Cultivation and Management techniques of Olive Mountain

Olive, also known as green olive, white olive, green fruit, belongs to the olive family, native to southern China, rich in Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan and other provinces, is one of the tropical and subtropical famous fruits. Not only can be eaten raw, but also can be processed into a variety of cold fruit. Olive also has a variety of health effects, roots, fruits can be used in medicine, with wind, qi, cough, pain, bone disease and other functions.

Olive is an evergreen tree with long life span, long yield period, low demand for soil, drought tolerance and thin ridge tolerance, coarse growth and easy growth. It is one of the excellent fruit trees to transform low-yield forests, green mountains and barren mountains, adjust agricultural structure and increase farmers' income. Olive likes warmth and needs appropriate high temperature in the growing period to grow vigorously, and the result is good. The annual average temperature is above 20 ℃ and the area without severe frost damage in winter is more suitable for growth. Most areas of Guangdong are suitable for planting. The cultivation of olive in Gaopi in Dapu County has a long history. In 1992, the town party committee and government took the planting of olives as one of the leading projects to adjust the agricultural structure and increase agricultural income. up to now, the planting area of olives has reached more than 12000 mu. According to my practical experience in Gaopo Town Agricultural Station for many years, the key points of olive cultivation techniques are summarized as follows.

I. Garden construction

Mountainous areas should be selected before planting. Hillsides with red and yellow soil and alluvial land along rivers can be planted. The sandy soil with deep soil layer and fertile soil is more ideal, at the same time, there should be water around the mountain, and a reservoir can be built under certain conditions to ensure the supply of water resources in the garden. Then build terraces with a width of 1.5-2 meters, requiring high outside and low inside to protect soil and water loss; planting row spacing of 5-7 meters and plant spacing of 6-8 meters. Dig a deep hole, 0.8-1 m deep, 1 m long and 1 m wide. After digging, after a period of time to dry the soil, and then backfill base fertilizer, generally with straw, Reed and other crops straw or pig and cow manure 50-100 kg, garbage compost and so on. The top layer was added with 1.5 kg of superphosphate and 2 kg of cake fertilizer. The organic fertilizer should be evenly mixed with the soil, and then piled into a small mound about 30 centimeters high, which can not be planted until it is settled.

Second, planting at the right time

Olives are generally suitable to be planted from March to June, and the survival rate is the highest when spring shoots have not yet been extracted. Over the years, our town mainly used nutrition cups to cultivate rootstock seedlings, which began to sow in October-December, and could be planted when the seedlings reached more than 20 cm in April-June the following year. Nutrition cup seedlings must tear open the nutrition bag, because the nutrition bag is not perishable, do not tear open will affect the development of the root system. The olive root system is very fragile, so when planting, you should first dig a hole on the mound, then put the seedlings into the pit, cultivate more fertile fine soil around the root system, step on the root with your feet, and sprinkle it with fixed root water to prevent the root system from coming into contact with fresh animal feces, causing the new roots to rot. When planted in this way, the survival rate can generally reach more than 95%.

III. Timely grafting

Timely grafting of olives is one of the important measures to promote early bearing and high yield of olives. Generally, fruit trees with nutrition cup seedlings are grafted in the third year after planting, and those with three-year-old seedlings begin to be grafted in the second year after planting. Grafting should be carried out in the two seasons of "the Spring Equinox" and "Qingming Festival". The grafting method generally adopts double-bud cutting method or short-spike cutting method, which is helpful to improve the survival rate of grafting.

IV. Fertilizer and water management

Young trees should apply thin fertilizer frequently to promote shoot shooting, and in principle, one shoot should be fertilized once. Generally choose to apply fertilizer when the soil is fully moist after rain, mix with a small amount of farm manure and compound fertilizer and fill it in a small hole on the west side of the young tree. When fertilizing, you should be careful not to damage the root system and rotate the position. Fruit trees are usually fertilized 3-4 times a year. They are pre-flowering fertilizer (March-April), strong fruit fertilizer (July-September) and fruit picking fertilizer (November). The first two times were mainly quick-acting fertilizer to promote flower bud differentiation and fruit ripening, and the last "overwintering fertilizer" was applied after "the Beginning of Winter" combined with weeding in the clear garden, mainly farm manure and plant ash. Fertilization is generally applied under the dripping line or opening a circular ditch along the outer edge of the crown, and the type and quantity of fertilizer are suitable according to the tree.

5. Shaping and dwarfing pruning

When planting olives, cut off the trunk, retain the trunk height of 30-50 cm, and leave 3-4 buds in different positions and directions on the trunk to promote the spitting of 3-4 first-grade main branches. when the first-level main branch grows to about 50 cm, then take out the heart to promote the second-level main branch, and constantly remove too strong, too weak and too dense branches in the process of growth, the whole tree type is controlled at 4-5 layers, and the tree height is about 4-5 meters. Through the short truncation of long branches, thinning the inner bore branches, overlapping branches and disease and insect branches to ensure that the tree is a semi-round head dwarf crown, laying a good foundation for high yield.