A Detailed Guide to the Artificial Cultivation and Processing of Litsea cubeba
Litsea cubeba, also known as mountain pepper (Litsea cubeba), is a medicinal plant. Both its root bark and its leaves can be used as medicine, and its applications are fairly wide-ranging. Its most common and frequently seen use is in medicine, and because Litsea cubeba gives off a very distinctive aromatic fragrance, it is also used by people in the making of cosmetics. So next, let me tell you how to cultivate Litsea cubeba artificially!
I. Seed collection and seedling raising
When collecting seeds and raising seedlings, we need to carry out a systematic screening of the seedlings, selecting out some of the older mother trees and picking out 5-10 year old mother trees for inspection. Any that have severe pests and diseases or poor growth must be eliminated, and then the high-quality seedlings that remain are kept for seed collection at the end of August. If the bark of the Litsea cubeba tree shows a purple-black color, then seed collection can begin. Remove the bark and the waxy layer, wash them clean, and then sowing can be carried out. Then cover with soil, with the soil thickness at 2 cm. After sowing, spray butachlor once, and take extra time to remove weeds, ensuring that no weeds grow throughout the year.
II. Site selection and planting
Litsea cubeba is suited to growing in the southern regions of our country. It can be planted on the four types of wasteland below an altitude of 1500. Litsea cubeba can be planted in the winter and spring seasons, with a row spacing maintained at 1*2 m. Planting 300 plants in 667 sq m of land is sufficient. Because Litsea cubeba is a dioecious plant, the ratio of male to female trees should be kept at 1:3.
III. Daily management
Normally, you should patrol the field often. When the mother plant of Litsea cubeba grows to one meter tall, top it, as this can promote branching in the mother plant. In May, weeds should be removed from the field. Weeds grow wildly in May, so weed control must be done well to ensure that nutrients and land are not taken by weeds. If there are too many weeds, they will also block out light, causing Litsea cubeba to lack sunlight. By November, apply 100 g of phosphate fertilizer, as phosphate fertilizer elements are beneficial for the sprouting of Litsea cubeba flowers, and during the full flowering period, spray urea and monopotassium phosphate on the Litsea cubeba trees, as this can help it overcome alternate bearing. If it suffers damage from white scale insects in summer, you can spray machine oil emulsion on Litsea cubeba for control.
IV. Harvesting and processing
After planting seedlings, Litsea cubeba grows for 3 years before entering the high-yield period. However, by the fourth year or more, a single mother tree can produce 4-8 kg of fresh fruit. By the eighth year of growth, the yield can reach 25 kg per plant, which is very high-yield. After the Start of Autumn in the lunar calendar, the fresh fruit of Litsea cubeba can be harvested, then heated with steam from a pot to volatilize the oil from the seeds, and the Litsea cubeba oil is poured out. After passing through a conduit and a condenser tube, Litsea cubeba oil is formed. Dry the kernel in the sun, then crush it and extract the oil with an oil press, with an oil yield of about 30%. The earlier oil yield was only 6-7%; comparatively, the latter is more efficient.
The above is the artificial cultivation and processing technique for Litsea cubeba. Have you all learned it? Aside from cultivation requiring some time to figure out, processing it is still quite simple; it just requires some tools, and the other steps are all very simple. If you want to learn more related information, please continue to follow Qinnong Network!