Experience sharing on high-yield artificial cultivation of Schisandra chinensis

In recent years, as wild resources have declined and production has fallen year by year, the price of the Chinese medicinal herb Schisandra chinensis on domestic and international markets has risen for consecutive years, which has inspired people's enthusiasm for cultivating Schisandra chinensis. According to reports, to achieve high yield and high efficiency in artificial cultivation of Schisandra chinensis, three key links must first be handled well: first, variety selection, purification and improvement must be carried out; second, a period of domestication and adaptation is needed; third, pruning must be strengthened to regulate and control tree vigor. The three are mutually reinforcing and none can be omitted.

First, carry out variety selection, purification, domestication and improvement of wild Schisandra chinensis. The main method is to select an area of wild Schisandra chinensis on the mountain, and when the fruit is ripe, choose plants with long, neat fruit clusters, large, compact and uniform berries, and good overall traits as breeding parent trees to retain, while all other inferior plants are removed. In the following year's flowering period, measures such as cross-plant (flower) pollination and reciprocal repeated pollination are carried out on the retained parent trees to breed superior seeds. The second step is to grow the obtained seeds into seedlings in open flat land, then directly plant them in flat land, and carry out open-field cultivation and domestication under full-light conditions so that they gradually adapt to a high-temperature and dry environment. After these trees bear fruit, their seeds are then collected and used for raising seedlings for large-scale new commercial orchards. Superior varieties bred by this method have significantly enhanced stress resistance; even in high-temperature and dry weather they do not wilt, and they grow normally even without rain for half a month. Third, pay attention to pruning. While the young seedlings are being planted, cut off the main stem low down to force the seedlings to sprout 3~4 main vines from the base as quickly as possible. After that, based on the principle of combining "open" and "short cutting", prune as lightly as possible so that the branches and vines quickly cover the trellis surface, expand the fruiting branch groups, and lower the fruiting position.

In addition to the above three key measures, auxiliary measures such as appropriate close planting, covering the tree disk with grass, applying boron at the flowering stage, and artificial pollination should also be adopted at the same time.