How to grow Akebia trifoliata? The latest planting techniques and methods tutorial
Akebia trifoliata is a wild economic plant with great development value, also known as cat's shit fruit, ghost finger, cat's shit tube, etc. It is a deciduous shrub plant of the genus Akebia in the family Lardizabalaceae. Because its fruit ripens to a blue-purple color, is juicy, and is shaped very much like cat droppings, it is commonly called “cat's shit fruit”. It has high planting value. Let's take a look at the planting techniques for Akebia trifoliata below!
The growing environment of Akebia trifoliata
Akebia trifoliata grows in valley slopes, shrub thickets, or damp shady places beside deep mountain gullies at an altitude of 900 to 2200 m. It is distributed in Shaanxi, Gansu, Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, and the southwestern provinces and regions. It is a shallow-rooted tree species with a light-loving nature, so a place with sufficient sunlight must be chosen for cultivation. It requires deep, fertile soil with convenient irrigation and drainage in order to obtain high, stable yields and good quality. For soil acidity and alkalinity, choose slightly acidic to slightly alkaline soil, and the topsoil should contain relatively more humus.
Sowing techniques for Akebia trifoliata
1. Seed treatment: Akebia trifoliata seeds mature at the end of September. In early to mid-October, select soft-ripe or already opened fruits for seed collection. Wash the picked berries promptly in water and rub off the pulp. Use moist river sand and store them at room temperature from October to November for 30 to 35 days, allowing the seeds to complete morphological after-ripening and stratified germination.
2. Seed sowing: The suitable planting time for Akebia trifoliata is from April to October. Choose a rainy day or a sunny afternoon when the sun is slanting, open furrows at a row spacing of 20 to 25 cm, and sow in drills. The plant spacing can be determined according to soil fertility, intensity of management, and difficulty of irrigation and drainage. After the seeds are sown into the furrows, cover with 2 to 3 cm of soil and press down.
Planting techniques for Akebia trifoliata
1. Site selection and land preparation: Choose mountain land or forest land for sowing and raising seedlings or hole sowing. This can make full use of the advantages of forest land, such as organic matter content, fertility, buffering capacity for temperature and moisture, and soil physical and chemical properties, which are better than those of farmland soil. For cultivation after clearing forest, this should be done 1 year before sowing so that organic matter can fully decompose and increase the effective nutrients in the soil. It is very beneficial for improving soil physical and chemical properties, coordinating the ratio of soil solid, liquid, and gas phases, eliminating sources of disease and pests, and promoting growth.
2. Building supports for climbing: Akebia trifoliata is a twining climbing vine. Choose slow-growing and clearly suitable Camellia oleifera, citrus, or small tree species as climbing supports. At a row spacing of 3 m, prune the living climbing support and then interplant Akebia trifoliata. Artificial climbing supports can use double rows of cement posts or double rows of wood, with 1 vertical row of posts set every 4 to 6 m.
3. Seedling plot management: After Akebia trifoliata seedlings emerge, promptly remove the covering grass, and weed and thin the seedlings. After the first true leaf is fully expanded, set the seedlings at a plant spacing of 6 cm, and apply topdressing 1 to 2 times, applying urea or compound fertilizer at 300 kg/ha. Irrigate and drain promptly: water during drought and drain during waterlogging. The main disease and pest problem at the seedling stage is the red-bodied leafhopper damaging young shoot tips. It should be controlled promptly, otherwise it will cause the stems and vines to become shortened.
4. Timely pruning: Pruning of Akebia trifoliata can extremely significantly increase the thickness and volume of the previous year's mother stems and improve the yield and quality of the current year's Akebia stem medicinal material. It should be carried out in combination with field management work such as guiding new shoots onto the first wire of the support, tying them to the second wire, and cutting off small stems that exceed the second wire and become tangled into clumps. In mid-May, keep 2 to 3 new shoots on each previous year's mother stem. When the 4th to 8th clusters of young leaves appear, remove the shoot tips of the new shoots. This is called 4/4 pruning or 2/8 pruning. In mid- and late May, prune once at intervals of about 5 days.
5. Disease control: The main diseases of Akebia trifoliata include powdery mildew rust, shortening disease, Fusarium wilt, rust, and leaf spot. The main pests include red-bodied leafhopper, aphids, hairy caterpillars, geometer moths, etc. Control should adopt a plan combining comprehensive agricultural measures with chemical control. Do a good job of disinfecting seeds, seedlings, and soil. In rainy seasons, pay attention to timely clearing ditches and draining waterlogging, loosening soil, and applying fertilizer. If diseased plants are found, remove them promptly, and disinfect the diseased holes with quicklime to control transmission.