What should you pay attention to when growing tsaoko? Master the key growing points in one article
Tsaoko is a perennial herbaceous plant in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, and the genus Amomum. It is currently mainly distributed in Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou in China, and is a medicinal and edible herb. Tsaoko has the effects of drying dampness and strengthening the spleen, and removing phlegm and treating malaria. It can be used to treat symptoms such as nausea and vomiting, food accumulation and malaria, and abdominal distension. Many medicinal materials cannot do without tsaoko. So what should be noted during the artificial cultivation of tsaoko? Let us learn about it together today.
1. Soil
The choice of soil for the tsaoko planting site is very important. The quality of the soil is directly related to the growth of tsaoko. In order to ensure that tsaoko seeds can grow and develop normally, we need to choose plots with good drainage and irrigation conditions, deep soil layers, good permeability, and rich organic matter content for planting. It is best to choose sloping valley land, streamside areas, or forest areas. What should be noted is that overly barren soil and heavy clay soil are both unsuitable for growing tsaoko, and such soils should be excluded.
2. Light
Tsaoko is not tolerant of strong light, but its growth still requires a certain amount of light. What we especially need to note is that when tsaoko seedlings have just emerged, they are very sensitive to light, so we need to provide shade, such as building shade sheds or increasing shade density, to prevent the seedlings from being sunburned. When the seedlings have grown to a certain extent, the light intensity can be slightly increased, but it is still best not to have direct sunlight, otherwise it will still affect the growth of tsaoko.
3. Water and fertilizer
Water and fertilizer management is the guarantee of high yield and high quality in tsaoko, which means that water and fertilizer management during cultivation is very important. For water management in tsaoko, we generally only need to carry out reasonable irrigation and drainage. For example, when there is continuous drought with no rainfall, or when tsaoko flower buds are forming, we need to water. When there is continuous rainfall, in order to avoid waterlogging and the root rot or other diseases it causes, the ditches need to be cleared in time for drainage. As for fertilizer management, if conditions permit, multiple topdressings are needed, and it is best to use farmyard manure. Also, tsaoko has a weak ability to absorb nutrients, so we should weed in time to prevent nutrients from being absorbed by weeds and affecting the growth of tsaoko.
4. Pruning
During the growth of tsaoko, pruning of branches and leaves is also very necessary. We all know that tsaoko does not need very strong light for growth, but this does not mean that it does not need light. Therefore, throughout the entire growth stage of tsaoko, we need to reasonably control the permeability of the field. Generally speaking, we should control the ventilation and light transmission in the field at around 50% to 60%. When the permeability is lower than this range, it means we need to prune branches and leaves, which is beneficial to the growth of tsaoko and improves its quality and grade.
5. Disease and pest prevention
The prevention and control of diseases and pests is also an issue we need to pay attention to during cultivation, and its harm to the growth of tsaoko is also extremely great. The most common diseases of tsaoko include damping-off disease, leaf spot disease, phytophthora blight, flower rot, and fruit rot. We can use Bordeaux mixture, kasugamycin, chlorothalonil, and carbendazim respectively for prevention and control. The main pest is the stem borer, which we can kill with fenitrothion emulsifiable concentrate. There is also the threat from rodents, which can be controlled with special mousetraps or rodent bait.
The above is all the content that the editor wants to introduce to you today about the precautions for growing tsaoko. I hope it can help everyone. In fact, during the cultivation process, as long as you master these points raised by the editor, the yield and quality of the crop will not be too poor.