lateral branch, and there are more small fruiting branch groups in the upper part of the main branch and lateral branches.

two。 Culture of fruiting branch group

① is short. When cultivating fruiting branches, many fruit trees first grow the branches to form flower buds and then cut them back, while peach trees mainly use short cuts. When cutting short, the length of the branches will have different effects. From the point of view of the long fruit branches, there are three situations: first, the long cutting, such as cutting 30cm to 40cm, generally can bear 2 to 3 fruits, and the branches are many and weak (generally not used, so as to avoid the rapid weakening of the fruiting branches). The second is medium cutting, such as cutting 20cm to 30cm, it can generally bear 1 or 2 fruits, and the shoot can maintain the ability to continue to grow and bear fruit (it can achieve both fruiting and growing, which is the main means of cultivating fruiting branches); the third is heavy and short cutting, such as cutting to the base and leaving 2-3 buds, not blooming and fruiting, but can grow 2-3 long-fruiting branches, and bear fruit in the following year (used when expanding or renewing the fruiting branch group).

② compression pruning. In order to keep the fruiting branch group close to the backbone branch, the method of compression pruning must be used in pruning, the extended branch far from the backbone branch must be cut off, the basal branch should be retained, and the lower branch should be cut short as a reserve branch. For the short length of all kinds of fruiting branches, the initial fruit period can be longer to promote the expansion of the fruiting branch group, and the full fruiting period should be shorter to control the excessive growth of the fruiting branch group.

The main task of pruning is to adjust the contradiction between growth and fruit. In the fruiting branch group, in the early fruiting stage, the vigorous growth of all kinds of branches should be controlled by early fruiting; in the full fruiting period, the growth is relatively moderate, the fruit setting rate is high, and the growth and fruiting amount of branches should be maintained to achieve the balance between growth and fruiting; entering the aging period, it is necessary to prolong the life of fruiting branches as long as possible.

IV. Renewal and pruning of peach trees

After the peach tree enters the aging period, because there are few hidden buds on the old branches, if the old branches are cut off by big regeneration, they often fail to sprout new branches and die. Therefore, the focus of peach tree renewal is to update the fruiting branch group.

1. Fruit branch group of retraction and thinning senescence

Peach trees enter the aging period, the long fruit branches on the fruiting branches become medium fruit branches, the medium fruit branches become short fruit branches, the short fruit branches become bouquet branches, and then the branchlets die. In order to restore the tree potential, the fruiting branches of senescence should be retracted and thinned, the bouquet-like fruit branches should be thinned, and a large number of flowers and fruits should be thinned during flowering, so that the bouquet-like fruit branches should be transformed into short fruit branches, and the short fruit branches should be transformed into growing fruit branches to complete the renewal of fruit branches.

two。 Make full use of the growing branches

Peach trees will produce fruit pressure phenomenon after a large number of fruit, that is, the front end of the branch bends downward, weakens the top advantage, and causes the arch back (that is, the back of the branch uplift), so that the top advantage is transferred to the back, and it is easy to produce overgrown branches in the middle. The overgrown branches should be fully utilized to achieve the effect of crown renewal, control and transformation.

5. High grafting and replacement of peach trees

Peach trees are early and high-yielding fruit trees, which can bear fruit after planting for 2 to 3 years, and then have a high yield period of about 10 years, and then enter the senescence period. however, the full fruit period can be properly prolonged by strengthening soil and water and fertilizer management, prevention and control of diseases and insect pests, reasonable pruning and other measures. Peach backbone branches do not have ideal latent buds, large regeneration and pruning can not grow good new branches, but can be used to renew branches and develop improved varieties.

1. Grafting

The period of grafting is in the period of bud germination in spring. The scions were collected half a month before grafting and stored in a refrigerator of 1: 3 ℃. After the bud germination of the rootstock, more than a dozen joints were selected for grafting on each main branch and lateral branch, and each joint was grafted with 2 scions. After grafting, it is first bound with plastic strips, and then covered with plastic pockets to maintain the humidity of the scion and wound. When the scion bud germinates about half a month after grafting, a small cut in the plastic pocket should be cut for ventilation, and the plastic pocket should be removed when the scion leaves are unfolded.

two。 Management after grafting

Strengthen the management, wipe out the sprouting of rootstocks in time, promote the growth of scions, and blossom and bear fruit in the second year after grafting.