When and how do you plant Gastrodia elata (Dingfengcao)?

Gastrodia elata is a medicinal herb, the rhizome of the Gastrodia elata plant, with good medicinal effects for treating headaches and numbness of the limbs, and it is widely cultivated because of its high medicinal value. So, when do you plant Gastrodia elata? How do you plant it?

1. When do you plant Gastrodia elata?

Generally speaking, the best time to plant Gastrodia elata is from November to May of the following year. Gastrodia elata grows between April and October on the Gregorian calendar, and the growth period is about six months. After six months, the Gastrodia elata can be harvested. According to the experience of experienced growers, planting Gastrodia elata around November makes it easier for it to take up the fungus and gives a higher survival rate.

2. How do you plant Gastrodia elata?

1. Growing environment

Gastrodia elata is suited to growing under forest with plenty of humus and moisture, and it is also found in sunny thickets and grassy slopes. It is best for it to live symbiotically with the white mushroom family fungi Armillaria mellea and Mycena osmundicola, so that the seeds can sprout, form round corms, and grow into healthy Gastrodia elata tubers. Mycena osmundicola provides nutrients for seed germination, and Armillaria mellea provides nutrients for the protocorm to grow into a Gastrodia elata tuber.

2. Choosing the planting site

For planting Gastrodia elata, it is best to choose gently sloping land and valley gully land that is half shaded and half sunny and rich in organic matter. The soil should be loose loam, well-drained sandy loam or sandy soil, and virgin land is best. The soil pH should be 5-6. Avoid clay and waterlogged land, and avoid continuous cropping.

3. How to select seed

Seed selection for Gastrodia elata is relatively simple. When choosing seed tubers, select the Gastrodia elata dug up in the current year, remove the commercial tubers, select all the seed tubers and then screen them again, picking out rotten tubers, deformed tubers and other inferior seed tubers, and finally determine those of similar size, robust, neat in appearance, large, good in color and free of wounds as the seed tubers to be used the following year.

4. Management after planting

After Gastrodia elata is planted, no fertilizer is needed, and there is no need to loosen the soil or weed; keep it in a wild state. Keep the soil moisture content at about 40% and the ground temperature at 15-28 degrees. During the tuber enlargement period, spray the medicinal material Gendaling solution on the leaf surface, which can promote the transport of leaf photosynthetic products (nutrients) to the root system, improve the nutrient conversion rate and the ability to loosen soil, make the rhizome expand rapidly, and greatly increase the content of active substances. In the high-temperature summer season, use shade nets or branches to shade and cool the plants, and prevent trampling by people and livestock.

5. Pest control

The main disease of Gastrodia elata is root rot. There are mainly two reasons for root rot: first, miscellaneous bacteria infect the Gastrodia elata and cause root rot; second, excessive rain during the growing period causes root rot in Gastrodia elata. Choose well-drained land for planting Gastrodia elata, make sure the fungal material is not infected by miscellaneous bacteria, fill the gaps between the fungal material well, and always pay attention to drainage. In addition, spray targeted drugs or 800-fold Xinguozhimu solution to kill it. The main pests of Gastrodia elata are white grubs and mole crickets, which can be killed by spraying targeted drugs or by using light traps to kill the adults.

The above is the planting method for Gastrodia elata summarized for you by the Tuliu website editors. We hope it can help you!