Autumn is a critical post-harvest management period for fruit trees like apples, pears, and citrus. The timeliness and quality of pruning, deep tillage and fertilization, and pest and disease control directly impact the trees' nutrient accumulation and fruit yield next year. During this period, multifunctional tractors become the "workhorse" for orchard management. Equipped with various implements, they efficiently complete various management tasks, helping fruit trees "recharge" before winter and build up energy for a bountiful harvest next year. This also reduces management costs and labor intensity for fruit farmers.
In an apple orchard in Luochuan County, Shaanxi Province, farmers are busy using tractors to manage the orchard after harvesting. A tractor equipped with a branch shredder slowly drives by, instantly shredding the pruned branches into approximately 5 cm pieces. Some of these pieces are spread under the tree trays to conserve moisture and suppress weed growth, while others are collected and composted as organic fertilizer. "In the past, clearing branches required hiring workers to cut and transport them, costing 200 yuan per mu (approximately 14 acres) in labor alone, and the waste was prone to pests and diseases. Now, using tractors to shred branches costs less than 50 yuan per mu (approximately 14 acres), and it also turns waste into valuable resources," said fruit farmer Zhang Jianjun. Besides pruning branches, tractors can also pull deep plows to plow the orchard soil, reaching a depth of 30-40 centimeters, effectively breaking up the soil's compacted layer and increasing soil permeability. When paired with an organic fertilizer spreader, they can evenly distribute decomposed sheep and cow manure into the soil, ensuring a fertilizer application error of no more than 5 kilograms per mu (approximately 14 acres), increasing fertilizer utilization by over 25%.
According to the Luochuan County Agricultural Technology Extension Center, orchards using tractors for post-harvest management have seen a 15% increase in root vitality, a 12% increase in fruit set the following year, and an 8-10 percentage point increase in the percentage of high-quality fruit. To meet the needs of different orchards, local agricultural departments have collaborated with agricultural machinery companies to develop specialized tractors and agricultural implements suitable for dwarfed, densely planted orchards and mountain orchards. These include narrow-body deep-tillage plows for dwarf orchards and anti-skid fertilizer spreaders for mountain orchards. Furthermore, through the "Agricultural Machinery Training in Rural Areas" program, practical training has been provided to fruit farmers, reaching over 100,000 people. Currently, the utilization rate of tractors for post-harvest management in major orchard production areas across China has reached 80%, covering over 30 million mu (approximately 16,000 hectares) of orchards. This provides strong support for the safe wintering of fruit trees and a bountiful harvest next year.
