How to cultivate water bamboo for high yield? Latest cultivation techniques and methods tutorial
Water bamboo is a warmth-loving plant that reproduces asexually through tillering and division. Its optimum growth temperature is 10-25°C. It is not tolerant of cold, high temperatures or drought. The frost-free period in cultivation areas must be more than 150 days. After frost, the water bamboo leaves wither and die, and during dormancy it can withstand low temperatures of -10°C. In northern China, the frost-free period is short, so single-crop water bamboo is mainly planted, and single-crop water bamboo is suitable for spring planting. In the south, the frost-free period is long, and both single-crop and double-crop water bamboo are suitable for planting.
Water bamboo is not tolerant of continuous cropping, and crop rotation plays a very important role in water bamboo production. In some places where water bamboo has been introduced, the yield is relatively high in the first two or three years and it comes to market early, but afterward the yield declines year by year, the marketing period is delayed, the water bamboo shoots become smaller, and the quality declines. Apart from problems with seed selection, the cropping system is also one of the main factors.
Types of crop rotation
Rotation in water bamboo fields includes rotation among different crops that are all paddy field crops, and paddy-upland rotation. Paddy field rotation mainly involves rotating water bamboo with rice, mat grass, water lotus root, water chestnut, arrowhead, and other crops. In water bamboo-rice rotation, double-crop water bamboo varieties are used; after the summer water bamboo is harvested, the field is immediately plowed and harrowed, sufficient base fertilizer is applied, and single-crop rice or late japonica rice is transplanted. The growth periods of the two crops complement each other, and both can achieve high yields. In water bamboo-mat grass rotation, after the autumn harvest of single-crop or double-crop water bamboo, the field is prepared, fertilizer is applied, and mat grass is planted. Paddy-upland rotation in water bamboo fields mainly involves rotation with upland melons, fruits, and vegetables, mainly including: autumn water bamboo - summer water bamboo - summer-autumn Chinese cabbage - solanaceous fruits - overwintering greenhouse cultivation - autumn water bamboo; autumn water bamboo - summer water bamboo - summer-autumn Chinese cabbage or radish - autumn-winter vegetables - spring solanaceous fruits - autumn water bamboo; autumn water bamboo - summer water bamboo - autumn solanaceous fruits - winter-spring vegetables - autumn water bamboo, etc. These rotation methods all involve one crop of autumn water bamboo, and after the summer water bamboo, upland vegetables are planted instead. Paddy-upland rotation can effectively improve the physical and chemical properties of the soil and is the best way to solve the factors causing continuous cropping obstacles in crops.
In water bamboo cultivation, water bamboo farmers in Huangyan, Zhejiang, also use a planting method of swapping furrows and beds, that is, planting water bamboo in the same field and, each year when preparing the land for transplanting, changing the furrows of the previous year's water bamboo field into beds and the beds of the water bamboo field into furrows. This method also achieves a certain rotation effect and has a certain role in overcoming continuous cropping obstacles. Combined with other fertilizer and water management measures, this method has allowed water bamboo to be continuously planted in some local fields in Huangyan for nearly ten years without obvious yield reduction or quality decline.
Mechanism by which paddy-upland rotation increases yield
Some water bamboo farmers do not fully understand the role of rotation in water bamboo fields and often adopt many years of continuous cropping; some even transplant once and harvest for several years, seriously affecting the yield and quality of water bamboo. According to surveys, when water bamboo is continuously cropped for more than two production cycles, the yield decreases by 10-15% in each cycle. The reasons paddy-upland rotation increases yield are:
1. It can significantly improve the physical and chemical properties of the soil, especially reducing soil bulk density, increasing soil aeration and water permeability, and significantly improving soil aggregate structure, with a very good effect on the release of soil nutrients and the absorption and utilization of nutrients by crops.
2. It can reduce crop diseases. After continuous cropping of water bamboo, sheath blight and sesame leaf spot increase significantly. The longer the continuous cropping time, the more severe the diseases. After paddy-upland rotation, however, the incidence of disease is significantly reduced.
3. It can improve fertilizer use efficiency. In soil under continuous water bamboo cropping, phosphorus and potassium are consumed in large amounts, and nitrogen cannot fully play its role. After paddy-upland rotation, however, soil fertility can be fully utilized and fertilizer use efficiency improved.
4. It can reduce field weeds. Changes in the paddy and upland ecological environment are not conducive to the continuous reproduction and growth of the same type of weeds and can significantly reduce weed damage.
Intercropping, relay intercropping, and three-dimensional cultivation and breeding models
In addition to rotation, water bamboo field cultivation can also use intercropping and relay intercropping. The main intercrops in water bamboo fields are aquatic crops such as rice, water caltrop, lotus root, and water spinach, though intercropping and relay intercropping with wheat, rapeseed, or upland vegetables is also possible. Intercropping and relay intercropping methods can use intercropping in alternate rows or multiple rows, and can also use interplanting around the field edges and in the middle. Using intercropping and relay intercropping in water bamboo fields can effectively improve land utilization, improve ventilation and light transmission between plants, lower the water temperature of the water bamboo field so that autumn water bamboo forms shoots earlier, reduce weeds between rows in the water bamboo field, and give relatively good benefits.
To further improve the utilization rate and output rate of water bamboo fields, in recent years many places have also seen three-dimensional ecological cultivation and breeding models in which water bamboo is co-cultivated and co-bred with field fish, freshwater shrimp, rice field eel, crabs, ducks, and so on, all achieving relatively good benefits.