Ginseng Cultivation Technical Tutorial: Detailed Explanation of the Latest Planting Methods
Ginseng is a perennial herbaceous plant that prefers a cool, humid climate and mostly grows in coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forests or miscellaneous wood forests on gentle or sloping mountain land at an altitude of 500-1100 m where the temperature difference between day and night is small. Because its root is thick and fleshy, spindle-shaped, and often branched, its overall appearance closely resembles a person's head, hands, feet and limbs, it is therefore called ginseng. In ancient times, the elegant names for ginseng were Huangjing, Dijing and Shencao. Ginseng is called the “king of a hundred herbs” and is one of the well-known “Three Treasures of the Northeast” (ginseng, marten fur, velvet antler). It is a precious medicinal material famous at home and abroad and known to both young and old.
Plant Characteristics
The ginseng plant is 33-66 cm tall, with a single, upright, cylindrical, smooth and hairless stem. The leaves are palmately compound, with long petioles; the basal leaves are the smallest, and the leaflets are elliptical with finely serrated edges, green on the surface, and with sparse hairs along the leaf margin. The umbel is borne singly at the top, with 4-40-plus small pale yellow-green flowers. The lower end of the stem is often branched, and the top has a rhizome, commonly known as the rhizome head.
Growth Characteristics
Ginseng likes to grow in cool, semi-shaded and semi-sunny places, is cold-resistant, and avoids direct strong light. When cultivated, a shade shed needs to be built. For ginseng beds, sunlight entering before 8 a.m. and after 6 p.m. is suitable, while direct strong light at noon will cause ginseng leaves to scorch and wither. It is suitable for growing at temperatures below 25°C. Forest humus soil is most suitable for cultivating ginseng, and farmland soil with fully decomposed pig manure, compost and other cool-natured fertilizers added can also be used for planting. Oak, linden, hazel and other broad-leaved forest land is required, with neutral or weakly acidic soil. For cultivating ginseng in farmland, the previous crop is best if it was a grass family or legume crop, such as corn, sorghum, millet, soybean, wheat, etc. Root and tuber crops are not good as the previous crop. Land where ginseng has been planted should not be planted with ginseng again in the short term. It fears waterlogging and avoids drought.
If ginseng seeds are sown immediately after being collected, they need 20-21 months to germinate, and after 8-9 months of germination-promoting treatment they can germinate. This is because ginseng seeds have two processes, embryo after-ripening and physiological after-ripening, and completing these processes requires certain temperature and humidity conditions. Under field conditions, sow the seeds in soil 5 cm deep, with soil moisture of about 35%; from sowing to seed cracking, the soil temperature should be about 17-18°C. At this time, the change in soil temperature from high to low can be roughly divided into three stages: the first stage is from sowing to when the embryo can be seen as a small dot with the naked eye, when the average temperature is about 21°C; the second stage is from the visible embryo dot to when the embryo occupies 1/2 of the endosperm, with an average soil temperature of about 17.4°C; the third stage is from the embryo occupying 1/2 of the endosperm to cracking, at which time the endosperm still continues to grow for a stage, and then after more than 3 months of low temperature (about 5°C), when the spring temperature rises to 11.8-15.2°C, the germination rate can reach more than 90% in about 20 days.