A Detailed Guide to Seed Selection and Seedling Raising Techniques for Corn Cockle
Corn cockle (Agrostemma githago) is an annual herbaceous plant of the carnation family, genus Agrostemma. Its plant form is dignified and elegant, and when it blooms it is delicate and beautiful, suitable for arranging flower borders, flower beds, or planting along roadsides. Corn cockle not only has high ornamental value, but its whole plant can also be used as medicine, with extremely high medicinal value, and is therefore welcomed by the market. When people discover its beauty, they cannot help but want to grow a pot of it. So when growing corn cockle, how should you select seeds and raise seedlings? Let's take a look.
How to select corn cockle seeds?
Corn cockle seeds are black, irregularly ovate or round-kidney-shaped, with a flowering period from June to August and a fruiting period from July to September. It likes light, tolerates cold, and tolerates drought and poor soil, with strong adaptability, growing best in loose, breathable, well-drained soil. Before sowing, you should choose plump, top-quality seeds free of pests and diseases, preferably fresh seeds harvested the same year, which helps increase the germination rate. After seed selection is complete, you can proceed with presprouting and sowing.
What are the seedling raising methods?
1. Seed treatment
Before sowing, you first need to soak the corn cockle seeds in warm water for a period, with the water temperature controlled at around 40 to 50°C and the soaking time controlled at around 8 to 10 hours, so that the corn cockle seeds can absorb enough water, which helps increase the germination rate of corn cockle.
2. Sowing management
When sowing, growers need to pay attention to sowing depth and density. The depth should be kept at around 2cm, and the sowing density should be 3 jin of corn cockle seeds per mu. After sowing, growers need to pay attention to temperature changes in the growing environment, because corn cockle seeds can only germinate normally in an environment of around 15 degrees; when necessary, artificial measures can be taken appropriately to control the environmental temperature.
3. Seedling raising techniques
Corn cockle mostly uses the method of sowing and propagation to raise seedlings. Before sowing, prepare the land and make a seedbed, then evenly broadcast the seeds in the seedbed, cover with a thin layer of fine soil after sowing, spray to keep the seedbed moist, and control the temperature at 18-22°C. After the seedlings emerge, strengthen management; when the seedlings have 2-4 true leaves, they can be transplanted.
4. Care and management
1) Water and fertilizer: For corn cockle, follow the watering principle of watering when dry and stopping when wet; in hot summer, more watering is needed to prevent the plant from wilting. Fertilization should be light; apply a top dressing once every 10-15 days, and before flowering and after flowers fade, both require top dressing with phosphorus and potassium fertilizer.
2) Light: Corn cockle is managed relatively extensively and likes direct sunlight; during the vigorous growth period of corn cockle, it needs to be given sufficient light.
3) Temperature: The suitable temperature for corn cockle growth is between 15°C-35°C. In winter, corn cockle needs to be placed indoors to overwinter, with the temperature kept at around 10°C, but not too high.
Today, corn cockle has become a very popular plant and is also widely distributed in our country, including Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and other places. Of course, if flower lovers want to grow corn cockle well, they must master sowing and seedling raising techniques and give it a suitable growing environment so that it can grow robustly and bloom.
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