A Detailed Guide to Selecting Star Anise Seeds and Raising Seedlings
Star anise is one of the seasonings often used in people's daily lives, and its market demand is also quite good, so what varieties of star anise are there? How do you select star anise seeds? What seedling-raising methods are there?
1. How do you select star anise seeds?
1. From the appearance
True star anise is brown, with neat pods that are often only half-open, revealing the seeds inside. Fake star anise is often pale yellow, with irregular pods and hooked tips on the points.
2. By taste
Genuine star anise tastes pungent, with a full aroma, but it does not numb the mouth; fake star anise is bland in flavor, has a smell similar to pomelo leaves, camphor, and pine needles, and gives a numbing sensation on the tongue.
2. What seedling-raising methods are there for star anise?
1. Seedling method by direct seeding
1.1 Seed collection
In October, when the autumn crop of fruit ripens in large quantities, choose robust 30- to 50-year-old trees that are free of pests and diseases, bear many plump fruits, and have good quality. When the fruits turn from green to yellow, are largely ripe, and the pods have not yet split open, use auxiliary tools such as bamboo hooks to pull down the fruiting branches, pick the fruits, remove small fruits, shriveled fruits, and misshapen fruits, and select suitable fruits as seed. The selected fresh fruits must be processed immediately.
1.2 Seed treatment
Spread the seed fruits indoors to dry, turning them frequently, and when the fruits split open, extract the seeds, remove impurities, and collect the seeds for sowing. When drying the seeds, do not break the seed coat or expose the seeds to hot sun, and do not place them in a place with air circulation, otherwise the seeds will lose their ability to germinate. Therefore, it is best to sow as soon as the fruits are collected and the seeds are extracted. If sowing cannot be done at the time of seed collection, the following methods can be used to store the seeds. First, the yellow mud slurry seed-mixing storage method: use fresh, impurity-free yellow mud, add an appropriate amount of water to make a slurry, then mix it with the seeds so that the seeds are coated with the slurry and form granules, place them in a cool, humid place indoors, cover with a layer of wet straw paper to retain moisture, and every 3 to 5 days uncover the wet paper to let the seeds breathe; when dry, spray a suitable amount of clear water on the paper surface to maintain a certain humidity. Second, the wet sand stratification storage method: store the seeds and wet sand in layers, place them in a ventilated, cool place indoors, and keep the sand layer moist at all times. With the above two methods, star anise seeds can be stored until sowing the following spring. In addition, if conditions permit, cold storage can also be used: put fresh fruits or fresh seeds into fresh-keeping bags and store them in a cold storage at 0 to 2°C; with this method, the seeds can still germinate after one year of storage.
1.3 Sowing time
In the Guangxi production areas, there is generally no frost or little frost in winter, so seeds can be sown immediately after collection, or sown in November to December; if there is frost, sowing should be completed by mid-March at the latest. If sown after March, the seed germination rate is extremely low.
1.4 Sowing method
In production, drilling is mostly used to facilitate management. It is best to sow immediately after collection, and sowing should be completed by mid-March at the latest. For stored seeds, wet sand must be used to promote germination for 5 to 7 days before sowing. On the prepared seedbed, open sowing furrows 3 to 4 cm deep at a row spacing of 15 to 20 cm, and sow 1 seed every 3 to 4 cm. After sowing, cover the seeds with sifted clean fine yellow soil or turf ash, and cover the bed surface with thatch or rice straw to keep warm and moist and prevent rain from washing it away. Generally, 6 to 8 kg of seed is used per mu.
1.5 Seedling-stage management
After 50% of the seeds have germinated and emerged, remove the covering grass. After emergence, promptly set up a shade shed, with a height of 1.5 to 2 m, so that the light transmittance reaches 30% to 40%. When the seedlings are 5 to 8 cm tall and have 3 to 4 true leaves, thin and fill in the seedlings, and at the same time combine cultivating and weeding with 1 application of nitrogen fertilizer. From June to September, which is the vigorous growth period of star anise seedlings, apply fertilizer 1 to 2 times per month, and at the same time spray 1 to 2 applications of foliar fertilizer to promote seedling growth; in mid- to late December, apply 1 application of decomposed farmyard manure, mixed with an appropriate amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, to enhance the seedlings' cold resistance for overwintering. During the seedling stage, cultivate and weed in a timely manner to avoid soil compaction and weed damage; irrigate in a timely manner to keep the soil moist. After 2 to 3 years of cultivation, when the direct-seeded seedlings are 1 m tall and have a ground diameter of more than 1.2 cm, robust seedlings can be lifted from the nursery for field planting.
2. Grafting seedling method: grafted star anise seedlings have the advantages of maintaining the superior traits of the mother tree, flowering and fruiting earlier, promoting branching, and inducing dwarfing of the crown.
2.1 Grafting time
Grafting can be done from February to September.
2.2 Selection of scions and rootstocks
For scions, select one-year-old fruiting mother branches from the middle and upper sunny parts of the crown of robust, middle-aged plants of superior varieties, with thick growth, plump buds, and no pests or diseases. For rootstocks, select one- or two-year-old direct-seeded seedlings grown from seeds collected from red-flower or pale red-flower star anise mother trees, and it is best to use robust direct-seeded seedlings with a diameter of more than 0.7 cm at 15 to 20 cm above the ground as rootstocks.
2.3 Grafting method
Choose a cloudy day when the temperature is above 15°C that day, or a sunny day before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m., and never graft at noon when the temperature is higher or on rainy days. Generally, for spring grafting, the cut grafting method or terminal bud splice grafting method should be used; in summer from May to June, the bark-peeling branch grafting method or T-shaped bud grafting method should be used; for grafting in autumn from August to September, the T-shaped bud grafting method should be used.
2.4 Management after grafting
Before and after grafting, keep the seedbed moist. In dry weather, irrigate promptly, and in the rainy season, drain accumulated water; check survival 15 to 20 days after grafting, and immediately regraft those that did not survive; after survival and sprouting, loosen the binding, remove the cover, and cut the rootstock. About 40 to 60 days later, when the first flush of shoots has matured, the binding can be untied; when the grafted seedlings grow to about 20 cm, they can be straightened, pinched, and trained to a trunk; remove sprouts in a timely manner, keeping only one robust branch sprouting from the scion, and promptly remove all other sprouts, including those on the rootstock. Cultivate, weed, and fertilize once a month, mainly with nitrogen fertilizer in the early stage and with an appropriate increase in phosphorus and potassium fertilizer in the later stage; carry out pest and disease control in a timely manner. One year after grafting, when the plant is more than 0.5 m tall and has a ground diameter of more than 0.7 cm, it can be lifted from the nursery for field planting. (Source: China Agriculture Press)
When farmers buy star anise in the market, they must be careful to distinguish the real from the fake. It is understood that fake star anise fennel contains toxic substances, and eating it can cause poisoning. Common fake star anise fennels include red anise, Difengpi, and large star anise.
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