The Latest Licorice Planting Techniques and Methods Tutorial

Licorice mostly grows in arid and semi-arid sandy soil, desert edges and loess hilly areas, and it also reproduces easily in the fields and river beach lands of the Yellow River irrigation districts. It has strong adaptability and strong stress resistance. In China, licorice grows in the northwest, north China and northeast and other places. Licorice likes an ecological environment with sufficient light, relatively low rainfall, scorching summers, severe winters and large day-night temperature differences, and has the characteristics of being light-loving, drought-tolerant, heat-tolerant, salt-alkali-tolerant and cold-tolerant. It is suitable for growing in sandy soil with deep soil layers, loose texture and good drainage.

Site Selection and Land Preparation

1. Site selection. Licorice is a perennial herbaceous plant with a well-developed root system and deep penetration into the soil; it is light-loving, drought-tolerant, salt-alkali-tolerant and afraid of waterlogging, and is suitable for growing in sandy land, grassland, riverbanks and desert and semi-desert environments. Therefore, when cultivating licorice, it is better to choose sandy loam with a relatively low groundwater table, good drainage, slightly alkaline soil, deep soil layers and convenient irrigation.

2. Fine land preparation: The land for planting licorice is best deep-plowed once in the autumn of the previous year, with a plowing depth of no less than 35cm. Before spring sowing, deep-plow and prepare the land once more in combination with applying farmyard manure, and it is best to organize it into small plots of 2—3 mu. Plots that are too large must first be leveled before sowing.

Seed Treatment

1. Seed selection. Choose Ural red-skinned licorice seeds that are plump, uniform, free of insect damage, with a purity above 90% and a thousand-grain weight of about 10-12 grams.

2. Treatment. Licorice seeds have a hard seed rate of 92%-98%, with a smooth and dense seed coat that water can hardly penetrate, resulting in an extremely low germination rate, so they must be treated before sowing. The most effective method is treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid: put the cleaned seeds into an acid-resistant container, add 2500-3000 milliliters of 80% concentrated sulfuric acid per 100 kilograms of seeds, stir quickly and then let stand for about 1 hour; when acid-etched black spots appear on the seed coat, the treatment can be stopped, and all the seeds should be scooped out and rinsed with clean water several times, then sown immediately or dried in the sun for storage, and their germination rate can reach about 90%.

Sowing

The suitable germination temperature for licorice seeds is 20-25℃, and sowing can generally be done from late April—early August, with late April—mid-May being the most suitable; licorice sown after June accumulates little matter in the same year, and the young seedlings have poor overwintering ability. The sowing rate for drilling licorice is 3-4 kilograms/mu. Ensure that more than 30,000-40,000 licorice seedlings per mu are maintained the following year.

Sowing Methods

1. Direct sowing in the field. Licorice sowing generally includes drilling, hole sowing, spot sowing and broadcasting. Which method to use for sowing should be determined according to the site type of the land. For flat terrain and large plots that are convenient for mechanical operations, use a seeder for drilling, which gives uniform emergence and facilitates intertillage weeding and furrow fertilization, with a row spacing of 25 cm and a depth of 2.0-2.5 cm. Irrigate well before sowing, and after sowing cover with soil in time and harrow and roll to compact and preserve soil moisture. For plots with complex terrain and relatively large undulations, hole sowing or spot sowing is preferable.

2. Raising seedlings and transplanting

① Raising seedlings. The seedling-raising land should be chosen in a relatively flat place with a water source. One fen of seedling land (67㎡) can plant one mu of land (667㎡), using 1 kilogram of seed. When the temperature stabilizes above 18℃, fertilize the selected land and rake it finely and evenly, then open shallow furrows 2 cm deep at a row spacing of 25 cm, evenly sow the seeds in the furrows, cover with 1 cm of soil, press lightly, and the seedlings will emerge completely in about 6 days. The seedlings grow for about 4 months, and the roots reach 35 cm-40 cm, meeting the transplanting standard.

② Transplanting. On the selected land, apply 2000 kilograms of organic fertilizer, 50 kilograms of superphosphate, 20 kilograms of quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer and 10 kilograms of potassium fertilizer per mu, rake finely and evenly, then open furrows 6 cm deep at a row spacing of 25 cm, cut off the stems and branches above the rhizome of the licorice seedlings, remove the lateral roots, place the seedling roots one by one in the furrows at a plant spacing of 5 cm, fill with soil, compact and water, planting about 40,000 seedlings per mu; they will emerge in about 10 days, and with routine management, they can be harvested after two years of growth.