What are the precautions for ginseng cultivation?
Everyone is very familiar with the word ginseng. It is a very precious medicinal herb, and the longer its age, the better its medicinal effect. Its efficacy is very powerful, and now there are many fake ginsengs on the market. The main reason is that ginseng has low yield and is also very expensive, so some things that look like ginseng have appeared. So how can we achieve high yield when cultivating ginseng? Today we will look at the precautions for ginseng cultivation.
1. Soil selection
Because ginseng has high requirements for soil, and many places in our country do not meet the requirements for ginseng growth, the ginseng planting area is not particularly large. So when choosing soil, choose yellow sandy soil or black humus soil with more organic matter as much as possible. Next, when there is no best choice, loam or sandy soil can be selected. In short, clay is the most unsuitable soil for planting ginseng. Then before planting, the soil needs to be strictly disinfected, and when preparing the land, stones and other impurities in the soil should be cleared out, trenches should be made and beds should be formed, and then sowing can be prepared.
2. Planting time
There are three times suitable for ginseng planting, namely mid-April to early May in spring, July to August in summer, and September to the end of October in autumn. So everyone should note that ginseng cannot be planted in winter. Also, the planting methods at different times will differ to some extent. So when planting, we should plant according to reasonable seed treatment methods and sowing methods. For details, please refer to the content in the previous article on high-yield ginseng cultivation techniques.
3. Light requirements
Ginseng is a shade-loving plant, and its demand for light is not great. First, when choosing a planting site, the issue of light needs to be considered. It is best to choose a shady area for planting, because if the light at the planting site is too strong, it will cause the ginseng plants to become dwarfed and the leaves to be relatively thick, which is not good for the normal growth of ginseng. Although it is a shade-loving plant, the planting site cannot be too shady either. Having no light at all is also not acceptable, as it will cause ginseng to grow only stems and leaves, which has a great impact on the growth of ginseng rhizomes. So we must carefully analyze and understand the growth habits of ginseng.
4. Fertilizer and water management
The growth of ginseng requires a large amount of nutrients, so its demand for fertilizer is relatively large, but its fertilization has strict requirements. First, although it likes organic fertilizer, do not use organic fertilizer that has not been completely decomposed, as this will have a great impact on the ginseng roots and may even burn the plants to death. So when fertilizing, we must strictly follow the requirements. Finally, ginseng also has relatively high requirements for water, because it is neither tolerant of waterlogging nor drought. So for field water management, we must strictly control it according to specific standards, and it is appropriate to keep the field humidity at around 75 percent.
5. Temperature management
Ginseng is extremely intolerant of heat, so in relevant historical records we find that ginseng mostly grows in relatively dark and cool environments, that is, in what is often called the deep mountains and forests. The most suitable temperature for ginseng growth is around 3 to 15 degrees, because the temperature in most areas of our country is generally around 20 to 30 degrees, so we need to regulate the temperature through daily management.
6. Pest and disease control
Ginseng is a very precious medicinal herb, but like other ordinary medicinal herbs, it also has some relatively common pests and diseases. The main ones are damping-off disease, leaf spot disease, phytophthora blight, rust rot, and sclerotinia rot. The most fundamental cause is excessive field humidity. They can be controlled with carbendazim, polyoxin, metalaxyl mancozeb, thiophanate-methyl, and dimethachlon respectively. The most common insect pests are underground pests such as white grubs, cutworms, mole crickets, and wireworms, which can be controlled by seed dressing with phoxim emulsifiable concentrate or by drenching roots with trichlorfon.