Red Beech Tree Propagation and Cultivation Management

Key point: The red beech tree (Zelkovaschneideriana), also known as large-leaf beech, blood beech, or chicken oil tree, is a plant in the elm family, genus Zelkova. Red beech is a precious hard-broadleaf timber species in China. Its wood is hard and elastic, with little expansion and shrinkage, not prone to warping or cracking, with an attractive and glossy grain, fine structure, and yellow-brown or light red color. Strong pressure resistance and water moisture resistance

The red beech tree (Zelkovaschneideriana), also known as large-leaf beech, blood beech, or chicken oil tree, is a plant in the elm family, genus Zelkova. Red beech is a precious hard-broadleaf timber species in China. Its wood is hard and elastic, with little expansion and shrinkage, not prone to warping or cracking, with an attractive and glossy grain, fine structure, and yellow-brown or light red color. Strong pressure resistance, water and moisture resistance, and decay resistance, used as material for buildings, bridges, vehicles, and high-grade furniture; Its bark fibers are strong and tough, making it suitable for raw materials such as rayon ropes.

In addition, the red beech tree's crown is inverted conical, making it highly wind-resistant and dust-resistant, providing good wind protection and air purification effects, making it suitable for both urban and rural areasGreeningand excellent tree species for farmland shelterbelts. Due to the high economic value of the red beech, especially its timber value, its resources have become increasingly scarce due to excessive harvesting in recent years. It is now listed as a national second-class key protected plant. Therefore, studying the seedling cultivation and cultivation management techniques of red beech trees is of great significance for protecting this precious plant resource.

1. Biological characteristics of the red beech tree

The red beech tree is a deciduous tree; its young bark is bluish-purple and does not crack, while the old bark peels off in thin sheets. Simple leaves are alternate, oval-ovate to narrowly ovate, pinnate veins, single serrations along the leaf margin, and covered underside with pale gray soft hairs. Flowers are unisexual, sparsely mixed, and monoecious. Small nuts, about 4 mm in diameter, slanted at the top, wrinkled skin, flowering in April, fruit ripening from October to November. Red beech trees are distributed south of the Huai River and Qinling Mountains, south to Guangdong and Guangxi, west to Guizhou and southeastern Yunnan, with more abundant populations in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, and Hunan, vertically distributed at altitudes of 800 meters. Red beech is a medium-light-loving species, prefers warm climates and moist, fertile soils, and can grow on slightly acidic, neutral, calcareous, and lightly saline-alkali soils. It does not grow well in dry, barren mountainous areas. Deep-rooted, lateral roots expand, strong wind resistance, large crown, high leaf litter, and effective soil improvement. Red beech trees grow a bit slowly in the early stages, but after 6–7 years, they grow faster, and their growth ability lasts for seventy to eighty years without decline. Flowering and fruiting take 10–15 years, peak fruiting period is 20–80 years, and the fruiting period shows a clear variation between different years. Long lifespan, even a century-old tree can bear fruit normally.

2. Seedling Cultivation Methods for Red Beech Trees

The main method for propagating red beech trees is seed seedlings. According to recent research by the Yongzhou Forestry Institute in Hunan, the rooting rate of seedlings propagated by nutrient bag cuttings is also relatively high, reaching 70%, making it suitable for production.

(1) Sowing and Seedling

1. Seed Collection and Storage: Red beech seed collection should be carried out in the year of fruiting. Practice has shown that the germination rate of long-year seeds can reach 50–70%, while that of less-year seeds is only 20–30%. The best time to collect seeds is mid to late October, when the fruit changes from green to yellow-brown. The method is to cut fruit branches or collect them after natural ripening, remove impurities, and dry in the shade. After harvesting, sow immediately or store in mixed sand, or store in a cool, ventilated place and sow the following spring.

2. Site selection and sowing: When sowing, choose deep, fertile sandy loam or light loam, plow deeply and finely, and apply sufficient base fertilizer. Spring sowing should be between 'Rain Water' and 'Awakening of Insects.' Before sowing, dry seeds should be soaked for 2–3 days to remove shriveled grains and treated at low temperatures of 5–10°C for about two weeks to promote germination. Sowing can be done in strips, with row spacing of 20 cm, using 6–10 kg of seed per mu, covering with about 0.5 cm of soil, and covering with straw after sowing to keep warm.

