How are Bletilla striata seedlings cultivated? A complete guide to nursery methods
Bletilla striata, also known as Lianjicao, Gangen, Baigei and so on, is the tuber of Bletilla striata, a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant of the genus Bletilla in the orchid family. It has extensive medicinal value and garden value. Medicinally it is mainly used to astringe and stop bleeding, reduce swelling and promote tissue regeneration; ornamentally it can be potted indoors or used to accent more shaded flower stands, flower borders or courtyards. Let us take a look below at how Bletilla striata seedlings are cultivated!
How are Bletilla striata seedlings cultivated?
1. Division: Bletilla striata is commonly propagated by division. Before new leaves sprout in spring or after the aboveground parts wither in autumn and winter, the old plants are dug up and the pseudobulbs are divided for replanting, with each plant divisible into 3 to 5 plants. However, the propagation cycle is long, the efficiency is low and a large amount of seed stock is consumed, making it hard to meet the needs of large-scale cultivation.
2. Sowing: Bletilla striata can be propagated by sowing, but its seeds are extremely tiny and contain only an incompletely developed embryo made up of a few cells, so under natural conditions they are very difficult to germinate and grow, and the cultivation of seedlings grown from seed is relatively difficult.
3. Tissue culture: Bletilla striata tissue culture technology can rapidly propagate large numbers of seedlings. Usually sterile sowing is carried out on culture medium, and after the seeds germinate, tissue culture methods are used for clonal propagation, thereby achieving large-scale production of Bletilla striata seedlings.
How are Bletilla striata seedlings selected?
1. Variety identification: There are very many varieties of Bletilla striata, but among these only five or six meet medicinal standards, and only three can give high yields. If you do not have the ability to identify them yourself and merely trust the one-sided claims of seedling suppliers, it is entirely possible to buy inferior varieties.
2. Seedling selection: The most common ways of cultivating Bletilla striata seedlings are direct seeding, tuber propagation and tissue-cultured seedlings. Among these, direct seeding is the most reasonable and most economical; tuber propagation has a high survival rate and high yield but the cost is too high; tissue-cultured seedlings have the lowest survival rate.
3. Beware of hormone-treated seedlings: The emergence time of Bletilla striata can differ by 1 to 3 months, but some companies abuse hormones and chemical fertilizers to advance emergence by more than 5 months. Seedlings treated with growth hormones look very healthy, but after transplanting they are very prone to yellowing, withering and dying.
4. Ordering time: In theory Bletilla striata can be planted in all four seasons, but the most suitable seasons are spring and autumn. Spring is most suitable for planting acclimatized seedlings, and early autumn is also fairly suitable for planting acclimatized seedlings. In late autumn and winter, tubers are generally purchased, and planting in summer is generally not recommended.
What risks are there in growing Bletilla striata?
1. Market risk: Apart from the traditional production areas of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, artificial cultivation of Bletilla striata has now begun from Shaanxi and Henan in the north, to Fujian and Guangxi in the south, to Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the east, and to Gansu in the west. Therefore, overheating of production will inevitably create a certain risk for Bletilla striata cultivation.
2. Investment risk: Compared with other planting projects, Bletilla striata cultivation requires a much larger investment cost, and the growing period is 2 to 3 years. Such investment cost and production cycle are simply beyond the capacity of ordinary farming households, and at the same time they increase investment risk.
3. Seed source risk: The confusion of Bletilla striata seed sources is notorious among Chinese medicinal materials. At present, what circulates in the chemical industry is purple-flowered trifurcate large Bletilla striata, while what is mainly used medicinally according to the pharmacopoeia is purple-flowered trifurcate small Bletilla striata. Other yellow-flowered and white-flowered Bletilla striata are customary products and counterfeit goods.
4. Technical risk: Bletilla striata seedlings usually have to go through introduction of seed sources, tissue culture, hardening and development of a strong root system before transplanting. However, because rhizome growth requires an environment with symbiotic fungi and transplanting and management are very delicate, the death rate of seedlings can usually reach 50% or even higher.