Cultivation techniques of Red Mulberry

Red mulberry, also known as iron amaranth, blood sorrow, mussel rosary, leaf hidden beads, etc., is the aboveground part of Euphorbiaceae plant red mulberry. As an excellent tree species of tropical garden greening, it is often cultivated in courtyards, hedges in parks and foliage shrubs in the south. It can be decorated in bushes, and potted plants are used as indoor ornamental plants in the Yangtze River valley. Let's take a look at the cultivation techniques of red mulberry.

Growth habits of red mulberry

Red mulberry is a typical tropical tree species, which likes high temperature and humidity, has low cold resistance and is not resistant to frost. When the air temperature was below 10 ℃, the leaves had mild cold injury, and when the long-term low temperature of 6-8 ℃, the plant was seriously damaged. In China, only Hainan, Taiwan and the southernmost tip of the mainland can be cultivated in the open field, and the rest are only suitable for pot cultivation, overwintering in greenhouse or indoor, at a room temperature of not less than 12 ℃. Like light, not resistant to shade, not suitable for long-term indoor cultivation. There are high requirements for soil water and fertilizer conditions, such as loose, well-drained soil, dense branches and leaves, full crown, poor growth of dry and barren soil. Potted plant should use pond mud or forest soil, apply calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer mixed with rotten cooked cake fertilizer as base fertilizer, spray dilute nitrogen fertilizer and water according to the growth of leaves, stop fertilization after autumn, and the basin soil is often kept moist.

Propagation methods of red mulberry

The heat of red mulberry is low in most parts of our country, so it is difficult to form seeds after flowering, so cutting method is often used to raise seedlings. From late March to late April, 1-year-old healthy branches were cut into a section of about 10 cm as cuttings, soaked in water for 1-2 hours after cutting, and tightly inserted into the wet sand bed wind. No shade, keep moist, about 20 days can send roots and leaves, about one and a half months, can be transplanted to nursery cultivation. When the seedling height is about 10 cm, remove the terminal bud to promote the early germination into a cluster crown shape, cover the film in winter, and the next spring can come out of the nursery or plant in the open field, or in autumn or implanted in a large container, and overwinter in the greenhouse.

Cultivation techniques of Red Mulberry

1. Land selection and preparation: red mulberry does not have strict requirements on soil, but it grows well in alkaline soil and has a certain ability of drought resistance, but it grows poorly in fields with poor drainage. Plots with flat terrain, convenient drainage and irrigation and few weeds should be selected to make flat beds. The seeds of red mulberry are small, so the soil preparation must be fine, so that the ground is flat and the soil is fine, so as to facilitate seedling emergence.

2. Apply sufficient basic fertilizer: red mulberry likes fertilizer. 1500 kg of feces and urine of acquaintances should be applied per mu before soil preparation, and then ridges or beds should be made. The sowing rate varies with the sowing date. The earlier the sowing time is, the more seeds are used. The sowing rate in early spring is 45.5kg / mu, and the sowing method can be sowed or sowed. The soil cover is 0.5 cm after sowing.

3. Topdressing and watering: seedlings emerge late when sowing in early spring, which takes 7-12 days to emerge. When the seedlings grow to 2 true leaves, the first topdressing can be carried out at the stage of 3 to 5 leaves, 10 kg of urea per mu, the second topdressing after 12 days, the third after the first harvest, and once after each harvest. Each topdressing is mainly based on nitrogen thin liquid fertilizer, if the application of available nitrogen fertilizer, can be combined with watering. Spring sowing should be watered less.

4. Intermediate ploughing and pruning: the seedlings of red mulberry should be ploughed and weeded in time during the growth period, so as not to affect the growth of red mulberry seedlings. Red mulberry should be pruned many times, that is, when the main branch is harvested, it can leave 2-3 nodes at the base of the main branch to promote the germination of lateral branches so as to increase the yield.

5. Timely harvest: red mulberry is a leafy vegetable that is sown and harvested in batches. The first harvest was mostly combined with inter-seedling. Generally, 40-45 days after sowing, when the seedling is 10-12 cm high and has 5-6 leaves, it will be harvested in ridges one after another. In order to increase the yield in the later stage and topdressing after harvest, it is necessary to grasp the principle of large harvest and small harvest and uniform seedling retention. Red mulberry mainly feeds on its tender leaves, so it should be harvested in time, otherwise the fiber will increase and the quality will decrease, and the yield per mu can reach 1000-1500 kg.

6. pest control: red mulberry has strong disease resistance, and the main disease is white rust, which can be controlled by strychnine or Dysenmeng zinc. Insect pests are aphids, which can be treated with imidacloprid or aphid spray.