Silver bud willow's fragrant desert, osmanthus dyeing questions, and whether it can be grown indoors in water or dry

Silver bud willow, also known as silver willow, maomao gou, cat willow, cotton willow, and silver bract willow, is a deciduous shrub in the genus Salix of the family Salicaceae. It is native to northern China and is much loved for its unusual and attractive appearance. Nowadays many people like to grow it indoors. So are silver bud willow's colors dyed? Can it be kept indoors? Is it better grown in water or dry? How do you grow it?

Are the colors dyed? Can it be kept indoors?

Silver willow's natural color is silvery white, but to make it more attractive, people dye the flower buds in various colors. Every year at Spring Festival flower markets across the country, silver-white silver bud willow cut branches as well as those dyed red, yellow, green, purple and other colors are dazzling and attract many buyers. At present, large-scale commercial production takes place in Shanghai, Yunnan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan and other places, and the products are even exported to Southeast Asia and Europe and America.

In addition, because silver bud willow is mostly dyed, it can be placed in the living room and other places for viewing. If it is a bedroom, it is best not to put it there, because growing flowers in the bedroom makes the air at night stale and lowers the oxygen content, and the resulting drawbacks can affect a person's lifespan.

Hydroponics or dry growing?

Generally it is still dry growing, as that way it lasts longer. Because if you put water in a vase for hydroponics, and the temperature is a bit high, the silver willow flowers will open after a few days and then fall off, so the viewing time is relatively short.

Of course there is another situation, which is that growers want to propagate it themselves. Actually this is not difficult either: you can use scissors to cut off a branch about 10 cm long, then insert it into a pot for cuttings. Keep the potting soil moist in daily care and place it in a shaded spot, and it will take root in about 15 days.

Growing techniques:

1. Propagation techniques

Silver bud willow is always propagated by cuttings using mature branches, and they are inserted directly in the field. Generally, when doing pre-sale sorting in winter, the lower branches are cut off and trimmed into cuttings about 20 cm long with 4-5 axillary buds, tied into small bundles, stood upright indoors, and stored with river sand to keep them moist. To save cutting material, the cuttings can be cut to only 2 leaf buds, about 8 cm long. The specific cutting time differs by region. In the south, February is the suitable cutting period, while in the Beijing area open-field cuttings are only started in early April.

Taiwan, China also has large amounts of silver bud willow cultivation and export. Their practice is: after harvesting silver bud willow at the end of December, take the cuttings, pack them, keep them moist, and store them at 4 degrees C. This method is simple and convenient and saves storage space. Two weeks after the Start of Spring is the suitable planting period. Cut the cuttings to about 20 cm long, soak them in a fungicide such as carbendazim for disinfection before cutting, then dry them in the shade before inserting them.

2. Planting methods

It is best to choose fields whose previous crop was rice and plant in paddy fields, to reduce the occurrence of damping-off. Plow and prepare the land, apply base fertilizer, make the beds, and then insert the cuttings.

The method introduced by Ye Zengji and others in Shanghai is: plow in early to mid-February, apply base fertilizer (apply 2500 kg of organic fertilizer per mu); make beds 1.7 m wide with furrows 0.3 m wide, and at the same time apply 15-40 kg of ammonium bicarbonate, 10-15 kg of potassium sulfate or potassium chloride, and 25-30 kg of superphosphate per mu, and cover the bed surface with black plastic film. Four rows per bed, insert the stored cuttings about 20 cm long at a spacing of 20-25 cm, about 6000 plants per mu. They sprout about 2 weeks after cutting. If there are missing plants, replant immediately so as not to affect the yield per unit area.

In the first year of cultivation as cut flowers, cuttings are grown into single-stem silver bud willow, and the cut branches produced have thick stems, bright color, and plump flower buds. By the second year, taking advantage of the stubble's characteristics of early sprouting, early leaf fall on the lower part of the branches, and upward movement of flower bud nodes, multi-branched silver bud willow is grown. After harvesting the flower branches, dig out the plants and insert new cuttings again.

