How to Grow Chinese Yam? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Planting Methods
Chinese yam, also known as earth potato or huai shan, can be used both as food and as medicine. It helps promote digestion and stop diarrhea, and is mainly used for cough, diarrhea, indigestion, and deficiency-cold of the spleen and lungs. Combined with reishi mushroom, it has an excellent supportive therapeutic effect on diabetes. So how is it grown? Let's take a look together below with Qinnong Web.
1. Selection of Planting Varieties
There are many varieties of Chinese yam, but the main varieties include fine-haired long Chinese yam, ermao Chinese yam, and Japanese yam. Fine-haired long Chinese yam and ermao Chinese yam are both long cylindrical varieties of Chinese yam and are also the varieties we see more commonly, while Japanese yam, as the name suggests, is not a variety from our country. It is a variety developed through long-term cultivation. It has strong adaptability to the environment, and its quality is also good, with yields higher than ordinary varieties.
2. Soil Selection and Trench Digging
To grow Chinese yam, choose loose, fertile, well-drained sandy soil. Avoid soil that is heavily clayey and poorly drained. Dig the trenches in winter or early spring. The row spacing of the trench soil is about 1 m, and the trench depth should also reach 1 m. Digging trenches by hand is extremely tedious and laborious. If conditions permit, mechanical trench digging can be chosen.
3. Propagation Methods
The main methods are propagation by rootstock heads and by bulbils.
Rootstock head propagation: In October, select Chinese yam rootstock heads with plump buds and no pests or diseases, cut them to about 20 cm, and place them in mild sunlight for 2-3 days to let the wounds heal. Dig pits and bury the rootstock heads. The depth of the pits should be such that the rootstock heads are not damaged by freezing. Keep the temperature at about 5 degrees. After winter, when the soil thaws, apply sufficient fertilizer, deeply turn the soil to completely cover the rootstock heads, water, and keep the soil moist. Seedlings will emerge in about half a month.
Bulbil propagation: In October, pick the bulbils and store them in dry sand. Take them out in early spring of the following year, expose them to a little sunlight, and then sow them. Cover with about 6 cm of soil, keep the soil moist, and seedlings will emerge in half a month. In autumn, they can be dug out for planting.
4. Planting Methods
Because temperatures vary slightly from region to region, the planting time for Chinese yam also differs. Generally, it can be planted once the ground temperature stabilizes at about 10 degrees. Plastic film mulch can also be used to increase and maintain ground temperature. Fill the cultivation trenches with soil and fertilizer, cover with 10 cm of soil, water thoroughly once, then lay the propagated Chinese yam planting pieces flat in the trenches at 15-20 cm intervals, cover with 8-10 cm of soil, and then cover with plastic film to maintain soil moisture and temperature and speed up seedling emergence.
The above is the introduction to Chinese yam planting methods brought to you by Qinnong Web. To ensure yield, generally about 2000-4000 plants are planted per mu, and the fertilizer amount per sq m is 3000 kg per mu. Only in this way can the nutrients needed for Chinese yam growth be ensured.