A Detailed Guide to Harvesting and Seedling Cultivation Methods for Polygonatum Seeds
As demand in the Chinese medicinal herb market has continued to expand in recent years, many farmers have also joined the ranks of those cultivating Chinese medicinal herbs. Polygonatum is a medicinal plant containing large amounts of starch, sugar, fat, protein, carotene, vitamins and various other nutrients, so how are polygonatum seeds harvested? What are the seedling cultivation methods? Let us take a look together below.
1. How are polygonatum seeds harvested?
After the onset of autumn, select seeds from robust mother plants that are free of pests and diseases and have plump fruit for harvesting. The harvesting standard for polygonatum seeds is: harvest when the berries turn from green to yellow or black and are ripe.
2. What seedling cultivation methods are there for polygonatum?
1. Timing of seedling cultivation
After seed collection, sow in the spring of the following year in March to April when the weather warms up. The sowing rate for clean polygonatum seed is about 3-4 kg/667 sq m.
2. Seedbed preparation
Use loose, breathable sandy loam or loam rich in humus for seedling cultivation. The seedling plot should be selected as a relatively moist plot with convenient drainage and irrigation, shelter from the wind, and a certain degree of shading for sowing and seedling cultivation. According to the actual conditions of the seedling plot, apply plant ash or fully decomposed organic matter at 500-1,000 kg per 667 sq m, then dig and turn the surface soil to a depth of 20 cm; after breaking up and raking the soil level, make flat beds or raised beds 120-130 cm wide according to the terrain and moisture conditions, with the bed orientation preferably facing the morning sun and evening sun, avoiding direct midday sunlight, and make bed furrows and surrounding furrows 30-40 cm wide and 15 cm deep; the furrows should connect with one another and have outlets to facilitate drainage.
3. Sowing and seedling cultivation
When the weather warms up in March of the following year, sieve out the seeds, open horizontal furrows on the bed surface at a row spacing of 12-15 cm and a depth of 2-3 cm, and evenly scatter the seeds into the shallow furrows on the bed surface at 5 cm x 5 cm; cover with fine soil and water thoroughly, cover the bed surface with leaves or rice straw so that the soil is not exposed, and cover with a plastic tunnel on top.
4. Management during the seedling stage
After polygonatum seedlings emerge, remove the covering grass; watering should not be too frequent, and the aim should be to keep the soil moist, strictly avoiding waterlogging. Young seedlings cannot tolerate being pressed by weeds, so during the seedling cultivation period pull weeds as soon as they appear, achieving early removal, removal while small, and complete removal; the use of chemical herbicides is prohibited.
The above is the introduction to polygonatum. Polygonatum breeding can emerge and be planted out in the autumn of the same year or the following spring. Market demand for polygonatum is increasing day by day, and wild resources are already far from able to meet market demand. Artificial cultivation of polygonatum has good economic returns and good prospects.
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