3. Bud removal and pinching

After the cuttings sprout, 4-5 buds often appear at the same time. In the case of 2-year-old stubble silver bud willow, even more buds sprout. When removing buds, keep only 2-3 buds per plant. When producing only single-head silver bud willow, pinching is not needed. Because some export products are multi-head silver bud willow, pinching treatment is needed to promote more than 3 branches on the upper part. When the new shoots reach 80-100 cm long, remove 3-5 cm of the tender tip. The time should be early May, no later than May 20. If pinching is too late, the branches produced will not reach the required 60 cm or more. To ensure the commercial quality of multi-head silver willow, new shoots with strong growth must be selected for pinching, usually mostly on 2-year-old stubble plants, because 2-year-old plants branch early, and their new shoots can reach a height of 1 m 10-15 days earlier than 1-year-old plants. After pinching, the final branch length can also reach more than 1 m. In addition, because the lower part of the new shoots of 2-year-old plants sheds leaves earlier, there is a relatively long section (about 50 cm) at the base of the branch without flower buds. When used as single-stem silver bud willow, the quality is not as good as that of 1-year-old plants, but as multi-head silver bud willow, the absence of flower buds below the branching point does not affect commercial quality, and the selling price is about 1 times higher than that of single-stem silver bud willow. Among 1-year-old plants, some particularly vigorous new shoots can also be selected and grown into multi-head silver bud willow after pinching. When growing multi-head silver bud willow, more attention should be paid to strengthening fertilizer and water management.

Taiwan, China adopts the wide-row planting method, with a plant and row spacing of 30×150 cm. Usually after the cuttings survive, pinching is done 2 times. The purpose of the first pinching is to increase the number of silver bud willow branches, thereby increasing the yield per unit area; the second pinching is to increase the number of forked branches of silver bud willow, thereby increasing the selling price of single-stem silver bud willow. When the 14th leaf unfolds, it is the suitable time for the first pinching. For the new vegetative line of silver bud willow, leaving about 5-6 branches is most suitable. When the plant grows to about 100-120 cm high, carry out the second pinching, which can turn single branches into forked branches, with 2 forks being the best.

Silver bud willow has a stronger ability to sprout branches during the rainy season, so sprouting branches need to be removed in time to ensure that the retained branches have more nutrient supply. When removing them, be careful to pull them off from the base. It is best to remove them when the sprouting branches have not yet lignified, when they can be pulled off by hand. Generally, silver bud willow sprouting branches lignify in 3-5 days, so silver bud willow sprout removal should be done once every 3-5 days at the longest.

4. Irrigation and fertilization

Silver bud willow likes moisture. If continuous high temperature and drought in July-August exceed 7-10 days, timely irrigation is necessary. Irrigation should be done after 8 p.m. After filling the furrows, close the water inlet and let it seep in on its own. At dawn the next day, open the furrow mouth again to drain the standing water. In September-October, when the weather gradually cools, if there is no rain for more than 10 consecutive days, irrigation should also be done. Stop irrigation before leaf fall to promote branch maturity and fullness. In the rainy season, great attention must be paid to drainage to meet the requirement of "the field dries when the rain stops."

Silver bud willow likes fertilizer. In addition to applying enough base fertilizer, 2-3 topdressings are also needed during the growing period. If the base fertilizer is insufficient, topdress once in mid-to-late April when branches are about 10 cm long, applying 10-15 kg of urea per mu. May-June is the period of most vigorous branch growth, so apply a nitrogen-based compound fertilizer once in mid-to-late May, 25-30 kg per mu. August-September is the flower bud differentiation period, so apply a compound fertilizer balanced in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium once in early, mid, and late August, applying 30-35 kg per mu of a compound fertilizer with N-P2O5-K2O=15-15-15. In addition, during September, use 0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate plus 0.5% urea for foliar topdressing 2-3 times, which clearly promotes flower bud swelling and coloring.

In addition, intertillage and weeding are also an important daily management task. Regularly loosening the surface soil can reduce water evaporation, raise soil temperature, promote the decomposition of nutrients in the soil, and create good conditions for root nutrient absorption and growth. During the seedling stage, intertillage should be done as early and as promptly as possible. As the plant grows, gradually stop intertillage and focus mainly on weeding.

5. Control of main pests and diseases

The main diseases harming silver bud willow are damping-off and black spot. Damping-off occurs mostly at the seedling stage, and after onset it causes cutting rot and tender shoot wilt. For control, attention should be paid to disinfecting cuttings. Before cutting, soak the cuttings in an 800-1000 times solution of carbendazim or thiophanate-methyl. In addition, avoid continuous cropping on the same field, and it is best to choose paddy fields whose previous crop was rice. Black spot harms leaves, stems, and buds. At the initial stage, small brown spots appear on the leaves. In severe cases, the spots expand, the leaves dry up, and later it can harm flowers or branches, forming black spots. It can be controlled with pesticides such as tebuconazole, copper hydroxide, lime sulfur mixture, and thiophanate-methyl. The main pests harming silver bud willow are red spider mites, scale insects, slug moths, bagworms, noctuid moths, geometer moths, aphids, brown marmorated stink bugs, leaf rollers, leaf beetles, and others, and timely control is also needed.