Cultivation techniques of figs

Figs are also known as milk berries. The fruit is soft and sweet, with special flavor, rich in fructose and glucose easily absorbed by the human body, high content of carotene and vitamin C, and contains a variety of digestive enzymes, which can help digestion, so it is a good health fruit. At the same time, traditional Chinese medicine believes that figs are sweet and flat in fruit, with appetizers, moistening intestines, anti-inflammation, detoxification, lactation, dysentery and treatment of hemorrhoids and other effects. Folk folk prescriptions are widely used, often with branches, leaves, roots and fruits as medicine. In recent years, through experiments on mice, figs also have a certain anticancer effect. Ripe figs are not resistant to storage and transportation, but can be processed into candied fruit, jam, dried fruit and canned syrup.

Figs have the advantages of easy reproduction, simple management, early fruit and few diseases and insect pests, smooth branches and leaves, strong adsorption and resistance to toxic gases such as sulfur dioxide, can eliminate pollution, purify the air, and root systems are resistant to heavy salt and alkali (generally up to 0.3%-0.4%). Therefore, behind the house, around the factories and mines, especially in the vast coastal beach areas, the development of fig production is very promising.

Main species and varieties

Figs belong to the genus Ficus of Moraceae, and only figs are cultivated as fruit trees. According to whether its normal fruiting needs pollination and the type of flowers, it can be divided into 4 groups or varieties. Most of the cultivated varieties belong to the common fig group, and there are only female flowers in the cryptocephalous inflorescence, which can bear unisexual fruit without pollination. According to the harvest time, it can be divided into three types: autumn fruit type, summer fruit type and summer-autumn fruit type.

At present, the varieties planted in China are basically quoted from Europe, America and Japan, and some of their original names have been lost and have been given another synonym. There are many varieties cultivated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, such as Blanrek, Brown Turkey, California Black, Penglai Persimmon, Ma Yi Tao Fen, Albania 1, Xinyang 88 and Lukang 1 and so on. The temperature in winter in North China is low, and figs are easy to freeze, so we should pay attention to the adaptability of varieties when introducing.

Growth and fruiting habits

Figs are subtropical deciduous shrubs or small trees. Long-lived figs can also grow into big trees under suitable conditions. Fig is well developed, drought-resistant and salt-tolerant, aerobic stain taboo. The branches grow fast and have few branches, and only a few buds at the end of the branches extend upward and outward every year. Except for the basal nodes, 2-3 buds can be formed in the axils of each leaf, one of which is a round flower bud. After entering the fruiting stage, except for the growing branches, almost all the new shoots in the crown can become fruiting branches. Therefore, the fruit can begin in 2-3 years after planting, and the full fruit period can be entered in 7-10 years.

Flower buds differentiate and develop further and become a unique inflorescence receptacle fruit. Inflorescence receptacle fruit fleshy saccate, with a small hole at the top, covered by surrounding scales. There are thousands of florets arranged on the inner wall of the inflorescence receptacle, forming a hidden inflorescence, so the appearance can only see the fruit but not the flower. Florets can bear unisexual fruit without pollination. The edible part is actually formed by the common hypertrophy of the inflorescence receptacle and most of the small fruits wrapped by the inflorescence receptacle.

The fruit development period is 50-60 days. The fruit in the middle and lower part of the new shoot matures in the autumn of the same year in the Yangtze River basin, which is called autumn fruit. Some of the late-developed fruits on the new shoots are less than mature, and they wrinkle and fall off when they are cold. The flower buds on the first nodes of new shoots differentiate at the end of autumn and are covered with scales, which can survive the winter safely in warm winter areas, and then continue to differentiate and develop into summer fruits after the next spring. Normally ripe summer fruits are generally of better quality. The varieties belong to different types according to the formation ability of summer fruit and autumn fruit.

Characteristics of cultivation techniques

1. Reproduction and planting. Fig branches are easy to take root and tillers are easy to occur. Cutting, striping and ramet can be used when propagating seedlings. In production, a large number of seedlings are propagated by cutting method, and the survival rate is very high. The application of hardwood cuttage in the Yangtze River basin was carried out in the middle and late March. All branches with short internodes and 1 cm ~ 1.5 cm thick branches can be used as cuttings with 2-3 buds per cuttage. Specific operation techniques can be referred to grapes. Continuous cropping is avoided in the cutting ground to avoid the spread of nematodes. If the plastic greenhouse is used to raise seedlings in nutrition bags in winter, the seedlings can be formed earlier.

When building a garden, suitable varieties should be selected according to different requirements and site conditions. For example, yellow varieties should be selected for canning processing, cold-resistant varieties should be selected in places with low temperature in winter (minus 15 degrees right), salt-resistant varieties should be selected in tidal flat, and large fruit varieties should be selected with fresh fruit in the market. Continuous cropping is not allowed in the garden.

The planting distance is generally 3 ~ 4 meters, and the tree crown is large in areas with good soil quality or warm climate, which can expand the row spacing to 5 ~ 7 meters. Planting time can be planted in autumn or spring in the Yangtze River basin. Autumn planting should be earlier, and spring planting should be in mid-and late March. The coastal tidal flat should be planted in autumn and in Huaibei in spring.

2. plastic surgery, pruning and fertilizer and water management. In general, the branches in the fig crown are not dense, which is suitable for cultivating a layered tree with a central trunk or a naturally happy shape of multiple main branches. it can also branch directly from the ground to form a tufted shrubby crown. During plastic surgery, the seedlings should be dried at a height of 40 cm ~ 50 cm, and then the whole tree will retain 4 or 6 main branches, with or without the central trunk. There is a certain distance between the main branches, and the main branches are cut to 40 cm ~ 60 cm every year, and then 2 or 3 secondary main branches are arranged at appropriate intervals to enlarge the fruiting area.

After the completion of the tree shape, only useless long branches, dense branches, drooping branches and dry and withered branches should be removed every year, and strong branches should be retained as much as possible to bear fruit. For the varieties mainly harvested in autumn, because the fruiting parts are mostly in the middle and lower part of the new shoots of the same year, the branches can be moderately cut short. The flower buds of summer fruit varieties are often born at the top of branches, so it is not appropriate to cut short robust branches in winter, so as not to affect the yield. For the fig trees with few branches or fruit parts moving out year by year, the fig trees can be properly truncated in winter to promote new branches. Part of the branches can be clipped to leave 2 or 3 leaf buds at the base.