Key Technical Points for Standardized Cultivation and Management of Honeysuckle

I imagine everyone still remembers the SARS outbreak in the first half of last year, when several Chinese medicinal herbs suddenly became hot remedies, and honeysuckle was one of them. Honeysuckle is one of the 38 precious Chinese medicinal herbs under key state management, capable of clearing heat and detoxifying, dispelling wind and reducing swelling, and enjoys the reputation of being the "little immortal of the medicine shop." However, honeysuckle cultivated under traditional experience can no longer meet people's demand for its quality and safety. As the largest honeysuckle-producing county, Fengqiu County in Henan Province took the lead in addressing quality and safety, launching a "revolution" in the traditional cultivation and management methods of honeysuckle.

I had long heard that Fengqiu County in Henan Province is the main producing area of honeysuckle, and their honeysuckle accounts for 40% of the national total, with first-class quality. Once we arrived in the county, sure enough, our eyes were filled with neat and uniform honeysuckle.

Field host: Dear viewers, the growth of honeysuckle is quite interesting. When it first blooms, its color is ivory white, and after two or three days it turns golden yellow. In this way, the new and old flowers mingle, with yellow and white reflecting each other, which is how honeysuckle got its name. As you can see, behind me is the honeysuckle production base in Fengqiu County, Henan Province.

Zhou Lingyun is the director of the Agricultural Ecology Experimental Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He told us about this "revolution" they carried out in honeysuckle cultivation and management.

Field host: Director Zhou, what exactly is the difference between the honeysuckle planting and management model here and the traditional model?

Interview with Zhou: He proposed the local GAP cultivation and management model and explained what GAP is.

Thanks to strict GAP operating standards before, during and after production, the honeysuckle of Fengqiu County in Henan Province, with the help of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, not only obtained a passport to the international market, but local herb farmers also personally experienced the long-circulated saying, "With honeysuckle at home, money in hand." In fact, Director Zhou before us is not a Henan local, but in order to run this base well, he settled down in Fengqiu for a long time.

Director Zhou: He recounted that three or four years ago he had also thought about doing this elsewhere, and then after various twists and turns finally decided to set up the GAP base in Fengqiu, Henan, with the local ecological environment making them determined.

The selection of the pre-production ecological environment for honeysuckle is a very important factor for herb farmers who want to set up a GAP base. Where to locate such a high-standard base also involves quite a bit of knowledge!

Field host: To choose the location of a honeysuckle GAP base, the first thing to consider is whether this honeysuckle is "authentic" or "not authentic." So what is "authentic" and "not authentic"? The "authentic" in "authentic" medicinal materials carries meanings such as place of origin and high quality.

Therefore, "daodi" honeysuckle is the winner among many producing areas. Besides Fengqiu in Henan Province, Xinmi in Henan, Shandong Province, Hubei Province, and Hunan Province are all daodi producing areas, and compared with one another they all have strong advantages. At the same time, the total suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen hydroxide, and fluoride in the atmospheric environment of the honeysuckle GAP base must all meet relevant quality standards; the pH value and heavy metal content detected in irrigation water quality must meet farmland irrigation water quality standards, and soil environmental quality should also reach the first-level soil quality standard, avoiding pollution of the soil by residues such as BHC and DDT.

Today our guest is Professor Qin Minjian from the Nanjing Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Hello, Professor Qin. It seems that choosing the pre-production ecological environment for a honeysuckle GAP base is indeed very strict, so is such a choice really so necessary for honeysuckle production?

Professor Qin: How the ecological environment under GAP ensures the quality and safety of honeysuckle.

Information: Regarding the ecological environment, experts also pointed out that the processing water used for farmland irrigation must also be tested for total bacterial count and coliform count; the atmospheric environment must reach the second-level standard of the "atmospheric environment" quality index; and the soil environmental quality of the herb garden should reach the second-level soil quality standard.

Strict control of the pre-production ecological environment indeed put a lock of reassurance on the quality and safety of honeysuckle, but Director Zhou told us that as herb farmers, the locks to be fastened in the GAP production and management process of honeysuckle are more than just one. Herb farmer Tian Jiangyan of Fengqiu County knows this deeply.

Now, with the help of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tian Jiangyan's work of propagating seedlings by cuttings has become more refined. Old Tian said that according to standards, we should generally choose 1-2 year old healthy branches free of pests and diseases, and before cutting they should first be cut into 30 cm long segments. This is because such branches have the highest survival rate and also grow the fastest.

The ditch opened when inserting the cuttings is about 25 cm deep, and one cutting is inserted every 3-5 cm. Note that the depth should leave the cutting exposed 15 cm above the ground, and the growth bud must face upward. Then firm the soil and water it once, and after half a month they will be able to take root and sprout. This is a great method for obtaining a large number of high-quality nutritious seedlings in a short period.

Everyone knows "three parts planting, seven parts management." Tian Jiangyan told us that when this old method meets new standards, the effort put into management is more than just seven parts.

