How to Grow Agastache rugosa from Seed? A Detailed Guide to the Planting Method
Agastache rugosa has the medicinal effects of transforming turbidity with its aroma, harmonizing the middle and stopping vomiting, and releasing the exterior to relieve summerheat, with very high cultivation value, and many people are growing Agastache rugosa. Let's take a look below at how to grow Agastache rugosa from seed.
1. Land preparation and sowing
For the Agastache rugosa seedbed, it is best to choose a loam or sandy loam plot with convenient drainage and irrigation, easy management, and medium-to-high fertility, and apply 22.5 tons per hectare of decomposed barn manure as base fertilizer in combination with plowing. Then open furrows, break up the clods of soil finely, and shape them into turtle-back-shaped seedbeds with drainage ditches 1.5 m wide, water the bed surface with 7.5 tons per hectare of decomposed human and animal urine to moisten it, mix the seeds with fine sand or plant ash and evenly scatter them on the bed surface, cover with about 1 cm thickness of fertile soil made of fine soil:plant ash = 1:0.5, and finally use bamboo strips or small branches to build small arches on the bed surface at intervals of about 80 cm and cover with plastic film to keep warm and raise seedlings. Generally, each hectare of field requires 120-150 sq m of seedbed and 2.25-2.7 kg of seeds.
2. Temperature
After the Agastache rugosa seeds are sown, when the air temperature is kept at 20-25°C, they emerge in 10-15 days; when the emergence rate reaches 70%, remove the film. The suitable growth temperature is 18-25°C. For Agastache rugosa sown in spring of the same year, when the seedlings are 12 cm tall and the main stem has 5 pairs of leaves, branching begins to occur at the leaf axils at the base. After June, as the temperature rises and the rainy season arrives, Agastache rugosa enters a period of vigorous growth.
3. Water and fertilizer
Both the stems and leaves of Agastache rugosa are used medicinally, so it is best to apply “complete fertilizer” (including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), such as human and animal manure, oil cakes, etc. For the first topdressing, after loosening the soil when the seedlings are 3 cm tall, apply 1.5-2 kg of decomposed dilute human and animal manure water per sq m; thereafter, at seedling heights of 7-10 cm, 15-20 cm, and 25-30 cm, after intertillage and weeding, apply 1500 kg of decomposed human and animal manure water per mu each time, or apply 10-12 kg of diammonium phosphate per mu. After fertilizing, water should be applied, and no more topdressing is needed after the rows close.
4. Weeding
When the Agastache rugosa seedlings are 3 cm tall, promptly thin out the overcrowded seedlings so that the nutritional area of each seedling is 4 sq cm, or carry out seedling separation, with a plant spacing of 6-8 cm for separated seedlings. For Agastache rugosa sown in holes, keep 3-4 plants per hole; for drilling, thin the seedlings at a plant spacing of 10-12 cm, with the two rows staggered when finalizing the stand. Missing plants should be replanted on cloudy days, and after planting, water once with dilute human and animal manure water to help them survive. Before the first harvest, carry out intertillage and weeding 2-3 times, respectively when the seedlings are 3 cm, 12-15 cm, and 21-24 cm tall. When the seedlings are 25-30 cm tall, after the second harvest, earth up 6 cm to protect the roots.
The sowing and planting method of Agastache rugosa is relatively simple, and the dried aboveground part of the plant can be used as medicine, with very high planting value.