Cress sprouts sell for 10 yuan per jin: a detailed guide to planting, harvest time and cultivation techniques

Cress sprouts are a vegetable made from a combination of celery and bean sprouts, developed by villagers in Baihu Town, Lujiang County, Hefei, Anhui. They can be stir-fried or used in soups, and they have a sweet, fragrant taste. They now sell for 10 yuan per jin. So how are cress sprouts grown? When are they planted? When are they harvested? What are the cultivation techniques?

Cress sprouts are a type of sprout vegetable cultivated under specific soil and climate conditions, using pointed-leaf water dropwort as the raw material, with covering materials and a sealed treatment technique. Cress sprouts are white as jade, give off a faint delicate fragrance, can be stir-fried or served cold, are very refreshing to eat and also have the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, lowering blood pressure and reducing swelling.

1. How are cress sprouts grown?

Celery cultivation in China began in the Han Dynasty, with a growing history of more than 2,000 years. But just what method turns this thick-stemmed, long-stalked celery into something like bean sprouts? Farmers in Lujiang County, Hefei, Anhui, say it comes from an accidental discovery in the 1970s: the earth wall of one villager's home collapsed and crushed the celery. After a long time, when they dug it open, crystal-clear “bean sprouts” had actually grown inside. They shared them for everyone to taste, and all praised them endlessly.

The delicious taste sparked motivation, and many people could not forget these “bean sprouts” growing from celery. By replicating the season, temperature, amount of soil cover, timing and so on from that time, people produced this kind of cress sprout, but the yield and scale could only reach the level of satisfying a craving. How to produce this delicacy in large quantities, let more people eat it and earn more money became the driving force for local farmers to cultivate cress sprouts.

Led by the local agricultural technology department, farmers went through more than 30 years of repeated trials and finally invented the light cultivation method for cress sprouts in June 2000, reaching a level where large-scale production was possible.

2. What are the cultivation techniques for cress sprouts?

1. Seed plant cultivation

After cress sprouts are harvested in early March, the rhizomes remaining in the soil sprout to form new plants. In early April, when the plants grow to 12-15 cm tall, select robust seedlings and dig them up with the soil. Use the edges of early rice fields as seedling beds for propagating seed plants, arranging them on the bed at 10-15 cm square spacing. Generally, every 667 sq m of seed plant seedling bed can provide enough for 3335 sq m of field cultivation. Seed plants should not be planted deep, so as not to affect tillering.

The seed plant field must be frequently refreshed with water, otherwise disease is likely under high summer temperatures. Apply topdressing once in April, with 1500 kg of human and animal manure or 35 kg of chemical fertilizer per 667 sq m, to promote the growth of creeping stems. Attention must also be paid to pest and disease control, promptly using 40% dimethoate 1000-fold solution to control aphids, and once viral disease is found, the diseased plants should be immediately removed. Well-growing plants have creeping stems 1.5-2.0 m long in August, and these creeping stems serve as the seed plants for cress sprout mother plants.

2. Mother plant cultivation

(1) Cultivation season: plant the seed plants from late August to early September, generally intercropped with double-cropping late rice at a 1:1 area ratio, that is, 2 m wide rice and 2 m wide water dropwort, with no need to make beds; just rake level and smooth. By late autumn and early winter, plants with more than 10 true leaves can grow, namely mother plants, for use in cress sprout cultivation.

(2) Planting: cut the seed plants in the seed celery field at the root, cut them with a knife into 20-30 cm long stem sections, then evenly broadcast them on the ground left in the late rice field. Note that the seedlings must not be buried in the soil, nor float on the water. If buried in the soil, sprouting is delayed and growth is poor; if floating on the water, creeping branches are easily produced. To plant the seedlings appropriately, after the early rice harvest apply about 2500 kg of human manure per 667 sq m. When preparing the land, rake fine and level so that the soil is muddy. When planting, do not irrigate too much; a thin layer of water on the soil surface is enough.

(3) Irrigation: do not irrigate deeply in the first 5 days after planting; it is suitable to keep the seedlings submerged in water to promote rooting. After that, irrigate as for late rice. After the late rice is harvested, just keep the soil moist; there is no need to irrigate.

(4) Seedling thinning: about 1 month after planting, when the plants grow to 13-15 cm tall, carry out seedling thinning and transplanting together with intertillage and weeding, so that one clump of celery seedlings per 12 cm square is suitable.

(5) Intertillage, weeding and topdressing: in fields with many weeds, carry out intertillage and weeding twice, half a month and one month after planting. If there are not many, once together with seedling thinning and transplanting is enough. There are 2 topdressings in total. When the seedlings are 10 cm and 20 cm tall, apply about 1250 kg of human manure or 40-50 kg of chemical fertilizer per 667 sq m. Before each topdressing, drain the water first. One day and night after topdressing, after the soil has fully absorbed the fertilizer, irrigate again to restore the water.

(6) Pest and disease control: during the growth of cress sprout mother plants, pest and disease damage is relatively light. Aphids damage the plants from September to October and can be controlled by the irrigation method, that is, fill the field with water until the plants are submerged, place a thick straw rope on the water surface, hold both ends and move it toward the downwind area, gather the aphids floating on the water surface into one corner of the field, then remove and kill them, and immediately drain the water to restore. Each irrigation for aphid control should not exceed 3 hours, so as not to affect the growth of water dropwort.

3. Cress sprout cultivation

When the plants grow to 11-13 true leaves, soil can be earthed up to produce cress sprouts. In Lujiang County this is generally after early November. The specific time for earthing up can be determined according to market demand, and can also be done in batches with harvests staged for market.

Specific method: in winter and spring, crush the soil on the late rice beds around the celery bed and shovel it with an iron spade onto the water dropwort plants. The earthing up is carried out in 3-5 rounds, with a soil layer about 20-30 cm thick, and then the axillary buds on the water dropwort stems sprout to form cress sprouts. Generally, 1 month after earthing up, the soil can be dug up for harvest, with a yield of about 1000 kg per 667 sq m.