What conditions are needed for licorice cultivation? A detailed explanation of the latest cultivation key points
Licorice is also known as sweet grass, sweet root, sweet licorice, etc. Its roots and rhizomes are used as medicine. It contains glycyrrhizic acid, glycyrrhetinic acid, glycyrrhizic lactone, as well as flavonoids and coumarins. It is sweet in taste and neutral in nature, and has the functions of tonifying the spleen and replenishing qi, relieving cough and resolving phlegm, and clearing heat and detoxifying. It is a bulk Chinese medicinal herb. Let us now take a look at the cultivation conditions and cultivation benefits of licorice!
Cultivation conditions of licorice
Licorice mostly grows in the northern temperate zone, in plains, mountainous areas or river valleys at an altitude of 0-200 m. Wild licorice is associated with plants such as apocynum, Populus euphratica, reeds, sand sagebrush and ephedra. The soil is mostly sandy soil, and the soil pH should preferably be neutral or slightly alkaline; it grows poorly in acidic soil.
Licorice prefers an ecological environment with sufficient sunlight, relatively low rainfall, scorching summers, severe cold winters and large diurnal temperature differences. It has the characteristics of being light-loving, drought-tolerant, heat-tolerant, salt-alkali-tolerant and cold-tolerant. For cultivated licorice, four years is considered the most appropriate time for optimal harvesting.
Northwest China, North China and Northeast China are all suitable for planting licorice, especially Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.
Current status of licorice cultivation
Licorice is mainly produced in the western and northern regions of China. Due to continuously increasing demand in international and domestic markets, prices have risen again and again, and large-scale manual digging has caused environmental deterioration. Since last year, the State Council has issued relevant documents many times to prohibit manual digging of wild licorice, and major production areas have also carried out strict crackdowns, which has made it even harder for licorice to meet export demand.
According to relevant information, China is the world's only major licorice-producing country, exporting to more than 30 countries and regions, with Japan alone requiring as much as 10,000 tons. In China, licorice is the most used herb among more than 2,000 kinds of herbal medicines, and there is a saying that “in ten prescriptions, nine contain licorice; without licorice, no prescription is complete.”
Artificial cultivation of licorice is relatively suitable in regions such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Qinghai, Gansu, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Jilin, Henan, Hebei and Beijing. Because licorice has extremely strong drought tolerance and salt-alkali tolerance, it is also a good project for sand fixation and desert control.
Because licorice is a leguminous plant, its stems and leaves contain various trace elements needed by animals, and it has good palatability, making it suitable as feed for various herbivorous animals. After harvesting, the fibrous roots of licorice have the same medicinal value as licorice. After being washed clean, dried and ground into powder, they can be used as feed additives for animals, so it can be said that every part of licorice is valuable.
Cultivation benefits of licorice
1. Yield per mu: licorice grown for one year yields 400-600 kg per mu, and licorice grown for two years can yield more than 1,000 kg per mu. At present, the market price of licorice is 8-12 yuan/kg, and the income per mu is 3,000-7,000 yuan.
2. Investment per mu: seed cost 186 yuan, fertilizer cost 150 yuan (base fertilizer + topdressing), pesticide 10 yuan, plowing cost 50 yuan (twice), labor 60 yuan, totaling 450 yuan per mu.
3. Profit per mu: the cultivation profit of licorice is 2,600-6,000 yuan. If intercropping or relay intercropping is adopted, the comprehensive economic benefit is even higher.