A Study on the Cultivation of Opuntia ficus-indica
- Received Date: 2004-03-11
Abstract: The cultivation experiments of red-fruit and yellow-fruit types of Opuntia ficus-indica were conducted with cuttage of the joints.Model Ⅰ(2 parallel rows on one bed,row spacing 30 cm,spacing in the rows 30 cm)and model Ⅱ(3 rows on one bed shaped the letter "X",2 outside parallel rows and row spacing 40 cm)were fited to the culture of seedling joints.Mode I was also suitable for the culture of joints used as vegetable, forage and cochineal insects'food, and model Ⅲ(1 row in one bed, spacing in the row 60 cm,and bed spacing 100 cm) for fruits culture. A mature joint only inferior to the top position of plant was the best to be used as cuttings.There was no evident differences for yellow-fruit type to be cultivated on either sandy or clay soil, but obvious for red-fruit type. In spite of its inferior to yellow-fruit type on the clay soil,the quantity and weight of new joints of red-fruit type were 1.19 and 1.54 times that of yellow-fruit type on the sandy soil, and 2.07 and 2.25 times that of on the clay soil respectively.