How to grow Agastache rugosa seeds? Detailed sowing method
Agastache rugosa, also known as Korean mint, wrinkled giant hyssop, and patchouli, etc., is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Schizonepeta in the Lamiaceae family. The dried aboveground parts of the plant can be used as medicine. It is harvested when the branches and leaves are lush, sun-dried by day and piled up by night, repeatedly until dry. It has the medicinal effects of aromatic transformation of turbidity, harmonizing the middle and stopping vomiting, and releasing the exterior and relieving summer-heat. Its cultivation value is extremely high. Let's take a look below at how to grow Agastache rugosa seeds!
Growth habits
Agastache rugosa prefers high temperatures and a sunny environment, and grows poorly in shaded places. Areas with an annual average temperature of 19-26°C are more suitable for growth. When the temperature is above 35°C or below 16°C, growth slows or stops. It likes to grow in humid, rainy environments and is afraid of drought, requiring annual rainfall of more than 1600 ml. It has low requirements for soil and can grow in general soils, but deep, fertile and loose sandy loam or loam is best. It is afraid of waterlogging; when planted in low-lying areas prone to water accumulation, the roots rot easily and the plant dies. The seeds have a lifespan of 2-4 years, so seeds from the previous year can be sown. Seed germination requires light conditions, the suitable germination temperature is 18-22°C, and the germination period is 7-10 days.
Land preparation and sowing
For the Agastache rugosa seedbed, it is better to choose a loam or sandy loam plot with convenient irrigation and drainage, convenient management, and medium to high fertility. Apply 22.5 tons/ha of decomposed barn manure as base fertilizer while plowing. Then open furrows and break up the soil clods, and make a turtle-back-shaped seedbed with side ditches 1.5 m wide. Water the bed surface with 7.5 tons/ha of decomposed human manure urine. After mixing the seeds with fine sand or plant ash and evenly scattering them on the bed surface, cover with about 1 cm of fertilizer soil made of fine soil:plant ash = 1:0.5. Finally, use bamboo strips or small branches to build small arches on the bed surface at intervals of about 80 cm and cover with plastic film to keep warm and raise seedlings. Generally, each hectare of field requires 120-150 sq m of seedbed and 2.25-2.7 kg of seeds.
Temperature management
After sowing Agastache rugosa seeds, when the temperature is maintained at 20-25°C, seedlings emerge in 10-15 days. When the emergence rate reaches 70%, remove the film. The suitable growth temperature is 18-25°C. For Agastache rugosa sown in spring of the same year, when the seedlings are 12 cm tall and the main stem has 5 pairs of leaves, branching begins to occur from the leaf axils at the base. After June, as the temperature rises and the rainy season arrives, Agastache rugosa enters a period of vigorous growth.
Water and fertilizer management
Both the stems and leaves of Agastache rugosa are used medicinally, so fertilizer should preferably be "complete fertilizer" (including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), such as human and livestock manure and oil cakes. For the first topdressing, after loosening the soil when the seedlings are 3 cm tall, apply 1.5-2 kg of decomposed dilute human and livestock manure water per sq m. After that, when the seedlings are 7-10 cm, 15-20 cm, and 25-30 cm tall, after cultivating and weeding, apply 1500 kg of decomposed human and livestock manure water per mu each time, or apply 10-12 kg of diammonium phosphate per mu. Water should be applied after fertilizing. No more topdressing is needed after the rows close.
Cultivation and weeding
When the Agastache rugosa seedlings are 3 cm tall, thin out the overly dense seedlings in time so that the nutritional area of the seedlings is 4 sq cm, or carry out seedling separation, with a plant spacing of 6-8 cm. For hole-sown Agastache rugosa, keep 3-4 plants per hole; for drill-sown, thin the seedlings at a plant spacing of 10-12 cm, with the two rows staggered when finalizing the stand. Missing plants should be replanted on cloudy days, and after planting, water once with dilute human and livestock manure water to help them survive. Before the first harvest, cultivate and weed 2-3 times, respectively when the seedlings are 3 cm, 12-15 cm, and 21-24 cm tall. When the seedlings are 25-30 cm tall, after the second harvest, earth up 6 cm to protect the roots.