How to Grow Purple Loosestrife? Latest Planting Techniques and Method Guide
Purple Loosestrife, also known as water willow, willow weed, and opposite-leaved lotus, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Lythrum in the family Lythraceae. It is best planted in clumps along shallow water banks or in ponds, and can also be used as border material and cut flowers, for pot culture or bog gardens. As a medicinal herb it has heat-clearing and blood-cooling properties, and also has a blood sugar-lowering effect. Let us take a look at Purple Loosestrife growing techniques together!
Growth Habits of Purple Loosestrife
Purple Loosestrife is produced throughout China and is also cultivated. It is distributed in Asia, Europe, Algeria in Africa, North America and southeastern Australia, growing on riverbanks, lakesides, stream ditches and moist grasslands. It likes strong light, has strong cold tolerance, likes water and moisture, and is not strict about soil, growing better in deep soil rich in humus.
Propagation Techniques of Purple Loosestrife
1. Sowing: Purple Loosestrife is sown in spring from March to April. Before sowing, mix the seeds evenly with fine soil, then broadcast them on the bed, cover with 2.5 cm of soil, and finally cover with grass and water. After sowing, seedlings emerge in 10 to 15 days; remove the grass immediately, and transplant when the seedlings are about 25 cm tall.
2. Cuttage: For Purple Loosestrife cuttage, select healthy branches in spring, cut them into lengths of about 30 cm, remove the leaves, insert them obliquely into the soil to a depth of 1/2 of the cutting, press firm, water to keep moist, and transplant after roots and leaves have grown.
3. Division: For Purple Loosestrife division propagation, in spring from April to May, dig up the root clumps, divide them into clumps of several buds, and plant them in wet ground with sufficient base fertilizer.
Planting Management of Purple Loosestrife
1. Purple Loosestrife has strong vitality and can be managed extensively, but a location with sufficient light and good ventilation should be chosen. Open-field cultivation is mostly in shallow-water areas and wetlands of park lakeside garden waterscapes, and courtyards can use pot culture. The growing soil must be given an appropriate amount of decomposed chicken manure or cake fertilizer.
2. From after planting until the rows close, cultivate and weed 3 to 4 times each year. Apply nitrogen fertilizer or compound fertilizer once each in spring and summer, and apply compost or barnyard manure once after autumn. Keeping the soil moist at all times is the most critical measure for growing Purple Loosestrife well. During the growing period, remove weeds and water moss promptly. Before and during flowering, apply potassium dihydrogen phosphate two to three times, and keeping the soil moist at all times can promote plant growth.
3. In late October, the aboveground part of Purple Loosestrife gradually withers. Use branch shears to cut off the aboveground clumps and let them overwinter naturally in the open field. Potted plants must be moved into a low-temperature cold shed to overwinter. Throughout winter, the potting soil must be kept moist, and the temperature is best controlled at 0°C to 5°C, so as to avoid sprouting ahead of time in winter. Generally, divide and replant once every two to three years.