Main Farming Activities during the Grain in Ear Season
By Type
Grain in Ear signifies the busiest season for harvesting and sowing crops with awns, such as wheat, and is the 9th of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar. After Grain in Ear, the plum rain season of early summer begins, with abundant rainfall and a significant rise in temperature. Common weather disasters include tornadoes, hail, strong winds, heavy rain, and drought. In a normal year, the plum rain season begins in mid-June.
The half-month from Grain in Ear to the Summer Solstice marks the peak of the "Three Summers" (summer harvest, summer planting, and summer cultivation), involving sowing, transplanting, and seedling management for autumn-maturing crops, as well as the full-scale commencement of summer harvest, planting, and cultivation.
Main farming activities include:
First, promptly harvest summer-maturing crops in the fields, such as wheat, broad beans, and peas, to ensure a bountiful harvest and bring all grains safely into the granary.
Second, in the first and mid-month, apply heavy top-dressing fertilizer for corn ear development, and perform hilling to prevent lodging and control corn borers.
Third, apply starter fertilizer to the seedbeds of medium-season rice, and transplant in the mid and late months. For direct-seeded and throw-seeded rice, control rice weevils. In early-planted fields, control the striped stem borer and leaf blast, among other pests and diseases.
Fourth, for cotton, perform cultivation, soil loosening, and weeding to manage the budding stage. Control pests like the plant bug, cotton aphid, and spider mite. Apply organic fertilizer to encourage more bolls. Maintain and repair the cotton field's drainage system to prevent waterlogging from rain.
Fifth, in the first and mid-month, rush to plant summer soybeans and peanuts, and apply flower-pod fertilizer to spring soybeans. Apply top-dressing fertilizer, cultivate, weed, and hill spring sweet potatoes, and then plant summer sweet potatoes. Apply appropriate fertilizer for mint to stop its vegetative growth.
Sixth, sow vegetables such as cowpeas, amaranth, and bok choy. Strengthen field management for solanaceous, cucurbitaceous, and leguminous vegetables, including pest and disease control, harvesting for market, and seed saving.
Seventh, strengthen summer disease prevention for poultry and livestock, manage adult fish cultivation, perform summer pruning and fertilization of mulberry fields, inspect and repair river and sea dikes and irrigation/drainage machinery, and be vigilant against floods and drought.
Summary of Vegetable Farming
⒈ Management measures for greenhouse vegetables.
⑴ Increase ventilation to reduce greenhouse temperature. On sunny days, open the greenhouse doors and side films day and night. On rainy days, cover the ventilation openings with plastic film to prevent rain from leaking in, and ventilate promptly after the rain stops.
⑵ Continue top-dressing with fertilizer and water, removing diseased and old leaves, pruning and tying vines, and strengthening pest and disease control.
⑶ After harvesting, promptly clear the greenhouse. Remove and burn or bury the plants and branches of melons and vegetables outside the greenhouse.
2. Management measures for open-field vegetables.
There are many varieties of melons and vegetables in open-field cultivation, most of which are in the harvest stage or a period of vigorous vegetative growth. They require meticulous cultivation and management tailored to the technical requirements of each variety. For fruiting vegetables that have entered the harvest stage, apply fertilizer every 7-10 days. Water promptly during droughts, drain after rain, and simultaneously perform tasks like pruning, tying vines, removing old and diseased leaves, and strengthening pest and disease control.
3. Cultivate seedlings for autumn eggplant and autumn peppers.
Summary of Fruit Tree Farming
1. Citrus
Continue to protect the fruit and be vigilant against abnormal high temperatures causing fruit drop. Remove summer shoots and thin out some weak and overly dense branches. Strengthen the control of scale insects, whiteflies, mites, and black spot disease and anthracnose. Manually capture longhorn beetles and scrape off their eggs and larvae. Cultivate and remove weeds, and lightly turn the soil in the orchard.
2. Bayberry
⑴ Pest and disease control: To control brown spot disease, leaf-rolling moths, and fruit flies, spray with 25% chlordimeform 800 times dilution, or 20% fenpropathrin 3000 times dilution plus thiophanate-methyl 800 times dilution or carbendazim 1000 times dilution at the beginning of the month. When the fruit ripens, use traps to kill adult fruit flies. Begin scraping off eggs and larvae of longhorn beetles at the base of tree trunks.
⑵ Shoot management: For young trees, perform summer debudding and topping, and remove dead branches.
3. Grape
Continue to drain excess water to improve disease resistance. Continue to control anthracnose, black rot, downy mildew, and grape borer. Apply fertilizer strategically to strengthen the fruit and perform foliar top-dressing. Strengthen shoot management.
