How to Fertilize Daylilies for High Yield? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Methods
For a long period, daylilies remained in a slump, but in recent years they have suddenly become popular again. They look very much like lily flowers, only yellow in color. They are also very similar to yellow okra, and if you are not familiar with these two vegetables, you really might mistake one for the other. Daylilies have anti-aging, heat-clearing and swelling-reducing effects, and are a favorite of many women. So today Qinnong Net will teach you how to fertilize daylilies to make them higher-yielding and better in quality.
1. Base fertilizer
Base fertilizer is the foundation of high daylily yields, so when planting we must apply enough base fertilizer. It can be more, but absolutely not less. For the base fertilizer of daylilies, farmyard manure or organic fertilizer is mainly suitable, and secondly, depending on the nature of the soil, some chemical fertilizer can be applied as a supplement. For example, if the soil is low in trace elements, then we need to mix in some calcium fertilizer, zinc fertilizer, iron fertilizer, etc. On average, one mu requires 3,000 to 5,000 jin of farmyard manure and potassium fertilizer, and the total amount of chemical fertilizer at around 100 jin is sufficient.
2. Seedling fertilizer
The first topdressing after planting is seedling fertilizer. This can promote the growth of daylily seedlings, letting them quickly grow stems and leaves, and laying the foundation for the later flower stalks and flower buds. The fertilization time is generally about one week after planting. Since daylilies can be harvested for many years, seedling fertilizer must also be applied in later years, and the later the seedling fertilizer is applied, the better. For seedling fertilizer, we generally use a mixture of high-efficiency nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus fertilizer and potassium fertilizer, and it can also be replaced with manure and urine water, except that an appropriate amount of urea and phosphorus fertilizer needs to be added to the manure and urine water for irrigation, which is also very good.
3. Stalk fertilizer
Stalk fertilizer is very important, because how many flower stalks differentiate largely determines how many flower buds there are, and the number of flower buds determines the yield of daylilies, so stalk fertilizer is a very critical step. At this stage, the fertilizer needed by daylilies accounts for 70 percent of the total growth period, so fertilization must be sufficient, at least enough to ensure that flower stalk differentiation is not affected. Therefore, stalk fertilizer can be applied in three rounds. The first is when differentiation just begins, when we mainly spray urea and potassium fertilizer. The second is when differentiation starts, when we mainly use potassium fertilizer with phosphorus fertilizer as a supplement for foliar fertilization. The third is during the peak period of differentiation, when we need to increase the amount of fertilizer, and the types of fertilizer applied are the same as in the second round.
4. Flower fertilizer
After the differentiation of daylily flower stalks is complete, the flowering period begins. Flower fertilizer mainly serves to increase the yield of daylilies, and also to prevent the daylily seedlings from aging and reducing yield. Fertilizing during the flowering period can keep the daylily seedlings green, and can also make the flower buds plumper and fuller and speed up the growth rate of the flower buds. For one mu, we need roughly 10 jin of urea, 5 jin of potassium fertilizer and 5 jin of calcium fertilizer for irrigation, and we can also spray a certain dose of gibberellin, whose flower-preserving effect is very obvious. Finally, note that because daylilies can be harvested in multiple batches, flower fertilizer needs to be applied in multiple rounds.
5. Maintenance fertilizer
Maintenance fertilizer is also very important for daylilies, because it mainly lays the foundation for next year's yield, so if you want a high yield next year, maintenance fertilizer is a must. Maintenance fertilizer is generally broadcast after the last harvest of daylilies, otherwise, if nutrients are insufficient, many daylily seedlings will wither. For maintenance fertilizer, we mainly use organic decomposed fertilizer, piling the decomposed fertilizer at the roots of the daylilies. This helps with the absorption of nutrients and maintains fertility, allowing it to last until the spring of the following year.