How to grow Gynura bicolor? Latest cultivation techniques and methods tutorial
Gynura bicolor is a wild vegetable that people often gathered and ate in the past, also called blood-tonifying herb, with the function of enriching the blood, and mainly its above-ground parts are eaten. Wild vegetables are a rare delicacy, but now that people have recognized its nutritional value, they have also begun to cultivate it themselves for supply. Cultivation has its own unique process and issues to pay attention to, so now let us introduce its cultivation techniques.
1. Planting time
The usual time is spring and autumn, and it can be harvested in all four seasons, growing most vigorously in summer, when it can be harvested multiple times. The most commonly used propagation method is cuttings propagation, because its sprouting ability is relatively strong, and using the cutting method is the most suitable.
2. Selection of mother plants
Generally, choose plants with good growth, normal leaf color, broad leaves, strong root growth, and upright, robust stems as mother plants for taking cuttings. About two to three branches can be taken from each mother plant, so that the mother plant can continue to grow and remain basically normal. But if you do not want to keep the mother plant, you can also layer the entire mother plant for propagation, which will produce a somewhat larger number of seedlings. The specific amount depends on the planting area.
3. Land preparation
Choose relatively open, sunny, wind-sheltered, deep, fertile soil for planting, usually sandy loam. Then deep plow the land, and during land preparation broadcast fertilizer over the whole field and mix it into the soil. Form ridges; the row width is about 30 cm, planting without a ridge surface, leaving about 15 cm of ditch for people to walk through, with a depth of about 20 cm. A deep ditch is good for drainage, but if the ridge rows are narrow and the ditch is too deep, the ridges can easily collapse after heavy rain. Then sun-dry the field for one week.
4. Planting preparation
You can first take the side branches from the mother plant, cut off the tender top part, then cut the lower end into a slanted cut, and soak them with rooting powder solution mixed with alcohol; do not add water at all, because adding water will prevent the rooting powder from working. Or cut down the mother plant at the base, remove the aged lower part and the tender upper part, cut the middle stem into short sections of several centimeters, and then soak them in rooting powder, with the soaking time in each case about half an hour.
5. Planting
Take out the soaked stems, do not root them in a seedling bed, but directly transplant them in the field. Calculate the plant and row spacing based on the grown plants; generally the plant spacing is about 25 cm, and because the ridges have already been formed, the row spacing no longer needs to be considered. First water the ridges thoroughly, then dig small holes, and in each hole insert two to three plants diagonally to ensure survival, covering and pressing the nearby soil firmly. About 20,000 to 30,000 seedlings are needed per mu. After that, cover with a shade net, water every day to keep moist, and after about half a month observe the root growth; then the shade net can be removed and less water given.
Cultivating Gynura bicolor is roughly such a process. There may be some detailed issues that will come up in actual planting. Matters in production, down to the smallest detail, naturally require much attention, so here we will first introduce only some specific planting methods.