High-yield taro cultivation techniques: how many days until harvest?
Taro, also known as qingyu, yunai, maoyu and so on, is the underground fleshy corm of the taro plant, a perennial herbaceous plant of the Araceae family. It originated in India and was later introduced from Southeast Asia, South China and Japan and other places. In China it is grown most in the Pearl River basin and Taiwan, China, followed by the Yangtze River basin, and it is also grown in other provinces and cities. Now let us take a look at high-yield taro cultivation techniques!
Taro growing conditions
1. Temperature: Taro needs a high-temperature, humid environment. A relatively large difference between day and night temperatures is favorable for corm formation. During the corm formation period, 28-30°C during the day and 18-20°C at night are most suitable.
2. Water: Whether it is wetland taro or upland taro, taro likes moist natural environmental conditions. Upland taro requires moist soil during the growing period, while wetland taro requires a certain water layer during the growing period.
3. Light: Taro is relatively tolerant of weak light and is not very strict about light intensity. It grows well under scattered light, and corm formation and expansion require short-day conditions.
4. Soil: Wetland taro needs to be cultivated in paddy fields, low-lying land or water ditches. Although upland taro can grow on dry land, it still retains the ecological type of a swamp plant, so moist areas should be chosen for planting.
Taro variety selection
1. Red-bud taro: Red-bud taro plants are 90-100 cm tall, with broad ovate leaves and light purple petioles. The mother corm is relatively large and nearly round. Each plant has 7-10 daughter corms. The daughter corms are plump, with thick brown skin, white flesh and bright red buds. The yield per plant is 0.85-1 kg. It contains relatively much starch and has excellent quality. The fresh taro can be eaten or dried. It is mid-season. The growing period is 210-240 days. The planting period is February to March, and it is harvested in September to October, with a yield of 1500-1700 kg per mu.
2. White-bud taro: White-bud taro sprouts are white, the petioles are green, the veins are light green, and the petioles are yellow-green, with a slight purple tinge near the leaf. The mother corm is spherical or oval, slightly curved. The daughter corms are oval or oblong, with yellow-white terminal buds. Each plant produces 15-20 daughter corms. The yield per plant is 500-750 g. The corm contains relatively much water, and the flesh is fine and of good quality. It matures relatively early and stores well. The yield is 1250 kg per mu, and with high yield it can reach more than 1500 kg.
3. Jiutou taro: Jiutou taro plants are 80-90 cm tall. The leaves are broad ovate, and the petioles are green. The mother corm and daughter corms grow in clusters, with slightly more daughter corms. The corms are obovate, brown, with white flesh. The yield per plant is 1.5 kg. The flesh is smooth and the flavor is mild. It is eaten as a vegetable and dried for medicinal use. It is late-maturing, with a growing period of 270-300 days. The planting period is February to March, and it is harvested in November to December, with a yield of 2500-3000 kg per mu. The taste of Jiutou taro is slightly better than that of white taro and red taro.
4. Betel nut taro: Betel nut taro plants are 80-150 cm tall. The leaves are broad ovate, and the petioles gradually transition from green to coffee red from bottom to top, all the way to the leaf core. The corms are long oval, dark brown, with white flesh and coffee-colored streaks. The yield per plant is 2.5-3 kg. Its moisture tolerance is poorer than that of other varieties, and its storability is relatively good. It is late-maturing, with a growing period of 240-280 days. The planting period is February to March, and it is harvested from November to January of the following year, with a yield of about 3000 kg per mu.
Taro cultivation techniques
1. Land preparation and fertilization: Taro has wide adaptability to soil, and clayey soil that is fertile, deep and has strong water retention is suitable. After the land is prepared, open furrows at a row spacing of 80-100 cm, with a furrow width of 50 cm and a depth of 35 cm, then fertilize inside the furrows. Taro has a high fertilizer requirement and a long growing period, so sufficient base fertilizer must first be applied. Apply 2000 kg of high-quality organic fertilizer and 60 kg of 48% potassium sulfate compound fertilizer per mu, applied in furrows opened according to the row spacing.
2. Sowing method: Select seed taros that are free of pests, diseases and wounds, spread them in the sun for 3-4 days, then arrange them densely indoors and cover them with 8-10 cm thick wet sand to promote sprouting, keeping the room temperature at 20-25°C. After 20-30 days, when the sprouts are 3-4 cm long and the 5 cm soil temperature is stable at 10°C, plant them. Open two seed rows on the bed, with a row spacing of 30 cm and a depth of 7 cm. After watering the furrows sufficiently, place the seed taros, with a plant spacing of 33-40 cm, and 4500-5000 plants per mu.
3. Watering management: Do not water before taro emerges. Keep the soil moist in the middle and late stages, and pay attention to drainage during the rainy season. Eighty days after emergence, combine watering with punching holes beside the plants to fertilize. Taro is averse to dry soil; when drought occurs, the leaves turn yellow and wither, but excessively wet soil with standing water is also unfavorable to root growth. During the seedling stage, the soil should have sufficient bottom moisture, and watering should be avoided. During the seedling stage, keep the soil alternately dry and wet, and pay attention to drainage when it rains.
4. Intertillage and earthing up: During the taro seedling stage, intertillage should be carried out in combination with topdressing to remove weeds and warm the soil. At the end of the seedling stage, intertillage should be carried out and the cultivation furrow should be made level. After that, earth up once every about 20 days, 7 cm thick, for a total of two times. The purpose of earthing up is to inhibit the germination and growth of the terminal buds of daughter corms and grandchild corms, reduce nutrient consumption, allow the taro to fully expand and produce a large number of adventitious roots, and increase the drought resistance of the plants.
5. Timely harvesting: After taro matures, it should be harvested in time. In the Yangtze River basin, early-maturing varieties sown early are mostly harvested from early September to early October, those sown late are mostly harvested from late September to late October, and mid-to-late-maturing varieties are mostly harvested from the end of September to early November. Harvesting can be appropriately advanced or delayed according to market needs, but generally it should be completed before heavy frost to prevent the taro from suffering frost damage.
6. Seed retention method: For taro, choose a high-yield field with uniform growth for seed retention, and select plants with the characteristics of that variety as seed plants. The seed corms should be harvested on a sunny day when the aboveground parts have withered and turned yellow and the daughter corms have fully grown. The size of seed taros is related to type. For the multi-daughter-corm type, 25-50 g is suitable, and at minimum it should be above 15 g. For the kui taro type, it should be above 25 g.