How to Grow Angelica dahurica? A Detailed Guide to Scientific Cultivation Techniques

1. Land preparation

Apply 2500—5000 kg of decomposed compost or barnyard manure, 100 kg of cake fertilizer and 50 kg of phosphate fertilizer per mu as base fertilizer; on fertile land, less can be applied. After application, plow the land, preferably to a depth of more than 1 chi; after plowing, sun the soil so it is fully weathered, then plow once more. Deep plowing and fine harrowing are required, and the fertility of the upper and lower soil layers should be made uniform, to prevent excessive fibrous roots caused by overly fertile topsoil, which affects yield and quality.

2. Making beds.

After leveling and fine harrowing, make beds 15—20 cm high and 1—2 m wide. The bed surface should be flat to facilitate irrigation and drainage, and the topsoil should be level and finely broken up to help seedlings emerge.

3. Sowing.

Select fresh roots harvested in the same year that are slender, with small rhizome heads, no fibrous roots, fine white skin and vigorous growth, and use them as seeds. The seeding rate is 1—1.5 kg per mu. In Hebei, sowing is done between End of Heat and White Dew. Sowing methods include drilling, hole sowing and broadcasting, with drilling being the most common. For drilling, the row spacing is 25—30 cm. Open shallow furrows (about 4—5 fen deep), sow the seeds evenly into the furrows, and cover with a thin layer of fine soil.

4. Management.

(1) Thinning. Angelica dahurica seedlings grow slowly, and in the sowing year they are generally not thinned. After they turn green in early spring of the second year, when the seedlings are about 5—7 cm tall, carry out the first thinning, removing the overly dense and weak seedlings. For drilling, leave one plant about every 5 cm; for hole sowing, leave 5—8 plants per hole. For the second thinning, leave one plant about every 10 cm or 3—5 plants per hole.

(2) Final thinning. Around Qingming, when the seedlings are about 15 cm tall, carry out final thinning, with a plant spacing of 13—15 cm or leaving 3 plants per hole arranged in a staggered triangle to facilitate ventilation and light penetration. During final thinning, pull out the large seedlings that are growing too vigorously and whose petioles are blue-white, to prevent early bolting and flowering.

(3) Cultivation. It should be carried out together with thinning and final thinning.

(4) Topdressing. Angelica dahurica is tolerant of fertilizer, but generally little or no fertilizer is applied before spring, to prevent excessive growth during the seedling stage and premature bolting and flowering. After spring, vegetative growth begins to flourish, and topdressing can be done 3—4 times. The 1st and 2nd times are both after thinning and cultivation, and the 3rd and 4th times are after final thinning and before row closure. Fertilization should be done on sunny days; it is not suitable to fertilize on the day when rain has just cleared or after cultivation and weeding. Fertilizer types can include human excrement and urine, decomposed cake fertilizer, pen manure, urea, etc. For the first fertilization, the fertilizer should be light and small in amount, for example applying 10 loads of dilute human and livestock manure per mu, and afterward it can gradually be made stronger and greater in amount, for example 30—40 loads. The application before row closure can be combined with phosphate and potassium fertilizers, such as 20—25 kg of superphosphate, to promote thick and strong roots. It has been reported that in the topdressing before row closure, applying 25 kg of calcium magnesium phosphate fertilizer and 5 kg of potassium chloride, followed immediately by hilling, can prevent lodging and promote growth.

(5) Drainage and irrigation. Angelica dahurica likes water but fears waterlogging. After sowing, if the soil is dry, water immediately; afterward, if there is no rainy weather, water once every few days to keep the bed surface moist before the seedlings emerge, which helps emergence; during the seedling stage, the soil should also be kept moist to prevent yellow leaves and the production of many lateral roots; before the seedlings overwinter, water thoroughly once. From spring of the following year onward, timely irrigation can be combined with topdressing, especially during the dog days, when sufficient moisture should be maintained. If in the rainy season there is standing water in the field, open ditches promptly for drainage to prevent root rot and disease occurrence from waterlogging.

(6) Pulling out bolting seedlings. In May of the second year after sowing, some plants will bolt and flower. Their roots cannot be used medicinally, and the seeds they produce cannot be used as seed, because their next generation will bolt early. Therefore, in order to reduce the consumption of field nutrients, bolting plants should be pulled out promptly when found.

(7) Pest and disease control. Spray 1-2 times with 1:1:100 Bordeaux mixture to control leaf spot disease. Spray 1000-fold 90% crystalline trichlorfon solution or 2000-fold 40% dimethoate emulsifiable concentrate to kill yellow-winged fennel borer, yellow swallowtail butterfly, aphids and red spiders.