How to prevent low yields in Gastrodia elata? Master these measures

1. Poor quality Armillaria mushroom-wood material

Most farmers habitually use old wood logs from previous years' Gastrodia elata planting as mushroom-wood material, that is, the old-log-plus-new-log method of cultivating Gastrodia elata. Old wood logs have poor wood quality; not only have most of the nutrients already been consumed and used up, and the Armillaria aging phenomenon is serious, but there are also many factors carrying miscellaneous molds, which not only harms the growth of Gastrodia elata but also destroys the environmental conditions for Armillaria growth, so that the Armillaria source cannot well supply nutrition to Gastrodia elata, resulting in low per-unit yield of Gastrodia elata, or even total crop failure.

2. Use of multi-generation seed with degraded varietal characteristics

Gastrodia elata uses its vegetative organs (white-headed corms or rice corms) as seed. Some farmers use multi-year, multi-generation Gastrodia elata seed all year round without seed selection, and also use thin, weak seed of bird-head shape, horsewhip shape, and long strip with side shoots as cultivation seed. Because the regeneration ability of the Gastrodia elata tuber itself weakens generation by generation, and the propagation coefficient declines year by year, its per-unit yield decreases year by year.

Practice has proved that when Gastrodia elata is first introduced for planting, the annual per-unit yield is best when new mushroom-wood material is propagated for cultivation; when old wood logs planted in previous years are used as mushroom-wood material, the per-unit yield of Gastrodia elata decreases by 30%-50%.

3. Effective ways to prevent and control low-yield Gastrodia elata

1. Select high-quality propagation mushroom-wood material. Choose grade 2 or grade 3 high-quality production spawn, or choose vigorous-growing, impurity-free, mold-free mushroom branches and mushroom logs. According to the operation techniques for cultivating and propagating mushroom-wood material, do a good job in spawn preparation and propagation. When propagating mushroom-wood material, use 10% potato water, that is, peel and slice potatoes and boil for 25 minutes, then clarify or filter. Add 1% glucose (edible white granulated sugar also works), and soak or drench the wood logs; the wood logs can quickly receive inoculation, making Armillaria grow vigorously and the mushroom-wood material high quality. If old wood logs from previous years' Gastrodia elata planting need to be used, be sure to select hard old wood logs that are free of miscellaneous molds and have a bright, glossy surface as the Gastrodia elata cultivation cluster; their Armillaria mushroom-wood material quality is good, which can enable Gastrodia elata to receive more inoculation, absorb more nutrients, and achieve higher yields.

2. Prevent and control infection by miscellaneous molds

① The site is clean, with no other miscellaneous molds, no pollution, and no pollution sources; ② The soil is sandy, permeable, air-permeable, and able to retain warmth and prevent drought; ③ No trampling by people or livestock; ④ Choose hard tree wood with good inoculation rate and resistance to miscellaneous molds, such as white chestnut trees, cherry trees, etc.; ⑤ Increase the amount of spawn or mushroom-wood material used, which can strengthen the inoculation rate; ⑥ According to the technical requirements for Gastrodia elata cultivation, select a good forest farm base favorable for the growth of Gastrodia elata and Armillaria.

3. Introduce high-quality Gastrodia elata seed. In production, farmers had better spend a little money to introduce sexually propagated Gastrodia elata seed or seed with a relatively short production generation.