Water Spinach Planting Methods and Technical Key Points
This species is native to East Asia and is now widely cultivated as a vegetable, or sometimes escapes into the wild state. It is commonly cultivated in the central and southern provinces of China, and is relatively rare in the north. It is suited to growing in warm, humid climates and fertile, moist soil. It is not cold-tolerant, and its stems and leaves die when exposed to frost. Its distribution covers tropical Asia, Africa and Oceania. Besides being eaten as a vegetable, it can also be used medicinally: taken internally it relieves food poisoning, and applied externally it treats fractures, ascites and unnamed ulcers and swellings. Water spinach is also a fairly good feed.
Planting Methods
1. Sowing and raising seedlings: Use vine seedling propagation. Take seed vines selected and retained the previous year that have safely overwintered under protection, sprout them, and insert them into the seedling bed. Prepare the field into beds with a bed width of 1.5 m and a ditch width of 20-25 cm, apply sufficient base fertilizer, and sow by broadcasting over the whole bed. Sow 150-200 kg of seed vines per mu of seedbed. After sowing, cover with plastic film to keep warm and retain moisture, and remove the film once the seedlings emerge. When the seedlings are about 30 cm tall, break off the vines to encourage adventitious roots to form downward at the vine nodes and side branches to grow upward, then use the successively produced side branches of a certain size for cuttings to establish the crop.
2. Fertilizing and transplanting: Water spinach is not demanding about soil conditions, and it is best to choose low-lying, moist and fertile clay loam for cultivation. The base fertilizer should be mainly organic fertilizer and phosphate fertilizer, and a certain amount of plant ash may be broadcast. The cultivation spacing is 30-35 cm between rows and 15-20 cm between hills. In addition, during the growing period, you can pick about 15 cm of the top shoots and use them for cutting propagation again. As long as the soil moisture in the cutting field is suitable, the cuttings will quickly grow adventitious roots and put out new shoots.
3. Field management: In the early stage, cultivate and loosen the soil in good time to raise soil temperature. During the plant growth period, the demand for fertilizer and water is high, so water frequently and water heavily (dry air and insufficient soil moisture can easily lead to increased fiber in water spinach, affecting yield and quality), and apply topdressing in combination with watering. After the first harvest, apply 15 kg of urea or 20 kg of diammonium phosphate per mu as topdressing, applied with irrigation water. After that, apply topdressing once about every 20 days, with 3-5 kg of urea per mu. When autumn temperatures turn cooler, cultivate and weed in good time, and pay attention to controlling pests such as red spider mites. In addition, for the parts where too many side branches occur and the branches and vines are crowded and thin and weak, thin out the branches so that the branches and vines grow evenly, with good ventilation and light penetration, improving product quality.
4. Harvesting techniques: Timely harvesting is the key to high yield and good quality in water spinach. In production, it can generally be harvested when the seedlings are about 25-35 cm tall. At the first and second harvests, leave enough of the stem base, 2-3 nodes, to facilitate new buds sprouting after harvest, promote side branches, and strive for high yield. After 3-4 harvests, carry out one heavy harvest of the plants, that is, leave only 1-2 nodes at the stem base, to prevent too many side branches from developing, which would cause weak and slow growth.