Detailed Explanation of Key Aconite Cultivation and Management Techniques

Aconite, also called wild aconite, mainly grows in central and southwestern regions and is a well-known medicinal herb, with the underground root mainly harvested as medicine. It can treat many ailments and prefers to grow in moist places with good sunlight, generally growing in fertile, loose soil; in the wild it mainly grows in shrub thickets where there is leaf litter. The medicinal efficacy of artificially cultivated aconite is much weaker, but wild resources are limited, so this must be done; after planting aconite, careful manual management is now required to create good conditions.

1. Fertilization

Base fertilizer: 1000 jin per mu, farmyard manure, applied with water, can be used when preparing and plowing the land. After land preparation and planting, topdressing should begin after the seedlings emerge: about 1000 jin of farmyard manure per mu, which can be combined with 20 jin of urea; urea is used separately and dissolved before use. During the vigorous growth period in May, topdress once, applying 800 jin of farmyard manure per mu each time, as it is relatively fond of fertilizer. When the seedlings grow to one meter, topdress once more: 50 jin of calcium fertilizer and 900 jin of farmyard manure.

2. Earthing Up and Weeding

After the seedlings emerge, remove diseased plants. Along with this, clear the weeds in the field. Fertilization in May should be combined with weeding and earthing up, mainly pulling out those runaway weeds, then pulling down the large clods of soil, breaking them up finely, and covering them back over the soil surface. When the plants grow to 1 meter, earth up; earth up again at the last topdressing, mainly to preserve fertilizer and warmth.

3. Root Pruning

Root pruning is done so the aconite roots grow larger, because if they are too small they have no processing value. Root pruning is done twice a year: once around Qingming, when the soil is turned open and small aconite roots are cut off with a small knife, keeping the large ones. The second time is in summer, removing all the vigorously growing small aconite roots and keeping the large ones. After root pruning, the planting rows should be made into a sloped-ridge shape so that water does not accumulate and damage the roots.

4. Plant Adjustment

After root pruning at Qingming, pinch off the growing tip: remove the central growing point at the top of the plant, either by pinching it off gently or cutting it off with a blade, to reduce damage. In summer, during vigorous growth, buds will sprout many times and all must be removed; this is different from spring, as side branches are no longer needed, and too many side branches consume nutrients so the underground roots cannot grow large. After summer, no buds should be kept and they are generally removed.

Aconite is now an important artificially cultivated medicinal material. Because the underground root is mainly harvested, cultivation management is mainly about coordinating the relationship between vegetative growth and reproductive growth, as well as the relationship between aboveground plant growth and underground root growth, so as to benefit growth and development and root growth.