Detailed Guide to Licorice Seedling Cultivation: From Sowing to Seedling-Stage Management

1. The seedling bed should be chosen in a plot of deep, fertile, loose humus soil or sandy loam. Apply 2000 kg of farmyard manure, 25 kg of superphosphate, and 10 kg of potassium sulfate per mu as base fertilizer, plow deeper than 40 cm, level and harrow fine, and make flat beds 100 cm wide for later use.

2. Licorice seeds have a leathery, glossy seed coat and poor water absorption, so they should be treated before sowing. In production, the sand-scarification method is generally used. Mix licorice seeds and clean river sand at a volume ratio of 1:1, put them into a container, and stir repeatedly so that they rub against each other; when the seed coat is no longer glossy, they can be sown.

3. Between March and April, on the prepared bed surface, open four shallow furrows 10-15 cm wide and 1.5-2 cm deep along the direction of the bed ridge, water them thoroughly, scatter the seeds evenly into the furrows, spray with phorate 800 times solution, then cover with fine soil 0.5-1 cm thick, and cover with grass to keep warm and moist. Use 5 kg of seed per mu; raising one mu of seedlings can plant 5-6 mu of field. (At a temperature of 20°C, seedlings emerge in 5-7 days.) When 50% of seedlings have emerged, remove the covering grass, water to preserve moisture, and wait for full emergence. When seedlings are 15-20 cm tall, apply 20 kg of urea per mu with irrigation, then restrict water afterward to encourage roots to grow into deeper soil layers and cultivate high-quality seedlings. Licorice seedlings are easily harmed during the seedling stage by underground pests such as cutworms and wireworms, and this is especially prominent in waterlogged lowlands and newly reclaimed land. In addition to increasing the amount of phorate used at sowing, the control method should also apply phorate once each on the 40th day and 100th day after sowing, with the dose controlled at 1000-1500 times, applied as a drench around the plants or with irrigation water. In hot and humid seasons, licorice is prone to powdery mildew. First, scattered dot-like and cloud-like powdery white attachments appear on the underside of the leaves, then spread to both sides of the leaves, causing the leaves to yellow and wither prematurely and seriously affecting seedling quality. Control methods should emphasize the word “early”, that is, early detection and early control. In the early stage of the disease, spray with 35% triadimefon 1000-1200 times solution, once every 5 days, for 3 consecutive times. Metalaxyl and others can also be used for control. After careful cultivation for one year, transplanting can be done in February of the second year.