How is exported ginger sprout produced? Key technical points explained in detail

Exported ginger sprouts are cultivated similarly to conventional ginger, using a densely planted "small ginger" variety with many branches, at a sowing density of 10000 plants per mu; the main cultivation and management techniques are: applying more base fertilizer, topdressing and watering early, promoting early branching and growth of the ginger, and paying attention to shading. Ginger sprout production can be carried out from the stage when the ginger has grown full seedlings all the way to the ginger harvest period. Softened ginger sprout production requires focusing on the following key steps:

(1) Build a good cultivation site. A cultivation room converted from an idle house, warehouse, or a greenhouse or solar greenhouse can be used. The site is equipped with sprout-raising seedling beds and heating equipment. The seedling beds are built into multi-layer shelving using cement boards or bricks, heated by underground flues or electric heating, with ventilation openings left on one side or around the site. For greenhouse cultivation, the racks are set up in 5-6 layers, each layer 100 cm wide, with 50-60 cm between layers, and the layer length depending on the length of the greenhouse. If cultivating inside a house, the height depends on the height of the house.

(2) Key points of cultivation techniques. Select plump, pest- and disease-free small ginger rhizomes, and break them into 70-100 g seed ginger pieces. Arrange the buds neatly facing upward, closely packed, placing 20-30 kg of seed ginger per sq m, with a 1 cm layer of fine sand under the ginger pieces and a 3 cm layer of fine sand covering them, and spray an appropriate amount of water. Before sprouting, keep the temperature at 23-25°C; after heating, ginger buds sprout in 5-6 days; 7-10 days before harvesting the ginger sprouts, spray an appropriate amount of water according to the dryness or moisture of the bed soil, with a small amount of quick-acting nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizer dissolved in the water for spraying, at a concentration of less than 1%. Keep the humidity in the cultivation site at 80%-90%. After sprouting until the seedlings are 30 cm tall, keep the temperature at 28-30°C, and keep the bed temperature at 25°C for 10 days before harvesting the seedlings. After sprouting, especially a few days before harvesting the sprouts, ventilate and exchange air appropriately.

(3) Harvest the ginger sprouts in time. 45-50 days after the seed ginger is placed on the bed, when most sprout seedlings have grown to 30 cm tall, they can be harvested. Lift out the ginger pieces with a tool and then break off the ginger seedlings, remove the fibrous roots on the sprout seedlings, and rinse them clean. Sprout seedlings over 30 cm can have their terminal buds cut off.

(4) Processing. Use a cylindrical ring knife to encircle the ginger sprout (seedling) and turn the knife toward the ginger piece to cut off the ginger sprout (seedling), making a shaped semi-finished product with a rhizome diameter of 1 cm and a length of 2.5-5 cm, with the rhizome plus the ginger sprout totaling 15 cm in length; after pickling in acetic acid brine, it becomes the finished product.