The Latest Artificial Cultivation Techniques and Methods Tutorial for Licorice
Licorice, also known as sweet grass, is a common Chinese herbal medicine for tonifying the spleen and replenishing qi, and it is also the most widely sold traditional Chinese medicinal material, with effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, and eliminating phlegm and relieving cough. Its effects are powerful, and it mostly grows wild. Later, as market demand expanded, artificial cultivation gradually emerged. Below, Qinnong Web brings you the cultivation techniques for licorice.
1. Soil selection and land preparation
Wild licorice mostly grows in arid and semi-arid sandy soil and loess hilly areas. It is drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant, and is suitable for planting in fertile, loose, well-drained sandy soil. The soil may be slightly saline-alkaline, with a pH of around 8. Deeply plow the soil, break up the clods, remove stones and the like, and level the ground.
2. Seed treatment
Before planting, select high-quality varieties with strong disease resistance and relatively high yield. Licorice seeds have a thick and hard seed coat, and direct sowing does not sprout easily, so the seeds must be treated. The treatment methods vary, but the ultimate purpose is to make the seed coat rough and enhance water permeability. In some places, a rice milling machine is used to grind the seed coat rough. In others, the seeds are soaked in water, soaked in warm water for 8-10 hours, then mixed with diluted sulfuric acid, cleaned thoroughly, and dried before sowing. In this way, the sowing survival rate reaches more than 90%.
3. Sowing
⟦NL>Licorice is drought-tolerant, heat-tolerant, and light-loving, so it is suitable for sowing in all three seasons of spring, summer, and autumn. Among them, sowing in May in summer is best, as the temperature is high at this time, which is conducive to seedling emergence. Before sowing, apply sufficient base fertilizer, and use drilling or hole sowing. The row spacing and plant spacing for sowing are 30x15, and 3-5 seeds per hole is best. After sowing, cover with soil and firm it.4. Field management
When the seedlings grow to 15 cm high, they can be thinned. In addition, after sowing, cultivate and weed in a timely manner, generally 3-4 times in the same year, and later the number of cultivations can be appropriately reduced as the plants grow. Water and fertilizer management for licorice is also extremely important. About one month after the seedlings emerge, water once, and thereafter water thoroughly once every month. Before winter, water for overwintering. After applying sufficient base fertilizer at planting, licorice basically needs no additional fertilizer.
The above is the artificial cultivation technique for licorice brought to you by Qinnong Web. The cultivation cycle of licorice is relatively long, and it generally takes 3-4 years before it can be harvested. Harvesting is best in autumn. Dig up the rhizomes, remove the small roots and young buds, wash them clean, and dry them in the sun.