Prune loquat trees
Pruning young loquat trees (1-3 years) is generally not pruned during the plastic period. Because loquat bears flower buds with terminal buds, it should be branched more, crown expanded and fruiting branches increased. In addition to keeping the main branch growing at a predetermined angle, all other branches should be twisted and circumcised when the new branches stop growing in July, and the auxiliary branches from the central trunk should be leveled to promote flower bud differentiation. Excessive dense branches should be properly thinned. Adult trees are mainly pruned twice in spring and summer. Spring pruning combined with fruit thinning is carried out in February-March. The weak branches, dense branches and long branches are mainly thinned, and some old branches are shortened and updated to increase the occurrence of spring shoots and overcome the fruits of big and small years. Summer pruning is carried out after fruit picking, mainly to delete dense branches, thin branches and pest branches, and to shorten leafy fruiting branches to promote summer shoots, sparse leafless fruit piles or fruiting branches, and update some old fruiting branches. Plants that are too high should bow their heads and be happy, and retract the central trunk to improve the light. Take back some branches that move outward, so that the distance between rows is 80- 100 cm, which is beneficial to ventilation, light transmission and pedestrian traffic, and there is not much cross between plants. In tropical areas such as South China, loquat is easy to get sunburned by strong light. When pruning, more branches can be kept, and trees can be properly crossed to make the crown moderately shaded, which can prevent and reduce the occurrence of sunburn. The shaping of loquat branches has obvious regularity, with strong growth potential of terminal buds and weak growth potential of axillary buds. During germination, the terminal bud and several axillary buds nearby germinate to produce branches, while all the axillary buds at the lower part become hidden buds, and the terminal bud becomes a central branch and grows upward, and the branches produced by axillary buds become lateral branches, extending around. Therefore, loquat is obviously dry and the tree body is obviously layered. In order to take advantage of this feature, loquat is often shaped with a small crown and a double cup-shaped trunk. When planting seedlings, it is not advisable to cut short stems, protect terminal buds, and choose taller seedlings, generally 30-40 cm. The hierarchical shape of the small crown trunk evolved from the hierarchical shape of the trunk, which has high yield and heavy load, and is suitable for loquat close planting gardens. The row spacing is 3m×2m (per mu11plant). The trunk is 30-40 cm high. The four main branches of the first floor form an included angle of 70 degrees with the central trunk, the three main branches of the second floor form an included angle of 60 degrees with the central trunk, and the two main branches of the third floor form an included angle of 45 degrees with the central trunk. * * * Leave three layers with a spacing of 50-80 cm, and finalize the design in 3-4 years. The height of the tree after plastic surgery is about 2.5 meters, and it should fall down with the increase of tree age. The shaping method is as follows: select 30cm-40cm seedlings for field planting, do not prune after field planting, let the terminal buds grow naturally, select four axillary buds as the first layer main branches, and extend them in four directions to make them form an included angle of 70 degrees with the central trunk (which can be fixed with bamboo poles), and twist and deform the other branches when the branches stop growing in the first half of July. If the second lateral branch from the central trunk is less than 40cm away from the first layer, it will twist at the tip length of 30cm; If the branch is more than 40cm away from the first floor, it will be selected as the main branch of the second floor, with an angle of 50-60 degrees with the central trunk, and the main branches of the third and fourth floors will be selected in the same way (with an angle of 30-45 degrees with the center). When leaving the fourth layer of main branches, cut off the central trunk, let other branches grow except the terminal buds of the main branches, and twist the back branches of other side branches into rings in mid-July to promote flowering. The double-layer cup is characterized by short tree shape, convenient operation, good ventilation and light transmission, good fruit quality, few main branches and many fruiting branches, which is suitable for dwarfing and close planting, and the suitable density is 3m×1.5m. The shaping method is as follows: after planting, three branches with the first round of lateral branches (30-60 cm from the ground) are selected as the first layer of main branches for cultivation, and the other two branches are selected. At the distance of 80- 100 cm from the first main branch, three main branches evenly distributed and staggered from the lower main branch are selected as the second main branch, and the second main branch is equipped with auxiliary main branches, and the side branches between the two main branches are used as auxiliary branches. In July, it was twisted and circumcised to promote flowering. When the crown is enlarged and the lower light is affected, the auxiliary branches will be raised year by year.