Detailed Explanation of Lazy-Method Summer Sowing Cultivation Techniques for Job's Tears

I. Market Prospects

Job's tears, commonly known as coix seed,Job's tears seed, or medicinal corn, is an annual or perennial herbaceous plant of the grass family (Poaceae). It has effects such as clearing heat, promoting diuresis, resolving dampness, discharging pus, tonifying the lungs, strengthening the spleen and stomach, strengthening bones and muscles, relieving spasms, and lowering blood pressure. In recent years, research has revealed that coix ester and coixol contained in Job's tears seeds have a good killing effect on various cancer cells. Therefore, as a tonic that is both medicinal and edible, Job's tears has wide uses, large market demand, and broad development prospects.

II. Production Significance

After wheat or rapeseed is harvested, directly planting Job's tears in the following crop using the lazy-method mechanized extensive cultivation, through years of large-scale planting by the Heze City Runkang Chinese Medicinal Materials Research Institute in Shandong, this method can effectively utilize the stalks left after harvesting with wheat or rapeseed harvesters, naturally covering the soil surface, providing shade and moisture-retention conditions for the germination and emergence of sown Job's tears seeds, ensuring full seedling establishment with one sowing; it saves ploughing costs and labor, and reduces production costs; it is particularly suited to the reality that farmers are now engaged in business and work and have no more time to operate farm work; this lazy-method planting is also suitable for planting and utilization of existing idle land in our country such as wetlands, barren hills, barren slopes, ridge land, and lake beaches, with good economic and social benefits.

III. Sowing Techniques

1. Sowing time: Job's tears can be sown in spring and summer. The lazy-method summer sowing time is after the harvest of half-year crops such as wheat or rapeseed; the land does not need ploughing operations, and Job's tears seeds can be directly sown in the rows of the harvested wheat or rapeseed.

2. Seed treatment: Select the "thin-shell red coat" medium-early maturing Job's tears variety. Before sowing, sun-dry the Job's tears seeds for two days, then soak them in water for 24 hours, remove the thin and shriveled seeds floating on the water surface, take out the sunk plump seeds to drain the water, and treat with 20% triadimefon fungicide at 0.4% of the seed amount, which can effectively prevent the occurrence of Job's tears smut.

3. Sowing method: After wheat or rapeseed is harvested, use a wheat seeding machine, adjust the seeder to sow one row of Job's tears for every row of wheat ridge skipped, so that the Job's tears sowing row spacing is between 45-50 cm; then adjust the seed meter to sow one Job's tears seed every 5-6 cm; control the sowing depth at 2-3 cm; mechanical sowing uses 3 kg of seeds per mu, and about 50 mu can be sown per day. For manual sowing, either drilling or hole sowing is acceptable; open shallow furrows at 50 cm row spacing, with a furrow depth of 3 cm, the furrow bottom should be flat, evenly scatter the seeds into the furrow at 5-6 cm plant spacing, then cover with soil, level and press firm, using 2.5 kg of seeds per mu.

IV. Field Management

1. Thinning and final singling: When the seedlings grow 2-3 true leaves, carry out the first thinning, remove dense seedlings and diseased and weak seedlings, and maintain a plant spacing of 6-7 cm; when the seedlings grow to have 5-6 true leaves, carry out final singling at a plant spacing of 13-16 cm.

2. Cultivation and weeding: Generally carry out cultivation and weeding 2 times. The first time is when the seedling height is 6-7 cm, to promote more tillering; the second time is when the seedling height is 16-20 cm; afterward, carry out cultivation and loosening of the soil in combination with fertilization. For large-scale planting, herbicides can be tried for field weeding at the seedling stage or mid-growth stage.

3. Topdressing and earthing up: Topdressing is carried out in two applications. The first time is when the seedling height is 4-7 cm, applying 1000 kg of dilute human manure and urine per mu, to promote seedling growth, more tillering, and early tillering. The second time is when the seedling height is about 35 cm or at the booting stage, applying 1500 kg of human manure and urine per mu, to promote vigorous plant growth and benefit booting. If there is no human manure and urine, urea or compound fertilizer can be selected for topdressing at 20-30 kg each time. Earthing up is carried out when the seedling height is about 35 cm, in combination with fertilization; it can prevent lodging and benefit root growth.

4. Watering to promote growth: Water management is the key to obtaining high and stable yields of Job's tears. Job's tears is similar to corn and sorghum, and people habitually consider it a dryland crop, and dryland cultivation methods are also used in production, so the yield per mu is low. Through years of large-scale planting, the Heze City Runkang Chinese Medicinal Materials Research Institute in Shandong has proved that Job's tears is not a dryland crop, but a swamp crop, a hygrophytic plant. To obtain high and stable yields, it is necessary to break out of the mistaken understanding of dryland cultivation and adopt wet cultivation methods. If planted in dryland, attention must be paid to watering, and the scientific method of "wet at both ends, dry in the middle" can be used when watering; that is, the early growth stage requires moist soil, to promote uniform and strong seedlings; the late tillering stage should drain and dry the field, control water, and prevent ineffective tillering; the heading stage should be frequently irrigated and fully irrigated (if drought occurs at this stage, the number of heads greatly decreases, the number of empty and shriveled grains increases, and the yield drops significantly); 10 days before harvest, irrigation can be stopped to facilitate reaping.

5. Supplementary pollination: Job's tears generally relies on wind for natural pollination, but the pollination rate is low, the yield is unstable, and there are many empty seeds. According to the Heze City Runkang Chinese Medicinal Materials Research Institute in Shandong, which has adopted artificial supplementary pollination measures in recent years, the effect is relatively good. The specific method is that during the few days of the full flowering stage of Job's tears plants, use tools such as sticks or ropes to vibrate the plants every day at 9-11 o'clock at noon, so that pollen flies up, which has an obvious effect on improving the fruit-setting rate. If conditions permit, a blower can also be used for artificial wind pollination, with relatively good results.

V. Harvesting and Processing

Because Job's tears has strong branching, the fruits mature unevenly. When the middle and lower leaves of the plant turn yellow and 80% of the fruits have matured and turned black, they can be harvested. For manual harvesting, choose a sunny day; after harvesting, stand the plants upright for a few days and thresh with a thresher; for large-scale planting, a wheat or rice combine harvester can be selected and, after adjustment, harvested in one pass. The harvested fruits are sun-dried on a clean drying yard until completely dry, then placed in a ventilated place to winnow away empty shells and impurities, and the relatively plump shelled Job's tears at the upper wind position are packed separately from the relatively thin and shriveled ones (white grains) at the lower wind position, and can then be sold.