How to Grow Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen)? Detailed High-Yield Cultivation Techniques

Salvia miltiorrhiza (Danshen), also known as Blood Ginseng, Dahongpao, etc. Its underground roots are used medicinally, with effects of promoting blood circulation, regulating menstruation, dissipating blood stasis, and relieving pain. It is mainly used to treat coronary heart disease, irregular menstruation, postpartum blood stasis, pain in the chest, abdomen, or limbs, carbuncles, swellings, and sores, and restlessness and insomnia. It is mainly produced in Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Sichuan, and other provinces. It is now cultivated throughout the country.

Morphological Characteristics: It is a perennial herb of the Lamiaceae family, 30-100 cm tall, with the whole plant densely covered with pale yellow soft hairs and glandular hairs. The roots are slender, cylindrical, with a soil-red outer bark. The stems are four-angled, branching in the upper part. The leaves are opposite, odd-pinnately compound; the leaflets are ovate to broadly ovate, densely covered with white soft hairs on both sides. It flowers in summer, with terminal and axillary verticillasters, each whorl having 3-10 flowers, with multiple whorls arranged into a lax raceme; the calyx is slightly campanulate, purple; the corolla is 2-lipped, blue-purple, with 2 fertile stamens extending out of the corolla tube and lying under the upper lip, and 2 staminodes inserted on both sides of the throat of the upper lip; the ovary is superior, deeply 4-lobed, the style is longer than the stamens, and the stigma has 2 unequal lobes. The nutlets are oblong, dark brown or black when mature, enclosed in the persistent calyx.

I. Growth Habits: Salvia miltiorrhiza prefers a warm and humid environment with ample sunlight. It is drought-tolerant, cold-tolerant, and afraid of waterlogging. It has low soil requirements, and sandy loam with deep soil layers, loose fertility, and rich organic matter is best for cultivation. The suitable growth temperature is 20—30°C.

II. Land Preparation and Fertilization: Choose fields with high terrain and good drainage, and plow and harrow carefully. In combination with land preparation, apply sufficient base fertilizer: 5000 kg of farmyard manure, 50 kg of cake fertilizer, 20 kg of urea, and 50 kg of phosphate and potassium fertilizer per mu. Then make beds and wait for sowing.

III. Sowing: In production, Salvia miltiorrhiza is propagated by root division. It can also be propagated by seeds and cuttings. The sowing period is mostly spring sowing, carried out around Qingming. Root division propagation: select one-year-old root strips about the thickness of a little finger, free of pests and diseases, and red in color; take the middle and upper sections, cut them into small sections 5 cm long as planting stock, air-dry for half a day, and after the wounds heal, plant them on the prepared bed surface at a row spacing of 35×20 cm, water to preserve moisture, and promote survival. It is even better to plant after sprouting in a hotbed. Use 60 kg of seed roots per mu. Cutting propagation: generally carried out in the hot and rainy season. Select robust two-year-old stems and branches, air-dry them slightly, dip the base in APT rooting powder for 5 minutes, then insert them into the prepared bed surface, water to preserve moisture, and they will survive. Seed propagation: after harvesting Salvia miltiorrhiza seeds, sow them promptly on the prepared bed surface, strengthen field management after emergence, and transplant after one year of growth. The sowing rate is 2 kg per mu. Because seed propagation has a longer growth period, it is generally not often used in production.

IV. Field Management: After Salvia miltiorrhiza emerges, attention should be paid to cultivation and weeding. For large-scale planting, soil treatment with herbicide for medicinal fields should be carried out before emergence, which can effectively control various weeds. Pay attention to drainage during rainy weather and water promptly during dry weather. Around the Beginning of Autumn, when the underground rhizomes enter the expansion period, apply topdressing once: 10 kg of urea and 10 kg of potassium dihydrogen phosphate per mu. After budding, remove the flower buds promptly to reduce nutrient consumption.

V. Pest and Disease Control: The main disease and pest of Salvia miltiorrhiza is root rot, which can be controlled by spraying with 50% carbendazim 700-fold solution in the early stage of the disease. Spray once a week for three consecutive times. The pest includes the larvae of the silver-marked moth, which eat the leaves, and can be killed with pyrethroid pesticides. For underground pests, use phoxim with poison bait for trapping and killing.

VI. Harvesting and Processing: Salvia miltiorrhiza is generally dug in autumn after 1—2 years of planting. Remove the soil from the dug underground roots and sun-dry them before medicinal use. The yield is 350 kg per mu.