Mr. Zhu: Hello, Dr. Nong. I'm wondering what pesticides should be applied before cherry blossoms bloom and how to manage the process properly.
Dr. Nong: Hello, Mr. Zhu! Thank you for your question. Before the cherries start to ripen, the main focus is on managing the flowers and fruits effectively. This includes pollination, fruit thinning, and protecting the developing fruits.
Cherries have a low self-pollination rate, so it's important to ensure good pollination. In addition to planting pollination trees when setting up the orchard, you can also use artificial pollination or encourage pollinating insects like bees. To improve the fruit set, you can spray a solution of 0.3% urea combined with 0.3% borax, or 0.5% potassium dihydrogen phosphate every 10 days.
Another key step is bud thinning. This involves removing weak or stunted buds between flowers to improve nutrient supply for the remaining buds. Bud thinning helps increase the size of individual fruits. It’s typically done from late March to late April, where each bouquet-like short fruit branch should have about 2-3 buds left.
After bud thinning comes fruit thinning, which further improves fruit quality. Usually, this is done in mid-May after the physiological fruit drop has ended. Each short fruit branch should be left with 3 to 4 fruits. Thinning helps reduce the load on the tree, promotes fruit enlargement, and increases sugar content.
When thinning, it's important to remove small, undersized, or poorly colored fruits that are drooping. Instead, keep the horizontal and upward-facing fruits. To help with color development, you can remove some leaves that cover the fruits and use reflective silver plastic films under the canopy to enhance light reflection.
To prevent fruit cracking, especially during rainy periods, it's recommended to install rainproof tents once the fruit starts coloring, usually around early June. This has proven very effective.
Additionally, as the fruits mature, they often attract birds. To protect your crop, it's common to use bird nets around the trees.
Let me know if you need more details on any of these steps!
Frozen Mackerel Flaps,Flap Mackerel,Frozen Mackerel Flap Fillet,Pacific Mackerel Flap
Zhoushan City Shuangying Aquatic Products Co., Ltd.  , https://www.shuangying-aquatic.com