The purpose of fruit tree pruning is to control nutrient loss and promote fruit enlargement and maturity. Orange trees are no exception. Reasonable pruning is a guarantee of good yields.

Orange trees begin to send out summer shoots from May to June. At this time, there is sufficient fertilizer and water, so the new shoots grow rapidly and compete with the fruits for fertilizer and water, leading to physiological fruit drop.

Summer pruning does not only refer to a certain point in time, but refers to summer pruning and pruning during the growing season.

The purpose of pruning at this time is to adjust the density of branches inside and outside the crown to achieve ventilation, light, fruit preservation, and maturity promotion.

The pruning methods are: topping, wiping buds, removing sprouts, and cutting tips. On the basis of ensuring that the fruit trees have sufficient nutritional foliage, the orange trees are restrained and pruned.

The pruning of summer shoots is divided into two periods:

The first period is the sapling stage. During this period, light pruning is mainly used, and the central extension branches or main and main branches are selected. For the extension branches of the side branches, the length of the pruning and the direction of the buds can be used to make the crown extend as far back as possible. However, in addition to thinning out the overly dense branch groups, in general, the inner branches and the middle and lower branches of the crown should be trimmed. reserve.

The second period is the production period. During this period, due to the large number of summer shoots sprouting, the contradiction in water and fertilizer supply is aggravated. If not solved in time, it will cause fruit drop and reduced production. Therefore, the excess summer shoots are determined to be removed.

Most summer shoot pruning involves manually erasing the top buds and cutting off fruitless branches to control tree vigor. When the summer shoots grow 3 to 5 centimeters, the pruning work should start in time, and the summer shoots should be wiped out from the base, once every 5 to 7 days, until the fruit completes the expansion period.

It is worth noting that when removing summer shoots, top dressing should be done at the same time to achieve the purpose of stabilizing, strengthening and enlarging the fruit. The summer shoots must have consumed a lot of nutrients in the early stage.

The functions of pruning:

1. Adjust the reasonable distribution of branches and leaves: that is, on the basis of shaping, adjust the density, distribution direction and leaf area coefficient of branches and leaves in each part of the crown so that The effective photosynthetic area of ??the tree crown reaches the maximum.

2. Regulate growth and fruiting: make the vegetative growth normal but not overly vigorous; produce flowers and fruit in an appropriate amount without weakening the tree vigor; at the same time, it can prevent premature aging of fruit trees and renew and rejuvenate them in time.

3. Adjust the composition ratio of branches:

Short branches have a short growth period, consume less and accumulate early, but have fewer leaves and low total photosynthesis; vegetative branches have a long growth period and consume A lot, but there will also be a lot of accumulation in the later period.