High-yield Cultivation Techniques for Sesame in Semi-arid Mountainous Areas

1. Select high-yield, disease-resistant varieties. Demonstrations in recent years have shown that choosing a superior variety is the guarantee of a high yield. The E-zhi No. 2 variety has the characteristics of wide adaptability, good yield potential, and strong resistance, with an average yield of generally 130-150 kg per mu, and it has now been promoted for cultivation over a large area.

2. Fine land preparation. Sesame seeds are relatively small; to facilitate emergence, the land should be finely prepared before sowing, leveled and harrowed fine, with no visible or hidden clods, so that seedlings emerge evenly with no missing plants or broken rows.

3. Apply sufficient base fertilizer. According to soil fertility conditions and the principle of determining fertilizer by target yield, the fertilization standard for a yield of 150 kg per mu is: nitrogen 13.5 kg, phosphorus 4.5 kg, potassium 6 kg. The fertilization method has been changed from the past practice of applying fertilizer and sowing after plowing to plowing and sowing after fertilizing. The average base fertilizer applied per mu is 65.1 kg of ammonium bicarbonate, 53.55 kg of calcium superphosphate, and 0.5 kg each of potassium dihydrogen phosphate and biological potassium. At the flowering stage (late July), 0.15 kg of potassium dihydrogen phosphate per mu is mixed with 50 kg of water for one foliar fertilizer spray.

4. Sow at the right time and seize soil moisture to ensure full stands. Survey results show that timely early sowing has an obvious yield-increasing effect on sesame. For high-yield fields, according to labor, animal power, season, and soil moisture, the previous crop can be harvested one plot at a time, plowed one plot at a time, and sown one plot at a time, with all sowing completed in early June. The sowing method uses furrow opening and broadcast sowing, with a sowing rate of 0.5 kg per mu. After sowing, the land should be promptly harrowed and compacted to preserve soil moisture, so that seedlings emerge uniformly.

5. Open furrows and make beds. Among environmental conditions, none affect sesame growth and development more than waterlogging and drought, and preventing waterlogging, resisting drought, and protecting seedlings are the prerequisites for achieving high and stable sesame yields and improving quality. Therefore, after sowing, sesame should be promptly divided into beds with opened furrows, with a bed width of 2.3-3 m, a furrow depth of 0.2 m, and a surrounding furrow depth of 0.26-0.33 m. In the mid-growth period, in response to weak links, the bed furrows should be treated once, so that surface water can drain, subsurface water can seep away, and irrigation can be carried out during drought.

6. Manage early, promote strong growth, and protect seedlings. To prevent weed infestation and overcrowding of seedlings, the general practice is to carry out 3 rounds of weeding within the first full month, combining weeding with thinning and final thinning, that is, separating clustered seedlings at the 1-pair true leaf stage, thinning seedlings at the 2-pair true leaf stage, and establishing the final stand at the 3-4 pair true leaf stage, with the number of seedlings per mu guaranteed to be above 12,000 plants. If continuous rainy days make thinning and weeding impossible, first, manual thinning and rushed final thinning should be adopted; second, chemical weeding should be carried out. When weeds are at the 1 leaf 1 heart to 2 leaves 1 heart stage, 50-60 mL of quizalofop-p-tefuryl per mu is mixed with 50 kg of water for spraying, and the weeding effect can reach more than 85%.

7. Disease control. The main diseases include root rot, anthracnose, and leaf spot. Control methods: choose disease-resistant varieties and practice reasonable crop rotation. Chemical control: per mu, use 0.1 kg of 40% carbendazim suspension concentrate mixed with 50 kg of water, a 2000-fold solution of 50% thiophanate-methyl, or a 1:1:150 Bordeaux mixture for spray control. For bacterial wilt, use a 1:1:300 Bordeaux mixture for root drenching. Sesame insect pests include small cutworms, slug moths, tobacco cutworms, scarab beetles, fireflies, and others, which can be controlled by spraying 100 mL of 80% dichlorvos emulsifiable concentrate per mu or 150 g of 90% trichlorfon crystals mixed with 75 kg of water.