How to grow Abrus cantoniensis? Master these key cultivation techniques

Abrus cantoniensis has the effects of clearing heat and removing dampness, detoxifying, relieving pain and benefiting the liver, and is a common Chinese medicinal herb, but many people's Abrus cantoniensis does not sprout, which may be due to the wrong planting method, so how do you grow Abrus cantoniensis?

1. How to grow Abrus cantoniensis

Abrus cantoniensis is generally grown by two methods: raising seedlings and transplanting, and direct sowing; these two planting methods each have their own advantages.

1. Raising seedlings and transplanting

Raising seedlings and transplanting uses less seed, makes it easy to manage the seedlings intensively during the seedling stage, and gives a higher yield. However, most of the harvested Abrus cantoniensis has a small main root and many lateral roots and lateral branches, and the vine stems are too long, which does not meet purchasing specifications, making it hard to find a market and greatly lowering the commodity price.

2. Direct sowing

With the direct sowing method, there is no seedling-raising stage, no need to insert trellises, less chemical fertilizer (nitrogen fertilizer) is applied, and the seedling management and transplanting steps can be omitted; the resulting medicinal material has an obvious main root and few lateral roots, so the product specification and quality are better, it is easy to export, the commodity price is high, and better economic benefits can be achieved.

  However, direct sowing uses more seed and the yield is somewhat lower.

Considering the quality of the medicinal commodity, the medicinal commodity produced by raising seedlings and transplanting has poorer specifications and does not meet export standards (which require a large main root, few lateral roots and lateral branches, and shorter vine stems with few leaves); therefore, for the propagation method, direct sowing should be used.

2. Seed treatment

Abrus cantoniensis seeds have a waxy coating on the outside, are not easy to absorb water and swell, and under natural conditions the germination rate is very low, generally only 20%-50%, so the seeds need artificial treatment before sowing.

The treatment methods usually include: soaking seeds in warm water; rubbing the seed coat with river sand; grinding the seeds with sandpaper; and chemical dewaxing. Among these, the first 3 methods are simple and easy to carry out and can be used alternately, and are the more commonly used methods; before rubbing the seeds, the method can skip soaking in water, and after rubbing off the waxy layer the seeds can be directly soaked and sown. But the method can also be used by first soaking the seeds in warm water at 25-30°C for 1—2 days, changing the water 2 times in between, and after the seeds have fully absorbed water and swollen, scoop them out, drain off the water, and sow.

 If they cannot absorb water and swell, then rub the seed coat with sandpaper or, according to a 3:1 ratio of fine river sand to seeds, put them into a stone mortar (or other container) and pound and rub to grind off the waxy layer, making the seed surface rough so it can let water through, then continue soaking them in warm water until they swell, drain off the water, and sow. Or use the method and then the method.

The specific operations are as follows:

Sand rubbing method: mix the seeds with about 5 times their amount of clean wet fine sand, put the mixture into a cloth bag and rub it with your hands until the seed surface becomes rough and loses its luster, then soak them in cold water for 24 hours, pick out the seeds that have absorbed water and swollen and are ready for sowing, and treat the seeds that have not swollen in the same way.

Hot water seed soaking method: according to the hardness of the seeds, soak the seeds in hot water with an initial temperature of 60-80%, by putting the seeds in a vat or bucket, then pouring in hot water so that the water surface is about 3 cm above the seeds, and stirring the seeds with a stick so that they are heated evenly. After the water cools, fill with cold water and soak for 24 hours, then pick out the seeds that have absorbed water and swollen and are ready for sowing; treat the seeds that have not swollen in the same way; generally after 2 treatments a relatively high germination rate can be achieved.

Sand rubbing and warm water seed soaking method: put the sand-rubbed seeds in a container, pour in hot water with an initial temperature of 60-70 degrees, with the water surface 2-3 cm above the seeds, soak for 24 hours, then scoop them out and sow; the effect is relatively good.

After planting Abrus cantoniensis, field management must also be done well so that Abrus cantoniensis can grow with good quality and healthily.