Detailed Explanation of Key Points for Artificial Cultivation Techniques of Licorice
Licorice, also known as sweet grass, is a common Chinese herbal medicine for tonifying the spleen and replenishing qi, and is also the most widely sold traditional Chinese medicinal material, with effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, and resolving phlegm and relieving cough. It has powerful effects and mostly grows wild. Later, with the expansion of market demand, artificial cultivation gradually emerged. Below, Qinnong Net brings you the cultivation techniques of licorice.
1. Soil Selection and Land Preparation
Wild licorice mostly grows in arid and semi-arid sandy soil and loess hilly areas. It is drought-tolerant and heat-tolerant, and is suitable for planting in fertile, loose, well-drained sandy soil. The soil can be slightly saline-alkaline, with a pH value of around 8. Deeply plow the soil, break up the soil clods, remove stones and the like, and level the ground.
2. Seed Treatment
Before planting, select high-quality varieties with strong disease resistance and relatively high yield. The seed coat of licorice is thick and hard, and direct sowing is not easy to germinate, so the seeds must be treated. Treatment methods vary, but the ultimate goal is to make the seed coat rough and enhance water permeability. In some places, a rice milling machine is used to grind the seed coat rough. In others, the seeds are soaked in warm water for 8-10 hours, then mixed with diluted sulfuric acid, cleaned thoroughly, and dried before sowing. In this way, the sowing survival rate reaches over 90%.
3. Sowing
Licorice is drought-tolerant, heat-tolerant, and light-loving, so it is suitable for sowing in all three seasons of spring, summer, and autumn. Among these, sowing in May in summer is best, as the temperature is high at this time, which is conducive to seedling emergence. Before sowing, apply sufficient base fertilizer, and use drilling or hole sowing. The row spacing and plant spacing for sowing are 30x15, and it is best to sow 3-5 seeds per hole, then cover with soil and firm it.
4. Field Management
When the seedlings grow to 15 cm high, thinning can be carried out. In addition, after sowing, timely cultivating and weeding should be done, generally 3-4 times in the same year, and later as the plants grow, the number of cultivations can be appropriately reduced. Water and fertilizer management of licorice is also extremely important. About one month after the seedlings emerge, water once, and thereafter water thoroughly once every other month. Before winter, water for overwintering. After applying sufficient base fertilizer at planting, licorice basically needs no additional fertilizer.
The above is the artificial cultivation technique of licorice brought to you by Qinnong Net. The cultivation cycle of licorice is relatively long, generally requiring 3-4 years before harvest. Harvesting is best in autumn. Dig up the rhizomes, remove the small roots and young buds, wash them clean, and dry them in the sun.