Cultivation method of happy tree shape of Castanea mollissima

Chinese chestnut has low stem and low crown and multi-main branch happy tree shape, which is especially suitable for wide row and short dense planting in steep terrain such as mountains and hills. So, how to master the key points of plastic surgery? Recently, the reporter interviewed Tian Shoule, a researcher of Shandong Fruit Tree Research Institute.

After the seedlings were grafted in the same year, when the new shoots from the scion grew to 30-40 cm, the grafted seedlings directly planted were cut short at 30-40 cm from the ground, leaving 2-3 full buds under the cut to promote the sprouting of strong branches to facilitate shaping.

In the same year, the upright strong branches were selected from the germinated shoots, and the lower two sturdy oblique branches were selected as the first and second main branches, and the lowest main branches were selected as the first main branches, which were arranged upward in turn. When the trunk lengthens to 30-40 cm, coring is carried out. From the strong branches germinated in the second coring, two oblique branches were selected as the third and fourth main branches, and attention should be paid to the scattered distribution of the third and fourth main branches with the first and second main branches to avoid overlap. The trunk extension branches continue to grow upward and no longer pick the heart. If the number of main branches in the current year can not reach the reserved number, the trunk extension branches will be truncated in the second year, and the main branches will be selected from the new shoots that promote growth.

After the selected side branches are pulled in early spring, the main branches will sprout a large number of lateral branches. Select and match reasonable lateral branches from the robust branches of the main branch. The first lateral branch is 50-60 cm from the trunk, obtained by selecting natural sprouting branches or sprouting buds. For other sprouting lateral branches, one should be left every 20 to 30 centimeters, and the lateral branches with open base angle should be selected as far as possible, or the base angle should be enlarged by means of drawing branch and supporting angle, and the base angle of side branch is generally larger than that of main branch. Some of the vigorous growing lateral branches were coring and cultured directly into the fruiting branch group.

In the second year of winter cutting in the culture result branch group, the first to the third main branches were lightly truncated, and the first to the third main branches were truncated, and the fourth and fifth main branches were slightly or moderately truncated to cut off the first and third main branches of the same year. The first to the third main branches left 2-3 side branches, the first side branch was about 60 cm away from the second side branch, the second side branch was about 50 cm away from the third side branch, and all the other side branches were removed. The first and second lateral branches were selected from the fourth and fifth main branches, the distance between lateral branches was about 50 cm, and all the other lateral branches were thinned out. The selected lateral branches were pruned and cut lightly at the full buds of the elongated head to promote branching to form a fruiting branch group. For the formed fruiting branch group, 810 fruiting branches per square meter were retained, and some of the developed branches were re-truncated at the same time to cultivate the fruiting mother branches of the next year. After 3-5 years of shaping and pruning, the happy tree shape of low stem and dwarf crown and multi-main branches was basically formed.