The Latest Tutorial on Lily Planting and Management Techniques

For lily planting, the site should generally be a loose, fertile sandy loam with a relatively low groundwater table. After proper deep plowing, harrow it level and form beds about 1.5 m wide and about 20 cm high, with furrows about 30 cm wide between the beds. At the same time, open field ditches and field-edge ditches about 50 cm wide to facilitate drainage and irrigation. Before leveling the land and plowing, apply base fertilizer first. Generally, per mu, apply 2500-3000 kg of decomposed farmyard manure, 100-150 kg of bran fertilizer, and 15-25 kg of superphosphate. After application, plow it into the soil and then harrow it level.

Before “Lidong” (the Beginning of Winter), select bulbs harvested that year for planting. Before planting, carefully cut open multi-core seed bulbs with a small bamboo knife (do not use iron tools to cut or break them by hand). When planting, open seed furrows 7-10 cm wide on the bed surface, and place the seed cores upward in the furrows at a row spacing of 30 cm × 15 cm, then cover with about 3 cm of loose soil. About 15 days after planting, apply a “wintering fertilizer” once, applying about 2500 kg of decomposed cattle pen manure per mu, preferably enough to cover the bed surface, and sprinkle an appropriate amount of decomposed dilute manure water on the surface. When the seedlings emerge the following year and reach 12-15 cm tall, carry out one cultivation and weeding, and combine it with applying about 1500 kg of decomposed manure water per mu. When the underground bulbs begin to form and swell, apply an appropriate amount of nitrogen fertilizer once more (do not apply nitrogen chemical fertilizer in seed-production fields). After that, when the flower buds opening on the aboveground part turn red, remove them to encourage nutrients to concentrate in supplying the underground bulbs and increase yield. The removed flower buds should be disposed of in a centralized way and should not be allowed to rot in the field, to prevent stem rot and seedling death.