How to care for wintersweet flowers
Today's experience sharing: how to care for wintersweet flowers and detailed techniques for maintaining wintersweet flowers. Next, let me answer your questions in detail.
Wintersweet flowers prefer warm climates, are relatively cold and drought resistant, slightly shade tolerant; they enjoy sunlight and dislike wetness. It is best to plant them in sandy loam soil with deep, loose, fertile layers and good drainage. They grow poorly in heavy clay and alkaline soils, so how should wintersweet flowers be cared for?
Propagation methods
Common propagation methods for wintersweet flowers include seed sowing, grafting, cutting, and division.
1. Seed propagation: Use seedlings for transplanting. Harvest the fruit from June to July, extract the seeds, and store them in wet sand for later use. Sow in March of the following year. Remove the waxy coating from the seeds by rubbing them with sand in water, then sow. Pay attention to weeding and fertilizing during the seedling stage, and transplant after two years.
2. Grafting propagation: Use seedlings or divided plants as rootstocks, with cut grafting and approach grafting being the best. From March to mid-April, select strong and long branches, remove the top, cut into 6-7cm long scions with 1-2 pairs of buds, and cut the rootstock 3-6cm from the ground for cut grafting, apply mud slurry to seal the scion and rootstock, and cultivate for three years to form a plant.
3. Cutting propagation: Use tender branches from summer, soak the cuttings in 1×10^-4α-naphthylacetic acid for 1 minute, and plant them in a shaded plastic film greenhouse, which is easier to root.
4. Division propagation: Dig up the suckers from the mother plant in February to March and plant them. Transplanting should be done with a spacing of about 1.3m between rows and plants, planting one seedling per hole. Each year in early spring and late fall, perform tillage, weeding, and topdressing once. Use mainly animal manure as fertilizer. To promote flowering, prune the branches and remove the top in March to April each year.
Cultivation methods
1. Tilling: After flowering, till the soil to a depth of 20-25cm, slightly shallower under the canopy to avoid damaging the roots.
2. Fertilizing: Apply base fertilizer after tilling in spring after flowering. Wintersweet flowers enjoy fertilizer but dislike heavy applications. You can dig annular or strip-shaped fertilizer trenches below the outer edge of the tree canopy, 20-30cm deep. Apply 3000-5000kg of high-quality, decomposed manure per mu for mature trees, and 1/3 to 1/2 of that amount for 1-2-year-old trees. Apply a topdressing in late June when the flower buds are differentiating. Scatter 20kg of compound fertilizer per mu below the outer edge of the tree canopy.
3. Watering: Wintersweet flowers are drought-resistant, but additional water should be supplied during dry seasons. Maintain suitable soil moisture in July when the flower buds are differentiating. During flowering, the soil should be slightly dry to reduce flower drop.
4. Shaping and pruning
① Shaping: Use a multi-trunk shaping method. After planting, select 3-4 strong branches evenly distributed around for the main trunks (if there are no branches, leave 4-5 plump buds on the ground and cut heavily), cut to retain 3-5 nodes, and use them as main trunk extension branches and lateral branches. Make sure the main branches do not overlap and promptly cut off the lower root suckers, suckers, weak branches, and dead branches.
② Bud removal: When the leaf buds of wintersweet flowers sprout to about 50cm, remove the dense, inward, and close-to-the-ground excess buds to reduce nutrient consumption. During the rainy season, promptly cut off the unnecessary branches, branches that disrupt the tree shape, and branches that block wind and light.
③ Pruning before flowering: After the leaves fall and before the flower buds swell, leave a pair of leaf buds on some long branches above the flower buds, cut off the upper part without flower buds, cut off the dead branches, disease-infested branches, very weak branches, dense, and vigorous non-flowering branches, and root suckers not used for renewal, to save nutrients. When pruning before flowering, be careful not to bump or touch carelessly to avoid knocking off the flower buds.
④ Post-blooming pruning: After the wintersweet flowers fade, it is advisable to prune promptly. The main tasks are to thin out the aging branches, dead branches, dense branches, and vigorous branches, and to cut back weak main branches or branch groups to achieve the goal of rejuvenating the branch and tree vigor. For overly tall, long, or strong main branches, you can cut back to a large, moderate, oblique branch to lead with a weak branch, controlling the height, length, and vigor of the branches to achieve balanced branch and tree vigor. Cut back one-year-old branches, leaving 30-40cm for the main trunk extension branches, and 10-20cm for other strong branches, or thin out weak branches, leaving a pair of buds or removing them. After thinning the weak branches, new branches can grow from the base. In addition, remove the残花 (do not leave seeds) after flowering to prevent nutrient consumption from fruiting, so that the branches can be thick and flowers abundant in the following year.
How to care for wintersweet flowers
Disease and pest control
Wintersweet flowers have few diseases and pests. Occasionally, borers may occur, and the affected branches, along with the pests, can be cut and burned during the dormant period.
Harvesting
Wintersweet fresh cut flowers are usually harvested when the buds first open and placed in a cool place. After harvesting, they can be stored at 0-2°C for 30-50 days. When cutting branches, the lower cut should be oblique at a 45-degree angle, the upper cut flat, and the cut surface smooth.
That's all for how to care for wintersweet flowers and detailed techniques for maintaining wintersweet flowers. I hope it can help you, and at the same time, I hope everyone will visit the Green Plant Enthusiast website for more green plant and flower experience and knowledge!