Water Dropwort Pond Cultivation Technique: Growing Water Dropwort on Ecological Floating Beds

AbstractUse bamboo to build the floating bed base frame, place polyethylene foam inside the enclosed area, drill holes evenly at the specified hole spacing, then place the planting baskets into the holes; select high-quality seedless water dropwort, 10-15 days before planting remove debris and the top shoots from the seed stems, then bind them tightly with rice straw, stack them in a forked arrangement in a cool place, cover with rice straw, water twice a day, and in about a week they will take root and sprout; for fertilizing, place the seed stems in the floating bed planting baskets on cloudy days or when sunlight is weak, and do a good job of water quality management and topdressing.

Cultivating water dropwort in a pond, that is, growing water dropwort on the water surface, is a method of growing water dropwort using ecological floating beds.

1. Floating bed setup

Use bamboo with a diameter of 8-12cm to make a rectangular floating bed base frame 1.5-2m long and 0.8-1.2m wide, fix polyethylene foam inside the area enclosed by the rectangular base frame, then drill holes evenly in the polyethylene foam at a hole spacing of 15-30cm, with the hole diameter controlled at about 25-30cm, and place the planting baskets filled with planting substrate into the holes.

2. Seed selection

Select seedless water dropwort varieties with strong high-temperature tolerance and excellent variety quality.

3. Germination promotion

Germinate the seeds 7 days before planting. Select seed stems with a stalk thickness of 0.8-1.2cm and a length of 0.8-1.2m, uniform in thickness from top to bottom, with tight internodes and no pest damage, remove the debris on them, cut off the top shoot portion, bind them with rice straw into round bundles 20-30cm thick, and after tying them tightly, stack the seed stems in a crisscross arrangement in a cool place, cover them with rice straw on top, and water them once in the morning and once in the afternoon each day with mountain spring water to keep them moist. Generally after 7-9 days, 1-2cm tender buds will grow from the leaf axils of each node, and rooting will be completed, at which point planting can begin.

4. Planting

10-15 days before planting water dropwort, sprinkle organic fertilizer into the pond, and choose cloudy days or weather with weak sunlight to plant the water dropwort seed stems in the substrate.

5. Water quality management

After the water dropwort seed stems are planted, sprinkle lime slurry into the pond every 15-20 days; 30-35 days after planting, sprinkle zeolite and Bacillus subtilis into the pond to regulate water quality and promote the growth and development of water dropwort.

6. Topdressing

Topdressing can be carried out 5-10 days after the water dropwort seed stems are planted. For the first application, apply 10-16kg/mu of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium compound fertilizer, 5-10kg/mu of silicon fertilizer, and 5-10kg/mu of cake fertilizer. After that, apply topdressing again every 15-20 days. Before the water dropwort is harvested, a total of 3 topdressings are applied.

7. Timely harvesting

When the water dropwort reaches a height of more than 20cm, it can be harvested in batches.