Key Techniques for Planting and Managing Panax notoginseng

(1) Overview

Also known as Tianqi and Jinbuhuan.

It is the plant Panax notoginseng (Panax pseudo-ginseng Wall.) of the Araliaceae family, with the root and rhizome used as medicine. It is a precious Chinese medicinal herb; used raw, it can stop bleeding and resolve blood stasis, reduce swelling and relieve pain, and is the main ingredient of Yunnan Baiyao. The flowers and leaves of the same plant can also be used as medicine and drunk as tea. It is produced in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces, where it is also cultivated. Introduction and cultivation south of the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi have succeeded.

(2) Plant characteristics

A perennial herbaceous plant. The stem is upright, 30-100 cm tall, with longitudinal stripes or angular ridges. Underground there is a horizontal fleshy rhizome and roots. Palmately compound leaves, 3-5, whorled at the top of the stem; leaflets 5-7, ovate or lanceolate, with serrated green leaf margins, densely covered along the veins with fine downy bristles. The umbel is borne singly at the top of the main flower stalk, bearing many small flowers. The drupe is berry-like, nearly kidney-shaped, green when young and red when ripe, with 1-3 seeds.

(3) Growth characteristics

It prefers warmth and avoids severe cold. Areas with no severe cold in winter, no extreme heat in summer, and small seasonal temperature differences are suitable for cultivation. After freezing, both roots and seeds suffer frost damage and rot. It prefers half shade and half sun; suitable terrain, aspect, and slope, and a site with a water source, avoiding direct blazing sun. In the Yunnan production area, the annual average temperature is 20.1°C, the average maximum temperature is 34°C, the average minimum temperature is 4°C; an annual average temperature of 15-17°C is suitable, and the annual precipitation is 920.9 mm. Throughout the growing season it requires very high relative air humidity; 70%-90% is suitable, and below 50%-60% will cause severe leaf-drying disease (a physiological disease), causing all leaves to dry up and fall off. Panax notoginseng can grow only one palmately compound leaf in the first year, and three in the second year.

(4) Cultivation techniques

1. Site selection and land preparation. The soil is generally best as black sandy loam or humus-rich soil. The suitable soil pH is 4.5-7. The previous crop is preferably corn, legumes, or peanuts; do not choose a previous crop of Solanaceae. From late August to before sowing, plow 3 times: the first plowing to a depth of 3 cm, the second plowing to a depth of 4-5 cm and harrow once. The third plowing to a depth of 5 cm, harrow the soil fine, then immediately make beds 25-30 cm high and 100-110 cm wide, with the bed surface shaped like a comb back; the drainage ditch between two beds is 45-60 cm. The transplanting site is the same as the sowing site. Then spread corn stalks or weeds about 5 cm thick on the bed surface, burn them to ash, and prepare per hectare fully decomposed manure: 52,500 kg of kang soil, 22,500-30,000 kg of barnyard manure, 375-750 kg of cake fertilizer, totaling 75,000 kg, to be used at sowing and planting. There are three methods of applying base fertilizer at sowing and planting: (1) put the fertilizer directly on the root soil or seeds as a covering soil; (2) mix half of the fertilizer into the bed soil and use the other half as covering soil; (3) cover with a small amount of bed soil, then spread the fertilizer on top. All three methods require a covering soil depth of 2 cm.

2. Propagation method: seed propagation.

(1) Selecting and retaining good seed. The seeds used for planting Panax notoginseng should be selected from seeds produced by three-year-old plants. Each November, when the fruit is red and ripe, harvest it as it reddens, or when more than 80% are ripe, pick them all at once on a sunny day, remove the fruit skin, and sow the plump, pest-free seeds immediately after harvesting. If there is no time to sow, be sure to place the fruit in a sieve about 0.5-1 cm thick and keep it in a cool, ventilated place for about 10 days. For seeds transported elsewhere, remove the fruit skin, wash them clean, mix in twice their volume of wet broken material, and store them in a water tank.

(2) Sowing method. The main production areas mostly use winter sowing (Shaanxi also uses winter sowing); in the north, spring sowing (after thawing) by dibbling may also be used, with a row spacing of 2 cm and a plant spacing of 1.7-2 cm. Broadcast sowing results in uneven seed distribution and inconsistent plant growth. Cover with soil (in practice, cover with fertilizer according to the above base fertilizer method, or cover with sieved fine soil) 1.7-2 cm, just enough to cover the seeds. Cover with weeds on top to prevent the bed soil from crusting. In the south, winter-sown seeds emerge in about 3 months and are fully emerged in 4 months. In the north, winter sowing is followed by covering with grass to prevent the soil from freezing; if sowing in spring, the seeds must be stored in wet sand and sown after cracking or sprouting, and they emerge one month after sowing.

(3) Planting method. Plant one year, or two to three years, after sowing. In the south, planting is mostly in December; in the north, mostly in November or from mid-March to early April (after the soil thaws), when the buds have not yet sprouted. When digging up the seedlings, do not damage the roots; select healthy Panax notoginseng roots free of pests and diseases, grade them by size, and plant them separately. Planting methods: (1) Open a horizontal trench (make a pond) on the prepared bed, with a flat bottom, about 6 cm deep and wide enough to hold the Panax notoginseng root; place the bud toward the lower side and the tail root toward the slope, with a row spacing and plant spacing of 4-5 cm. (2) Double-plant planting: open a small horizontal ditch on the bed surface 4-5 cm deep, with a ditch spacing of 5-6 cm. Then place the Panax notoginseng roots bud to bud and tail to tail along the ditch, two plants every 6 cm; for the two plants at the edge of the bed, place the roots facing into the bed. Cover with the prepared fertilizer as you plant, about 1 cm thick, so as not to expose the buds, then cover with about 1 cm of grass, with the principle of not showing the soil.

Experiments in recent years have shown that direct-seeded Panax notoginseng has deep roots, enhanced drought resistance, and significantly increased yield.

3. Field management

(1) Topdressing. The fertilizer must be decomposed and applied in appropriate amounts many times. During the seedling stage, apply more smoked soil; apply the first time after leaf expansion, 2,250-3,000 kg per hectare; apply again half a month later. After May, apply a mixed fertilizer of pig, horse, and human manure and oil cake, 37,500 kg per hectare. After June, apply 30,000 kg of clear manure water each month until August. After planting, apply dry fertilizer once in April-May of the following year. From June to August, apply clear manure water once a month, 22,500-45,000 kg per hectare, following the principle of appropriate amounts applied many times. For Panax notoginseng over three years old, the topdressing time and frequency should be earlier and greater than for two-year-old Panax notoginseng: start after leaf expansion, apply clear manure water once a month, 22,500-30,000 kg per hectare, and additionally apply plant ash; at the bud stage and flowering stage apply mixed dry fertilizer, 45,000 kg per hectare; in September-October apply one more bud-covering fertilizer to protect the buds and promote vigor.

(2) Drainage and irrigation. The root system of Panax notoginseng is distributed in the surface soil layer and has very weak drought resistance, so the soil must be kept moist throughout the growing period. If the soil is dry and the Panax notoginseng roots dry out, later watering easily causes root rot. After planting and sowing and covering with grass, generally water once thoroughly, then water about once every 10-15 days. In the rainy season, strengthen drainage so that there is no standing water in the garden and water flows freely outside the garden.