4. Loquat
Harvest in a timely manner. Clean ditches and ensure drainage. Apply post-harvest fertilizer. Prune. Control pests such as the yellow-haired caterpillar and the angular-pointed tussock moth.
5. Pear
Continue to control black spot, black rot, pear scab, pear lacebug, aphids, and tussock moth. Continue bagging, which should be completed before the first ten days of June. Combine spraying with foliar fertilization. Apply quick-acting fertilizer after rain to strengthen fruit and shoots. Strengthen ditching and drainage. Perform summer pruning, cutting back water sprouts, crossing and overlapping branches, overly dense branches, and dead branches.
6. Peach
For mid-to-late-maturing varieties, continue bagging in the first ten days of the month. For early-maturing varieties, harvest and apply supplementary fertilizer after picking. Apply top-dressing to mid-to-late-maturing varieties based on tree condition. Perform summer pruning, mainly thinning, and cut back water sprouts, which should be completed by mid-June. Control pests such as tussock moth, Japanese beetle, and scab. Capture adult longhorn beetles. Combine pest control with foliar top-dressing. Open ditches for drainage to improve disease resistance.
Summary of Livestock Farming
As the temperature gradually rises during the Grain in Ear season, the plum rain season begins. During this period, four key aspects of livestock and poultry management should be addressed:
1. Keep livestock and poultry cages and sheds clean and hygienic to enhance their disease resistance during the humid plum season. Manure should be cleaned out and transported away. During rain, cattle should be kept indoors to prevent getting wet, which can lower their body temperature and lead to colds. For cows that have not been bred, arrange for breeding before the peak of summer heat. This is a good time to fatten sheep. Avoid letting sheep graze or rest in damp, muddy areas to prevent rheumatism.
2. Angora and meat rabbits are particularly sensitive to the humid climate of the plum season. First, the rabbit house must be dry and clean; spread a layer of straw ash or lime on the floor of the rabbit cages. Second, forage must be dried; do not feed fresh grass with mud and water. Third, place some hard charcoal in the feed trough for the rabbits to help absorb moisture in their gastrointestinal tract and prevent diarrhea. Fourth, young rabbits are prone to coccidiosis infection during the plum season; add coccidiostats to their feed for prevention. Ensure the shed is odor-free, free of accumulated waste, and free of pests.
3. Strengthen the prevention and control of diseases such as influenza and dysentery.
4. For free-range poultry, purchase them in a timely manner and provide appropriate warmth at night.
Grain in Ear
By Region
Northeast Region: Irrigation and top-dressing for winter and spring wheat. Rice transplanting is complete. Thinning for millet, corn, sorghum, and cotton. First weeding and hilling for soybeans and sweet potatoes. Second weeding and hilling for sorghum, millet, and corn. Defoliation of cotton, weeding of rice, preparation for top-dressing, pest and disease control, and preparation for hail prevention.
North China Region: General wheat fields begin harvesting. Simultaneously, summer harvest and planting are carried out intensively. Strengthen cotton field management, including controlling aphids, watering, and top-dressing.
Northwest Region: Pest and disease control for winter wheat. Watering, cultivation, weeding, and top-dressing for spring corn. Cultivation, weeding, thinning, and seedling inspection and replenishment for millet. Sowing and seedling inspection/replenishment for panicled millet.
Southwest Region: Rush to plant spring crops and transplant rice in a timely manner. Rush to harvest summer-maturing crops on sunny days. Follow the sequence of harvest, plowing, and planting.
Central China Region: Rush to harvest wheat on sunny days and select and reserve wheat seed. Rush to plant summer corn, sorghum, soybeans, and sesame. Apply top-dressing to medium-season rice and combine drainage and paddy hardening at the tillering stage. Strengthen management of single-cropping late rice and carefully remove weeds and impurities.
Northern Region: Transplanting of wheat-rice and single-cropping late rice between the Yangtze and Huai rivers begins. Seedling raising for double-cropping late rice. Control pests and diseases in rice paddies. Perform soil hilling and weeding in forest areas.
South China Region: Top-dressing for early rice and top-dressing with weeding for medium-season rice. Sowing of late rice. Harvesting of early corn and early soybeans, and sowing of late soybeans. Cultivation, top-dressing, small hilling, and aphid control for spring and winter-planted sugarcane and ratoon sugarcane.
Grain in Ear: One of the 24 solar terms. It begins around June 6th each year when the sun reaches the celestial longitude of 75°. "Tongwei· Xiaojing Yuanshen Qi": "Fifteen days after Lesser Fullness, when the Dipper points to Bing, it is Grain in Ear, the fifth lunar month. It means that grains with awns can be sown." The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China will enter the rainy plum season.