Detailed Explanation of Key Techniques for High-Yield Cultivation of Safflower

Safflower, also known as cao honghua, honglanhua, etc. Its flowers are used medicinally, with effects of promoting blood circulation and regulating menstruation, removing blood stasis and reducing swelling, and relieving pain. Clinically, it mainly treats dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, uterine congestion, coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, traumatic injuries and other conditions. Safflower seeds contain 20—30% oil. The safflower oil processed from them is an important industrial raw material and health food. The main producing areas include **, Henan, Hebei, Anhui, Sichuan and other provinces and regions.

Morphological Characteristics

It is an annual herb of the Asteraceae family, 30-80 cm tall, with the entire plant smooth and hairless. The stem is erect, branched in the upper part, woody at the base, with fine residual groove lines on the surface. Leaves are alternate, hard in texture, nearly sessile and clasping the stem; oblong or ovate-lanceolate, with irregular rounded tooth-like lobes on the margin, the lobe tips having sharp spines, both surfaces smooth and hairless, dark green and waxy; the upper leaves gradually become smaller and form bract-like structures surrounding the capitulum. The inflorescence is terminal, 2-4 cm in diameter. The involucral bracts are ovate or nearly hemispherical; the involucral bracts are in multiple series, the outer 2-3 series leaf-like and lanceolate, the upper margins mostly with sharp spines, the inner series ovate, the spineless ones with membranous margins. Tubular flowers are mostly 20-150, orange-red or orange-yellow, about 2 cm long, fragrant, usually bisexual; the corolla tube is slender and linear, with 5 lobes at the apex; stamens 5; ovary inferior, stigma two-lobed, with serrated spines on it. The achene is elliptical to obovate, whitish and glossy on the surface, sometimes slightly grayish, with 4 ribs; the pericarp is hard, and after opening it contains one seed, ovate, with a very thin seed coat, light grayish-yellow, and 2 cotyledons, thick and yellowish-white.

I. Growth Habits

Safflower prefers a warm and slightly dry climate. It is relatively drought-tolerant and cold-tolerant, and fears high temperatures and humid climates. It fears waterlogging and prefers an environment with ample sunlight. It has low requirements for soil, and loam with deep soil layers, loose fertility and rich organic matter is best.

II. Land Selection and Land Preparation

Choose fields with high terrain and good drainage, and cultivate intensively. Combined with land preparation, apply sufficient base fertilizer: 3000 kg of farmyard manure, 20 kg of urea, and 50 kg of phosphate and potassium fertilizer per mu. Then make beds and wait for sowing.

III. Sowing

Safflower is propagated by seed, and the sowing period includes autumn sowing and spring sowing. Autumn sowing is suitable in the south, and spring sowing is suitable in the north.

When sowing, use a drill to sow the seeds evenly on the prepared bed surface (using wide and narrow rows), or sow by dibbling at a row spacing of 40×15 cm on the prepared bed surface, placing 3—5 seeds per hole. Water to preserve soil moisture so as to promote survival. The seeding rate is about 3 kg per mu.

IV. Field Management

After the safflower seedlings emerge completely, attention should be paid to intertillage and weeding. During the bud stage, attention should be paid to the prevention and control of pests and diseases. For safflower fruit fly, use methamidophos for prevention. Water frequently in dry weather, and drain promptly in rainy weather. When the seedlings are 10 cm tall, thin them, removing the weak and keeping the strong, leaving 1—2 strong seedlings per hole. At the bud stage, apply topdressing once: 5 kg of urea and 10 kg of potassium dihydrogen phosphate per mu.

V. Pest and Disease Control

For anthracnose, spray 50% thiophanate 1000 solution or 80% anthracnose magnesium 800-fold solution at the early stage of the disease for control. For fusarium wilt, spray 50% carbendazim 400-fold solution for control. For underground pests, use phoxim mixed with poison bait for trapping and killing.

VI. Harvesting and Processing

Safflower is generally picked between Xiaoman and Mangzhong. When the safflower turns from yellow to red, harvest in batches. Place the picked safflower on bamboo mats, cover with a layer of newspaper, and sun-dry or air-dry before selling as medicine. The yield is 20 kg per mu. About 20 days after flower picking, after the upper stems and leaves turn yellow and withered, cut off the aboveground parts with a sickle, and thresh the seeds and sun-dry them. The yield is 150 kg per mu.