How to grow dandelions? A detailed introduction to the relevant knowledge
Dandelion is a common plant. Dandelions can be found in cities and villages, in fields and by roadsides. Besides its ornamental value, dandelion also has medicinal value. Let us take a look below.
I. Introduction to dandelion
Dandelion is also known as Huanghua Diding, Popodding, Huahualang, and so on. Dandelion is a perennial herbaceous plant in the Asteraceae family, genus Taraxacum. The root is conical, brown on the surface, wrinkled; the leaf margins sometimes have wavy teeth or pinnate deep lobes, and the base gradually narrows into a petiole; the petiole and main veins often carry a reddish-purple color; the upper part of the scape is purplish-red and densely covered with cobweb-like white long soft hairs; the capitulum is in a bell-shaped involucre, the achene is dark brown, and the pappus is white. The dandelion capitulum bears seeds with a fluffy ball formed by white pappus; after the flower opens, it drifts with the wind to a new place to nurture new life. It is said that whoever finds a purple dandelion will obtain perfect love. The dandelion plant contains a variety of healthy nutritional components such as taraxol, taraxacin, choline, organic acids, and inulin. It has diuretic, laxative, jaundice-clearing, and cholagogue effects. Dandelion can be eaten raw, stir-fried, or made into soup, and it is a plant used both as medicine and as food. Dandelion flowers from April to September, and fruits from May to October. Although dandelion does not have strict requirements for soil conditions, it still prefers fertile, moist, loose soil with high organic matter content. Dandelion has strong disease and pest resistance, and generally does not require disease and pest control. It grows widely on mountain slopes, grasslands, roadsides, fields, and riverbanks in middle and low altitude areas.
II. Cultivation of dandelion
To bring it to market earlier, a small arched shed cover can be used in early spring. In late autumn and early winter, water thoroughly once, then cover the bed surface with horse manure or wheat straw, and so on, to help the roots overwinter and to allow new plants to sprout earlier the following spring. The dandelion fleshy root is relatively thick and strong; the leaves are basal, narrowly oblanceolate, with an acute or rounded apex, and the margins have backward pinnate incisions, 20-65cm long, up to more than 80cm at the longest, and about 50-100mm wide; the flowers are drawn out from the leaf cluster, in capitula, 25-40mm in diameter; the involucre is broadly bell-shaped, 13-25mm long, green, with an acuminate apex 4-10mm long; the ligulate flowers are bright yellow; there are usually many scapes, up to more than a hundred, and the scapes are 20-70cm tall; the achene is light yellowish-brown, 3-4mm long; above the middle there are many small sharp spines, and the rest of the surface has small wart-like protrusions, with the apex suddenly constricted into a beak base 0.4-0.6mm long, the beak 7-12mm long, the pappus white, 6-8mm long, and the 1000-seed weight is 0.68g; flowering begins in early April, and the full fruiting stage begins in early May and lasts about 15 days; sporadic flowering occurs throughout the year, and there is also a relatively concentrated fruiting period between September and October.
1. Site selection and land preparation
Dandelion is highly adaptable and can survive in most soils, but artificial cultivation should choose sunny, fertile, irrigable sandy loam land. Deeply plow the land 25-30cm, for every 10000 sq m apply 30000-40000kg of organic fertilizer, break up the soil finely and level it, and make beds ready for sowing.
2. Sowing and seedling raising
Dandelion can be sown from April to September. The seeds have no dormancy characteristics, and their viability declines rather quickly after harvest, so it is best to sow fresh seeds just harvested in late May. It can be sown directly or raised as seedlings for transplanting. Direct sowing generally uses drilling; after watering thoroughly, open shallow furrows at a row spacing of 25-30cm, use 500g of seed per mu, and after sowing rake the ground level. For seedling raising, a dedicated seedling bed is needed, broadcasting 5g/m2 of seed, covering with soil less than 0.5cm, and seedlings emerge within 7-15 days. Remove weeds early.
3. Planting out
When the seedlings in the seedling bed reach more than 10cm in height and have more than 4 true leaves, they can be planted out. Use different plant and row spacings according to different cultivation purposes. For medicinal and edible cultivation, the plant and row spacing is generally 25cm x 25cm, and in better plots the density can be reduced. For ornamental use, they can be planted in deeper flower pots, or the density can be appropriately adjusted according to the shape of the green belt. After planting out, water for establishment and for recovery from transplanting, then cultivate and hoe to remove weeds.
4. Field management
For directly sown seedlings, weeds must be removed promptly during the seedling stage, and weeding can be done together with thinning. After 2 thinnings, set the plants at a spacing of 25cm x 25cm. In the same year, do not harvest the aboveground parts; promote growth to help the roots accumulate nutrients. Apply topdressing 2 times, mainly with quick-acting nitrogen fertilizer. In the second year, it can flower and set seed; water and apply topdressing once each before flowering and after seed setting. At this time, dandelion leaves have already completely covered the ground, so it is enough to pull out only individual large weeds in the field. For ornamental use, remove yellowed leaves and irregular scapes in time; during the full flowering stage, remove scapes whose seeds have already matured, and during the fruiting stage, remove flowers that have just opened. Every year in late autumn, after the aboveground parts turn yellow and wither, they should be cleaned up promptly to prevent pathogens and pests from overwintering in the cultivation area.
The above is the relevant knowledge about dandelion, and I hope it can help you.
To prevent pathogens and pests from overwintering in the cultivation area.The above is the relevant knowledge about dandelion, and I hope it can help you.