What Plant Is Ramie and a Detailed Guide to Its Cultivation Techniques

Ramie is one of the important fiber crops of ancient China, with a long history of cultivation, generally grown on mountain flatland, gentle slopes, hilly land or plain alluvial soil. So what plant is ramie? What are the cultivation techniques?

1. What plant is ramie?

In our understanding, ramie is a clothing-material crop commonly used in ancient times. In fact, the whole ramie plant is a treasure. Ramie leaves are a feed with relatively high protein content and rich nutrition. The ramie root contains the medicinal component “ramie acid”, which has effects such as nourishing yin, calming the fetus, treating restlessness of mind before and after childbirth, and treating boils and sores. The ramie bone can be used as a papermaking raw material, or to make fiberboard that can be used for furniture, wall panels and many other purposes. The ramie bone can also be used to brew wine and make sugar. The ramie shell can be degummed to extract fiber, for use in textiles, papermaking or as boat caulking material. The ramie shell scraped from fresh ramie bark can be used to extract furfural, and furfural is a refined solvent for the chemical industry and is also used in resin plastics. Because it is a crop unique to China mainly used for textiles, it is a Chinese national treasure and is called “China grass” internationally.

2. What are the cultivation techniques for ramie?

1. Site selection and garden establishment

Ramie is a warmth-loving short-day plant, relatively suited to being grown in temperate and subtropical climates, so the planting site is best chosen in a sheltered, sunny area with good drainage, but the light intensity should not be too strong, and it is not suitable for planting where the low groundwater level is below 1 m. It can adapt to sandy loam through to clay loam, but grows best in loose-textured soil.

2. Sowing and raising seedlings

Ramie has many propagation methods, the common one being root propagation, but that requires perennial old plants as a prerequisite, so when first planting, the sowing propagation method is still chosen. The sowing time is from early March to early April; choose market-available conditions as the seedbed, apply sufficient base fertilizer, rake fine and level, and then sow. Generally the germination rate of sowing is 30%, and the sowing rate per mu is about 1 jin; when sowing, mix the seed with fine mud or plant ash, water thoroughly once before sowing, and after sowing cover with a layer of fine soil and plant ash, then cover on top with a layer of rice straw and crop stalks to keep warm and retain moisture. After sowing, keep the soil moist; after emergence, as the seedlings grow, gradually remove the covering, and when the seedlings grow 6 true leaves, it can all be removed.

3. Thinning and weeding

Timely thinning during the seedling stage can make the seedlings grow quickly and increase yield. Generally, thinning is carried out once at the 4-leaf stage and a second time at the 6-leaf stage, with a plant spacing of 4-5 cm, and 400-500 plants can be grown per sq m. While thinning, diseased plants and weak seedlings can be removed, weeds removed, and pesticides sprayed to control diseases and insect pests. During this period, 1-2 cultivations are also carried out, loosening the soil in time: one during the sprouting stage, shallow plowing to assist sprouting so that sprouting is uniform, and another during the row-closing stage, cultivating to 4-5 cm.

4. Fertilizer and water management

After the covering is removed, water frequently to keep the soil moist; at the 3-4 leaf stage, appropriate fertilization can be combined with watering, and at this time some urine fertilizer can be applied appropriately, once a week, applied 2-3 times. When the seedlings grow to about 20 cm, then apply seedling-promoting fertilizer to promote rapid seedling growth; at about 60 cm, give importance to one stalk-growing fertilizer, generally mainly human and livestock manure and urine, cake fertilizer or urea, generally applying per mu 1000 kg of human and livestock manure and urine farmyard manure, 100 kg of cake fertilizer, 20 kg of urea; in the peak growing season, a small amount of boron fertilizer can be applied to increase yield.

5. Harvest

Ramie is a crop harvested multiple times. The first harvest is in late May or early June; the first ramie harvest should be early to prompt the second ramie to sprout early, and after harvesting, repeat the above work. Likewise thinning and weeding, fertilizer and water management, the second ramie is generally in late July; after harvesting, cultivate, weed and fertilize, and also pay attention to the prevention and control of diseases and insect pests to promote the healthy growth of the third ramie. The third ramie growing season is in late summer and early autumn, when diseases are relatively serious and the climate changes greatly; in addition to diseases and insect pests, also take measures against summer drought and autumn drought as well as against waterlogging; the third ramie can generally be harvested in late October or early November.