The most common varieties of plums, Hongyu plum / white plum / yellow meat plum, are introduced and the characteristics of Taian plum are introduced.

When it comes to Miaoli Tai 'an, you can't help but mention plums, bamboo shoots, ginger and hot springs! Today, Xiao Bian came to Yunyi Farm at an altitude of 800 meters to visit Big Brother Li Shiqing, who specializes in planting plums. The Li family started planting plums from Big Brother Li's grandfather. Big Brother Li has taken over Li Ziyuan from his father for six years. For the cultivation of plums, some different ideas from the older generation! The planting method of black bush is relatively simple, and the planting method of other varieties of plums is basically the same.

reduced use of pesticides

In 2013, he won the Miaoli Tai 'an Li Evaluation Special Prize. In Yunyi Farm, there are as many as five varieties of plums-White Jade Plum, Red Jade Plum, Yellow Meat Plum, Red Meat Plum and Tai' an Plum. When he took over the plum garden, Brother Li decided to reduce the amount of pesticide used and lengthen the spraying time, because children would eat plums directly in the orchard, hoping to grow more reassuring fruits!

Red Jade Plum and White Jade Plum

Brother Li said: "Most farmers grow red jade plums, which are often seen in the market for pickling plums. Few people are willing to grow white jade plums because they are very difficult to take care of, and the thin white jade plums are easy to bloom (crack fruit) when it rains!" White jade plum likes sunshine, sunshine sufficient place, can let white jade plum turn color completely, color is more beautiful! White jade plums are usually smaller, about the size of ten yuan coins, but here you can eat white jade plums as big as golf balls! Red jade plum compared to white jade plum, thicker skin, but also more sour, usually no one to eat as fresh fruit, almost all used for pickling.

... sweet, juicy yellow plums.

Yellow-fleshed plums are one of Taiwan's earliest plums, also known as water plums. Compared with the crispness and sweetness of white jade plums, the biggest characteristic of yellow-fleshed plums is that they must be softened before eating. The fruits are still green when they are just picked. They must be yellow in color, soft in fruit, and give off fragrance. Only when yellow-fleshed plums are best eaten! The flesh is sweet and juicy yellow plum, the skin is thin and slightly sour but not astringent, you can peel it and eat it even with the skin! But the skin has a lot of nutrition, not afraid of acid people also suggest that even the skin eat together!

Red meat plums that make people drool

Before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, red plum is the due date, orchard full of red plum, each has uniform fruit powder! There are two varieties of red plum, soft branch and hard branch, soft branch red plum is usually larger, meat quality is more delicate, but also automatic fruit selection! Hard-branch red plum yield is larger, but not easy to grow to a very large, but will not automatically select fruit! What is automatic selection? It turns out that on the soft branch plum tree, you will see some dried small red plum, in order to avoid too many porridge, plum tree will automatically select fruit! Hardy plum trees will not, after flowering, how much fruit is how much! I asked my brother curiously,"Is the soft branch better or the hard branch better?" The elder brother said: "It depends on the individual, hard branches is to rush the yield, unless the artificial thinning is very clean, otherwise it will not be big; soft branches although automatic fruit selection, but still rely on artificial thinning, this is like trying luck, because the automatic fruit selection situation is different every year, sometimes more and sometimes less, so in the artificial thinning, it is difficult to determine the amount, you have to rely on experience and a little luck!"

Taiwan's California Plum--Tai 'an Plum

In Brother Li's orchard, Tai 'an plum is the latest plum to start harvesting! It is commonly known as "stomping a foot"(please pronounce it in Taiwanese), which means super sour, and will stomp after eating! Here we have to help Taian plum rehabilitation pull, because the general fruit shop to see Taian plum, are harvested in advance, not fully ripe, so sour is not good to eat, some will be taken to pickle, but big brother said: "Just like eating California plum, you have to wait until all black to eat, when fully ripe, Taian plum will be sweeter than red plum!"

Farming depends on solar terms

Brother Li: "This year's June, plus a while ago has been raining, so white jade plum is not as delicious as in previous years!" The current solar term is very suitable for the growth of red plum, but this solar term comes too late, if there is such weather before the Dragon Boat Festival, it will be even better!" Plum is actually a temperate fruit, so in Taiwan, a variety of close to the mountains, when the weather is too hot, plum ripens quickly, it is not easy to grow to a very large! Big brother also mentioned that when the mango has been planted, fruit flies will come!