When to plant Chinese mallow? Detailed guide to planting time and methods
Chinese mallow, also known as winter amaranth, mallow, etc., is an annual herbaceous plant whose tender stems and leaves are used as the edible part. It is cultivated relatively little in our country, and is also cultivated in the north, and has certain medicinal value. So do you know how it is planted? Let's find out together.
1. Land preparation and fertilization
Chinese mallow is eaten for its tender stems and leaves, so it must be harvested multiple times a year. Therefore, choose a plot with flat terrain and loose, fertile soil for planting, generally made into flat beds, and apply sufficient base fertilizer, mainly organic fertilizer, with a bed width of about 1.3 m for easy harvesting. Chinese mallow has strong fertilizer tolerance and a relatively large fertilizer requirement. After sowing, human and animal manure can be sprinkled as seed fertilizer.
2. Sowing and raising seedlings
Both direct sowing and seedling transplanting are possible. Generally, 1-1.5 kg of seed is used per mu. The sowing method can be broadcast sowing or hole sowing. Among them, broadcast sowing uses a larger amount of seed, while hole sowing uses less seed. For hole sowing, control the plant and row spacing at about 25 cm, sow 4-5 seeds per hole, and generally use about 250 g of seed per mu; broadcast sowing requires 0.5 kg of seed, and raising seedlings requires 25 g of seed per mu. After sowing, cover with a layer of shallow soil, manage temperature and moisture well, and thin and finalize the seedlings at the appropriate time after emergence. Once the seedlings have grown to a certain degree, they can be planted out.
3. Planting out
The planting density should be determined according to the harvesting requirements. Different harvesting requirements mean different planting densities. For harvesting young seedlings as the goal, appropriate close planting is possible, with 15 cm square spacing being suitable; for multiple harvests of tender shoots, 25 cm square spacing is suitable.
4. Field management
During the growth period of Chinese mallow, timely cultivating and weeding should be carried out to prevent weeds from competing with Chinese mallow for growing space, nutrients, and water. For those harvested multiple times for tender shoots, during the peak growing season, fertilizer should be applied promptly after each harvest to supplement the large amount of nutrients lost due to harvesting. Topdressing is generally mainly urea. The main pests of Chinese mallow include cutworms, tobacco cutworms, and aphids, which can be controlled by poisoned bait trapping or trichlorfon spray; the main diseases include anthracnose and root rot. Anthracnose can be controlled with chlorothalonil, and root rot can be controlled with carbendazim.
The above is an introduction to the planting time and methods of Chinese mallow. I hope it can help you. If you want to learn more related knowledge, please stay tuned to us.