How to cultivate Pinellia ternata efficiently? Master the key techniques for easy high yields

        Pinellia ternata, a plant of the genus Pinellia in the Araceae family, is a commonly used Chinese medicinal material. Its dried tubers are used as medicine, mainly to treat cough, asthma with copious phlegm, nausea and vomiting and other conditions. In recent years, it has been found that Pinellia ternata protein has anti-early-pregnancy and anti-tumor effects, and it is one of the Chinese herbal medicinal materials in short supply for many years. Xihe County, Gansu Province is a suitable growing area for Pinellia ternata; the Pinellia ternata produced there is white in color, high in starch and good in shape, and is well received by users, who call it Xi Pinellia. After the successful conversion from wild cultivation to artificial planting of Pinellia ternata in Xihe County, growing Pinellia ternata became one of the main sources for local people to escape poverty and become prosperous and to increase economic income. However, long-term reliance on digging up wild Pinellia ternata for seed has brought wild resources to the brink of exhaustion, kept seed prices high, worsened diseases year by year, sharply increased costs, reduced benefits and caused the planting area to plummet.         In response to the problems in Xi Pinellia production, researchers from the Institute of Economic Crops of the Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences carried out experimental research in three areas: efficient cultivation techniques, disease control, and artificial propagation of seed stems of Xi Pinellia, and successively set up 13 various experiments, achieving the expected results.         I. Technical regulations for efficient cultivation of Pinellia ternata         Experiments show that winter and spring are suitable sowing periods for Pinellia ternata, with similar yields; sowing depth has an extremely large effect on yield. Appropriately shallow sowing can increase yield by about 50%; with plastic film mulching, seedlings emerge 20 days earlier than in open fields, with a fresh tuber yield of 535 kg per mu, an increase of 82.3 kg over open fields, and a net increase in output value of 478.2 yuan; when cultivated under small plastic arched sheds before emergence, seedlings emerge 15 days earlier, with a fresh tuber yield of 1083 kg per mu, an increase of 202.1 kg over open fields, and a net increase in output value of 1482 yuan per mu; when covered with 60-65% shade netting after emergence (June 12), yield increases by 25.3% per mu; when covered with straw after emergence, yield increases by 15.5% per mu compared with the control. Planting density has a direct effect on Pinellia ternata yield and planting benefits.         The high-yield and high-efficiency optimized cultivation model for Xi Pinellia is: on medium or higher fertility soil, apply 6.4-7.7 kg of pure nitrogen, 6 kg of phosphorus oxide and 6 kg of potassium oxide per mu, with a sowing rate per mu (diameter 0.8-1.2 cm) of 200-250 kg, or 252-295 grains per sq m. During the growth period, the number of leaf stalks per mu reaches 500,000-550,000. Verified by production demonstrations, the average yield per mu is 490.4 kg, an increase of 40.4 kg over the control average yield of 450 kg per mu.         II. Disease control         The main diseases of Pinellia ternata are tuber rot, anthracnose and ring rot. Tuber rot is caused by complex infection by diseases and insects; DuPont Fuxing and Mix No. 3 (a fungicide and an insecticide) have a certain control effect, with a control efficacy of 58-49% at the peak incidence period. Control measures for soil-borne diseases of Pinellia ternata: 1. Crop rotation, replanting after an interval of more than 5 years; 2. Establish seed propagation bases in disease-free areas; 3. Spray manganese fertilizer and strengthen management; 4. Soil treatment: mix 1 kg of isofenphos-methyl into poisonous soil or with 25 kg of water, spray evenly on the ground, and turn it into the soil during land preparation; 5. Chemical seed soaking: soak seeds with 6000-fold DuPont Fuxing solution for 10 hours, then air-dry and sow; 6. Foliar spraying: near the disease onset period (late May or early June), spray foliage with 400-fold mancozeb solution once every 7-10 days for 3-4 consecutive sprayings.         III. Suitable areas and seed stem standards for artificial seed propagation of Pinellia ternata         Pinellia ternata mainly uses seeds, bulbils and tubers as propagation materials. Seed propagation can overcome the variety degeneration caused by long-term asexual propagation; tissue culture rapid propagation is conducive to the purification and selection of superior Pinellia ternata varieties and has important practical value, and can expand propagation 5 times a year; adding ginseng powder and fritillary powder to the rooting medium is conducive to rooting, and the transplant survival rate is high. In production, tubers and bulbils are used for seed propagation; by covering with film before seedling emergence, covering with straw, and covering with shade netting after emergence, an average of 3.7-4.1 bulbils are formed per plant, an increase of 27.6-41.1% over open-field propagation; for volunteer seedling propagation, planting corn after harvesting Pinellia ternata causes the Pinellia ternata tubers and bulbils left in the field to sprout and emerge again, allowing 40-50 kg to be dug per mu.         Off-site seed propagation gives yields similar to wild seed, and artificial seed propagation can completely replace wild seed. Propagating stock seed off-site and propagating production seed on-site is relatively economical and reasonable.         Seed diameter directly affects Pinellia ternata yield and planting benefits; medium-sized seed with a diameter of 0.8-1.2 cm has the highest net yield, so the seed diameter standard for Pinellia ternata is set at 0.8-1.2 cm.         IV. Artificial propagation of Pinellia ternata seed stems         Pinellia ternata is a naturally cross-pollinated crop. Artificial propagation for purification and selection of superior varieties implements two-level breeding of stock seed and production seed. Stock seed uses seed propagation, establishing seedling stock seed fields, and uses tissue culture technology for purification and expanded propagation. In production, bulbils and tubers are used for propagation.