Taro Latest High-Yield Planting Techniques and Methods Tutorial

Taro, also known as qingyu, yunai, maoyu, etc., is the underground fleshy corm of the taro, a perennial herbaceous plant of the Araceae family. It originated in India and was later introduced from Southeast Asia, South China and Japan. In China, it is grown most extensively in the Pearl River Basin and Taiwan, China, followed by the Yangtze River Basin, and it is also grown in other provinces and cities. Let us take a look at high-yield taro planting techniques below!

Taro Growing Conditions

1. Temperature: Taro requires a high-temperature, humid environment. A large day-night temperature difference favors corm formation, and during the corm formation period, 28-30°C during the day and 18-20°C at night is most suitable.

2. Water: Whether it is paddy taro or dryland taro, taro likes moist natural environmental conditions. Dryland taro requires moist soil during the growing period, while paddy taro requires a certain water layer during the growing period.

3. Light: Taro is relatively tolerant of weak light and is not very strict about light intensity; it grows well under scattered light, and corm formation and expansion require short-day conditions.

4. Soil: Paddy taro needs to be cultivated in paddy fields, low-lying land or water furrows. Although dryland taro can grow on dry land, it still retains the ecological type of a marsh plant, so moist areas should be chosen for planting.

Taro Variety Selection

1. Red-bud taro: Red-bud taro plants are 90-100 cm tall, with broad ovate leaves and light purple petioles. The mother corm is relatively large and nearly round. Each plant has 7-10 daughter corms. The daughter corms are plump, with thick brown skin, white flesh and bright red buds. Yield per plant is 0.85-1 kg. It contains relatively much starch and has excellent quality. The fresh taro can be eaten or dried. It is mid-season. The growing period is 210-240 days. Planting time is February to March, harvest is September to October, and yield per mu is 1500-1700 kg.

2. White-bud taro: White-bud taro sprouts white, with green petioles, light green veins and yellow-green petioles, slightly tinged with purple near the leaf. The mother corm is spherical or elliptical, slightly curved. The daughter corms are elliptical or oblong, with yellow-white terminal buds. Each plant produces 15-20 daughter corms. Yield per plant is 500-750 g. The corm contains relatively much water, and the flesh is fine and of good quality. It is relatively early-maturing and stores well. Yield per mu is 1250 kg, and high yield can reach more than 1500 kg.

3. Nine-head taro: Nine-head taro plants are 80-90 cm tall. The leaves are broad ovate, and the petioles are green. The mother corm and daughter corms grow in clusters, with slightly more daughter corms. The corms are obovate, brown, with white flesh. Yield per plant is 1.5 kg, and the flesh is smooth with a mild taste. It is used as a vegetable and dried for medicinal use. It is late-maturing, with a growing period of 270-300 days. Planting time is February to March, harvest is November to December, and yield per mu is 2500-3000 kg. The taste of nine-head taro is slightly better than that of white taro and red taro.

4. Betel nut taro: Betel nut taro plants are 80-150 cm tall. The leaves are broad ovate, and the petioles gradually transition from green to coffee-red from bottom to top, all the way to the leaf core. The corms are long elliptical, dark brown, with white flesh and coffee-colored streaks. Yield per plant is 2.5-3 kg. Its moisture tolerance is poorer than that of other varieties, and its storage tolerance is relatively good. It is late-maturing, with a growing period of 240-280 days. Planting time is February to March, harvest is from November to January of the following year, and yield per mu is about 3000 kg.

Taro Planting Techniques

1. Land preparation and fertilization: Taro has wide adaptability to soil, and clayey soil that is fertile, deep and has strong water retention is suitable. After the land is prepared, open furrows at a row spacing of 80-100 cm, with a furrow width of 50 cm and a depth of 35 cm, then apply fertilizer in the furrows. Taro has a high fertilizer demand and a long growing period, so sufficient basal fertilizer must first be applied: 2000 kg of high-quality organic fertilizer and 60 kg of 48% potassium sulfate compound fertilizer per mu, applied in furrows opened according to row spacing.