Interview with Tian Jiangyan: He recounted that when he had not implemented GAP standardized management, in pursuit of high yield and profit, due to his limited knowledge of pest and disease control, he blindly used highly toxic and high-residue pesticides for control. Not only were pests and diseases not effectively controlled, but the resistance of pathogens and pests increased somewhat, causing great losses; on the contrary, under the guidance of technical personnel, strict and scientific standardized management measures were adopted.

Controlling pests and diseases according to GAP requirements made Old Tian and Director Zhou friends. Blind use of highly toxic and high-residue pesticides has become history for Old Tian, and now the honeysuckle harvest in his fields has multiplied several times over! In the face of complex pests and diseases, what kind of control can actually meet GAP management standards?

Interview with Zhou: Therefore, in the long run, to control pests and diseases one must improve the pest and disease resistance of honeysuckle plants, and during their growth period more organic foliar fertilizer should be applied while nitrogen fertilizer application should be controlled. Director Zhou and Tian Jiangyan told reporters that the more serious pests in the Fengqiu area include honeysuckle leaf blotch miner, cotton bollworm, aphids, and so on. Of course, using the phototaxis of these pests and employing light traps is also a good method, but the director told us that their more important purpose in doing so is to do a good job in pest and disease forecasting, identify occurrence patterns, and put more thought into "prevention." Preventing trouble before it happens is naturally the best way to deal with pests, but if pests do appear, according to GAP requirements, pollution-free biological pesticides must be applied.

However, pests and diseases are indeed impossible to guard against completely. Although honeysuckle is cultivated under standardized management in both cases, Old Tian's neighbor was not so lucky.

The honeysuckle with rotten roots and black roots made this herb farmer feel pain in his heart as he looked at it. So what kind of disease exactly is root rot?

Host: Professor Qin, just now, whether it was the breeding of high-quality seedlings or the control of pests and diseases that we saw, the base manager and herb farmers were striving for standardization and normalization while breaking the traditional honeysuckle cultivation methods. So what practical significance do you think these two management measures during honeysuckle production have for realizing the establishment of a honeysuckle GAP base?

Professor Qin: He separately explained the importance and necessity of breeding high-quality seedlings and controlling pests and diseases in standardized honeysuckle cultivation and management, and how herb farmers can turn from passive to active in these two aspects and break traditional concepts.

Information: Experts remind that to meet honeysuckle GAP requirements, the following issues also need attention in production: honeysuckle needs proper pruning, which can change ventilation and light conditions and help control the occurrence of pests and diseases; in the early stage of pest and disease occurrence, diseased and pest-infested leaves, buds, and shoot tips of the plants should be promptly removed to control sources of bacteria and insects and reduce damage.

Host: Implementing GAP management before and during production for honeysuckle has truly let local herb farmers taste the sweetness. The honeysuckle of Fengqiu County can harvest four crops of flowers a year. What we are seeing now is the first crop of flowers, whose flowering period runs from late April to mid-May. This crop of flowers is not only the best in quality but also the highest in yield, accounting for about 56.98% of the annual output. Therefore, during this period, post-production harvesting and processing are also crucial to the entire GAP management standard.

Jiangyan looked at the honeysuckle being harvested in his own field and naturally could not hide his joy, but when the reporter asked about the details of harvesting and processing, he told us that in the past it was not so flourishing.

Old Tian said that now the herb farmers here truly link value and quality together, and the once sparse and ordinary harvesting has begun to become orderly. In fact, honeysuckle should be harvested before the flower buds open. Like this kind, where the bud turns from green to light green, with the upper part swollen and the lower part bluish, we call it "two-white flower"; like this kind, where the bud has completely turned white, we call it "large white needle." These two are the most suitable harvest stages.

Field host group interview: After harvesting like this, can it be processed?

Therefore, to obtain the highest-quality honeysuckle according to standards, before processing these whitened ones and the ones that have already bloomed should all be picked out. The honeysuckle here not only requires careful harvesting, but now the herb farmers here have generally mastered the "four-stage heating method" drying technology. That is, when drying, build racks in layers indoors, with a layer height of 25-30 cm, and the thickness of flowers spread on the mat should not exceed 3-6 cm. At the beginning of drying, the temperature should not be too high, generally 30-35°C. After drying for 2 hours, the temperature can be raised to about 40°C. When the fresh flowers release water vapor, doors and windows should be properly opened to let the vapor out; when drying reaches 10 hours, most of the moisture in the fresh flowers has been released, and then the temperature should be raised to 55°C to dry the flowers quickly. In this way, generally after 12-20 hours they can all be fully dried.

1) Professor Qin, does the strict step-by-step operation of honeysuckle harvesting, from timing to grading, have a great impact on its quality?

2) So what advantages does the "four-stage heating method" drying technology after harvest have?

Information: Experts point out that when drying honeysuckle after harvest, it must not be turned with hands or other things, otherwise it easily turns black; the drying process must not be stopped, otherwise it will cause heating and deterioration.