3. Seedling management: Seedling care includes timely weeding and thinning, loosening soil and weeding, irrigation and fertilization, and paying attention to controlling bud borers and bagworm moths. When seedlings reach about 10 centimeters, top-forked branches often appear and should be pruned promptly. If sowing is timely and managed properly, seedlings can reach 50–80 cm in height in the current year and can be planted for afforestation the following spring. For seedlings used in "all sides" and urban greening, transplant them the following spring to cultivate large seedlings that are 3 to 4 years old.

(2) Cuttings and seedling propagation

1. Substrate preparation: The cutting substrate is a mixture of sand and yellow-core soil at a ratio of 1:4. The yellow-core soil is red soil developed from limestone with a pH value of 4–6. After crushing and sieving, the substrate is prepared and placed into nutrient bags sized 8×10 centimeters.

2. Cutting method: Spring cuttings should be planted in March, and autumn cuttings in September. Select vigorous upright branches, preferably young shoots with long internodes and few branches. Take cuttings about three nodes long, make a lower cut at each node, and leave half a leaf at the top. After cuttings, divide 20 branches into bundles and soak the lower 2 cm of the cuttings in 2 cm of No. 6 ABT rooting powder at a concentration of 200–300 mg/L for 5 hours, then insert into nutrient bags, inserting about one-third of the cutting's length.

3. Cutting management. Management of red beech cutting seedlings is the same as conventional cuttings: promptly cover with plastic film for insulation after cuttings, use shade nets for shade, water regularly, and spray 0.125% carbendazim solution to prevent disease. Check the rooting condition every half month.

3. Cultivation methods for red beech trees

(1) Afforestation site selection: Afforestation sites for red beech trees should be thick, moist, acidic, and neutral soils. For large-scale mountain afforestation, select foothills, valleys, or other relatively gentle terrain; If the soil is poor for urban greening, guest soil can be used for planting.

(2) Land preparation and afforestation

1. Land preparation: When creating a general timber forest, use one-year-old seedlings with tree pits sized 50×50×60 cm; For large urban greening seedlings, the size of the tree holes is 80×80×100 cm, and apply 10–30 kg of organic fertilizer to the holes.

2. Density: Beech timber forests can be made into pure or mixed forests. The initial planting density is 2×2 meters or 2×3 meters. Appropriate planting density can suppress lateral branch growth, favoring tall growth to cultivate straight trunks. After thinning, the density can reach 4×4 meters or 4×3 meters, allowing for the cultivation of large-diameter timber. The planting density of street trees in urban greenery is usually 3×4 meters or 4×4 meters.

3. Planting: The best planting time is spring, around the 'Beginning of Spring' (Beginning of Spring). When creating mixed forests, intercropping is recommended to facilitate the formation of pure forests after thinning. After planting, water thoroughly and seal the soil to retain moisture. The big seedlings of urban greenery must be held up to prevent swaying.

4. Key points for managing red beech trees

The tending and management, loosening, weeding, and thinning of red beech trees are the same as for general tree species. Management should pay attention to the following points:

1. Pruning and trunk cultivation: Red beech trees have axial branching with strong branching ability, curved tips, and frequent shoots at the top. Every spring, 3–5 competing branches sprout from lateral buds at the tips. The trunk is not very straight-stem, and the main trunk of young trees is relatively soft, often drooping, and prone to wind tilt. In natural growth, it often forms a large canopy with weak dryness. When seedlings, place a bamboo pole next to the trunk and tie the main trunk to prevent bending. Appropriately trim side branches to form a straight main trunk. When the branches reach over 5 meters tall and have a trunk diameter of 5–6 centimeters, remove the bamboo poles and retain the canopy.

2. Thickening of vertical injuries: The bark is smooth without vertical cracks, and young trees grow slowly in diameter. To promote the growth of young trunks, when the trunk diameter is 4–5 cm, during the budding of red beech trees each spring, use a sharp knife to make several longitudinal cuts on the living bark, reaching deep into the wood, which is beneficial for thick trunk growth. Dissection of young Red Beech tree trunks revealed that the outer surface of the phloem contains several continuous and partially spaced stone cells, forming a ring of 4–5 or 7–8 layers of thick-walled cells, hindering the meristization of the cambium and thus affecting the thickening of the trunk diameter. Through vertical injury, the thick-walled cell ring is broken, internal pressure is weakened, and the trunk is thickened and grows more conducively.

3. Pest and disease control: Red beech trees are not affected by many pests or diseases, but the most common is the bagworm moth, which eats leaves. The damage is most severe from July to September, so spray with a 0.1% solution of 90% trichlorfon and 0.1%. Insect sacs can also be manually trimmed in winter or early spring.

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