2. Sowing method: Select seed taros free of pests, diseases and wounds, spread them in the sun for 3-4 days, then arrange them closely indoors and cover them with 8-10 cm thick wet sand for sprouting, keeping the room temperature at 20-25°C. After 20-30 days, when the buds are 3-4 cm long and the 5 cm soil temperature is stable at 10°C, plant them. Open two seed rows on the bed, with a row spacing of 30 cm and a depth of 7 cm. After watering the furrows thoroughly, plant the seed taros at a plant spacing of 33-40 cm, with 4500-5000 plants per mu.

3. Watering management: Do not water taro before emergence; keep the soil moist in the middle and late stages, and pay attention to drainage during the rainy season. Eighty days after emergence, combine watering with hole application of fertilizer beside the plants. Taro dislikes dry soil; when drought occurs, leaves turn yellow and wither, but overly wet soil with standing water is also unfavorable to root growth. During the seedling stage, the soil should have sufficient bottom moisture, and watering should be avoided. During the seedling stage, keep the soil alternately dry and moist, and pay attention to drainage when rain occurs.

4. Cultivation and hilling: During the taro seedling stage, combine topdressing with cultivation to eliminate weeds and warm the soil. At the end of the seedling stage, cultivate and level the growing furrows into flat ground. After that, hill up soil once about every 20 days, 7 cm thick, for a total of two times. The purpose of hilling is to inhibit the germination and growth of the terminal buds of daughter corms and grandchild corms, reduce nutrient consumption, allow the taro to fully expand and produce a large number of adventitious roots, and increase the plant's drought resistance.

5. Timely harvest: Taro should be harvested in time after maturity. In the Yangtze River Basin, early-maturing varieties sown early are mostly harvested from early September to early October, while those sown late are mostly harvested from late September to late October, and mid-to-late-maturing varieties are mostly harvested from the end of September to early November. Harvesting may be appropriately advanced or delayed according to market demand, but it should generally be completed before heavy frost to prevent taro from suffering freeze damage.

6. Seed reservation method: For taro seed reservation, choose a high-yield field with uniform, consistent growth. For taro seed reservation, choose a high-yield field with uniform and consistent growth, and select plants with the characteristics of that variety as seed plants. The seed corms should be harvested on a sunny day when the aboveground parts have withered and turned yellow and the daughter corms have fully grown. Seed taro size is related to type. For the multi-daughter-corm type, 25-50 g is suitable, and at minimum it should be above 15 g; for the kui taro type, it should be above 25 g.

Taro Pest and Disease Control

1. Taro blight: Focus on prevention. Start applying chemicals in mid-May before the disease occurs. Protective fungicides such as mancozeb can be selected, and dimethomorph, metalaxyl, Anke, etc. can be added separately and used alternately, spraying once every 7-10 days. When applying chemicals, pay attention to the weather and choose to spray before rain. At the same time, the spray solution should be applied evenly, covering the leaf backs, leaf surfaces and petioles.

2. Soft rot: Strengthen fertilizer and water management. If diseased plants are found, pull them out promptly and take them away, and at the same time scatter lime around the diseased holes. Agricultural streptomycin or chlorothalonil can be used for root irrigation. During application, it can be applied once each before fertilizing, after hilling, and after cutting daughter taros. At the same time, in areas with severe disease year after year, agricultural streptomycin should be added to every application, and underground pests should be strictly prevented and moisture controlled.

3. Taro leaf spot disease: For taro leaf spot disease, chlorothalonil or thiophanate-methyl can be used for control starting at the early stage of the disease, and sprayed once more after 7-10 days.

4. Aphids: Aphids use adults and nymphs to suck sap on the undersides of leaves or on tender leaves, and can be killed by spraying dimethoate or imidacloprid-type pesticides.

5. Spodoptera litura: Generally, Kung Fu, Lorsban, imidacloprid or fipronil is used to spray and kill larvae before the 3rd instar.

6. Underground pests: Combined with two heavy fertilizer applications, phoxim, Miral or trichlorfon can be selected for control.

7. Red spider mites: Spray 1500 times monocrotophos or 800 times 40% omethoate or 800 times dicofol.