Detailed Explanation of Key Points for High-Yield Cultivation Techniques of White Hyacinth Bean

White hyacinth bean, also known as hyacinth bean, small sword bean, tea bean, Emei bean, etc. Its mature seeds and seed coat are used medicinally, with effects of harmonizing the stomach and resolving dampness, strengthening the spleen and promoting diuresis, and clearing summer heat and stopping diarrhea. It mainly treats spleen deficiency diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, and abnormal vaginal discharge. The hyacinth bean flower is used medicinally, with effects of relieving summer heat and resolving dampness, stopping diarrhea and stopping vaginal discharge. It mainly treats heatstroke with fever, vomiting and diarrhea, vaginal discharge and dysentery. At the same time, white hyacinth bean is also an excellent health food, with medical and health benefits for habitual constipation, high blood lipids, and high blood pressure.

Morphological characteristics: It is an annual herbaceous vine of the Fabaceae family; the stem can reach 6 m in length, green, hairless. Trifoliate compound leaves are alternate, petiolate; leaflets are papery, with sparse hairs on both sides, the terminal leaflet broadly triangular-ovate, 5-9 cm long, 6-10 cm wide, the lateral leaflets larger, oblique-ovate, asymmetrical on both sides. Flowers open in autumn and winter. Racemes are axillary, 15-25 cm long, erect and stout, often with 2 to many flowers clustered at the nodes of the inflorescence axis; the calyx is broadly campanulate, with 5 teeth, the upper 2 united; the corolla is white or purplish red, 15-18 mm long, with 2 ear-like appendages on both sides of the base of the standard petal. The pod is oblong, flat, slightly curved, 5-7 cm long, 1.4-1.8 mm wide; the seed is oblong, white or purplish black.

I. Growth habits: White hyacinth bean prefers a warm, humid environment with ample sunlight. It has low requirements for soil, but deep, loose, and fertile soil is best. It can be cultivated by riversides and roadsides, at field edges and corners, and in front of and behind houses, but not in low-lying land or saline-alkali land.

II. Land preparation and fertilization: Choose a field with high terrain and good drainage, and cultivate it intensively. In combination with land preparation, apply sufficient base fertilizer: 3000 kg of farmyard manure, 20 kg of urea, and 50 kg of phosphorus-potassium fertilizer per mu. And make high beds 1.3 m wide, ready for sowing.

III. Sowing: White hyacinth bean is propagated by seed. The sowing period is spring sowing. Direct sowing is mostly used, but seedling raising and transplanting can also be used. Direct sowing: Sow white hyacinth bean seeds in holes at a row spacing and plant spacing of 60 x 50 cm on the prepared bed surface, water to preserve soil moisture, and promote emergence. Place 3-5 seeds per hole. Seedling raising: Evenly sow the seeds on the prepared bed, water to preserve soil moisture, and cover with a layer of plastic film, strengthen seedbed management, and transplant when the seedlings are about 10 cm tall. Transplanting: Plant white hyacinth bean seedlings in holes at a row spacing and plant spacing of 60 x 50 cm on the prepared bed surface, water to preserve soil moisture, and promote survival.

IV. Field management: After white hyacinth bean seedlings emerge completely or after transplanting survival, attention should be paid to intertillage and weeding. Water during dry weather and drain promptly during rainy weather. When the seedlings are 30 cm tall, trellises should be set up, or some tall crops such as corn or sorghum should be intercropped to provide support for their vines to climb, so as to facilitate ventilation and light transmission. During the bud stage, topdressing should be applied once: apply 5 kg of urea and 5 kg of potassium dihydrogen phosphate per mu.

V. Pest and disease control: The main disease of white hyacinth bean is rust, which can be controlled at the early stage of onset with sodium dinitro-o-cresolate or triadimefon. The main pest is the bean pod borer, which can be killed at the early stage of onset with fenvalerate. Aphids can be killed with pirimicarb.

VI. Harvesting and processing: White hyacinth bean is picked after the pod skin changes from green to yellow-white in autumn. Sun-dry the harvested pods, thresh them, remove all impurities, and then they can be sold as medicine. The yield is 200-300 kg per mu.