Plantain, also known as the mother of a hundred herbs: when to plant and harvest it, and roughly how much can you earn per mu?

Plantain, also known as toad leaf and plantain tea herb, is a relatively common wild plant. Because it has medicinal effects such as clearing heat, resolving phlegm and promoting diuresis, it is widely used as a medicinal material. At present, many areas have also begun artificial cultivation. So when is plantain planted? When is it harvested? Roughly how much money can be earned by planting one mu?

1. When is the best time to plant plantain?

1. Because the climate in northern China is rather cold, spring sowing there is slightly later, generally not until late April or even early May, while the climate in southern China warms up relatively quickly, so sowing can generally be done in early April. This is the difference.

2. The sowing time for plantain seeds is mainly in the two seasons of spring and autumn, but it should also be noted that the climate conditions differ from place to place, so the corresponding specific times will vary somewhat.

2. When is plantain harvested?

1. For plantain seeds used as medicine, in summer and autumn several flowering stems are drawn out from the leaf rosette, and there are many small pale green flowers on the stems, which form fruit after flowering. Plantain has a relatively long heading period, so it must be harvested in batches several times, harvesting one batch as it matures. When the grains on the spike stems turn dark brown, it can be harvested.

1. Plantain seeds can be used as medicine. When the seeds are used as medicine, when the fruit spikes are ripe, cut off the fruit spikes, dry them in the sun and then rub out the seeds, and winnow away the impurities. Generally, in most cases the fruit spikes are harvested in summer and autumn when the seeds mature.

2. For medicinal use, the whole plant of plantain is generally harvested when the whole plant is growing luxuriantly, when flower buds appear, before the flowers open, or just when the flowers are in full bloom. In that case, for plantain it should be around the summer solstice, when growth is luxuriant and before it has opened, harvested for drying and medicinal use.

3. For use as a vegetable, the seedlings and tender stems of plantain are edible. After the seedlings emerge, 35 to 40 days later, when the plant height is 15 to 20 cm, the leaf color is dark green and the leaf buds are tender, and before flowering stems have been drawn, they can be harvested. When harvesting, they can be pulled up with the roots, or cut off from the root crown, washed clean with clear water and then processed for eating. Eating methods include: blanching in boiling water for cold salad, pickling as sour vegetable, stir-frying, stewing, and so on.

3. Roughly how much money can be earned by planting one mu?

1. Plantain is a herbaceous traditional Chinese medicinal plant, generally around 20 to 40 cm in height. The management time required is very little, so the labor cost is generally relatively low. Taking one mu as an example, the seed cost required is around 200 yuan. Because it is a leafy herbaceous plant, the field soil itself can generally meet its nutritional needs, but for high yield fertilizer still needs to be applied, with fertilizer cost at around 400 yuan per mu, and counting the labor cost at harvest of about 200 to 300 yuan per mu. The total cost is only 900 yuan per mu.

2. At present, plantain on the market is generally sold in two forms, one dry and one wet. The former sells for around 27 to 32 yuan/kg, and the latter for 6 to 8 yuan/kg. At present, the average yield per mu is 600 kg of wet goods; based on a dry-to-wet ratio of about 1:3, the dry goods are about 200 kg. Taking the middle value, the total profit is about 5,000 yuan, and after deducting costs, the net profit is about 4,000 yuan.