Planting technique of Coix by sowing lazy method in summer

I. Market prospects

Coix, commonly known as Coix rice, Coix seed and medicinal corn, is an annual or perennial herb of Gramineae. It has the functions of clearing heat, diuresis, dampness, expelling pus, tonifying the lung, strengthening the spleen and stomach, strengthening muscles and bones, relieving spasm, lowering blood pressure and so on. In recent years, it has been known that Coix ester and coixol contained in Coix seeds have a good killing effect on many kinds of cancer cells. Therefore, as a tonic for both medicine and food, Coix has a wide range of uses, large market demand and broad development prospects.

II. Significance of production

After wheat or rape harvest, Coix was planted extensively by direct lazy method and planted in a large area for many years by Runkang Institute of traditional Chinese Medicine in Heze City, Shandong Province. this method can effectively make use of the orange stalk harvested by wheat or rape harvester and cover the soil surface naturally, providing shade and moisturizing conditions for the germination and emergence of Coix seeds sown, ensuring the whole seedling after sowing, saving cultivated land cost and labor, and reducing production cost. It is especially in line with the reality that farmers do business and work, and there is no more time to operate farm work; this kind of lazy planting is also suitable for the cultivation and utilization of idle land in China, such as wetlands, barren mountains, barren slopes, ridges, lakes and beaches, and has better economic and social benefits.

Third, sowing technology

1. Sowing time: Coix can be sowed in spring and summer. After half-year-old crops such as wheat or rape are harvested in summer, the land does not need to be ploughed. Coix seeds can be sowed directly in wheat or rape rows after harvest.

2. Seed treatment: early-maturing Coix varieties in "thin shell red coat" were selected. The seeds of Coix were sunburned for two days before sowing, then soaked in water for 24 hours, the thin chaff seeds floating on the water surface were removed, the sunken full seeds were removed and drained, and treated with 20% strychnine, 0.4% of the seeds, can effectively prevent the occurrence of Coix smut.

3. Sowing method: after wheat or rape harvest, use the sowing machine to adjust the seeder according to a row of wheat ridge sowing Coix, so that the row spacing of Coix is between 45-50 cm; then adjust the seeder to sow one Coix seed every 5-6 cm; the sowing depth is controlled at 2-3 cm; the sowing mu can be sown with 3 kg of seeds per mu, about 50 mu a day. Manual sowing, strip sowing or hole sowing can be done by opening a shallow ditch with a row spacing of 50 cm, with a depth of 3 cm, and the bottom of the ditch is required to be flat. Spread the seeds evenly into the ditch according to the plant spacing of 5-6 cm, and then cover the soil and step on it, with 2.5 kg of seeds per mu.

IV. Field management

1. Interseedling planting: when the seedlings grow 2-3 true leaves, take out the dense seedlings and weak seedlings for the first time, and keep the plant spacing 6-7 cm; when the seedlings grow to 5-6 true leaves, the seedlings are fixed according to the plant spacing of 13-16 cm.

2. Weeding by mid-ploughing: generally, weeding by mid-ploughing twice. The first time was carried out when the seedling height was 6-7 cm, which promoted more tillering; the second time when the seedling height was 16-20 cm, and then ploughed and loosened the soil with fertilization. If planted in a large area, herbicides can be used for weeding in the field at seedling stage or mid-growth stage.

3. Topdressing soil: topdressing is carried out twice. For the first time, when the seedling height was 4-7 cm, 1000 kg of human faeces were applied per mu to promote seedling growth, more tillering and early tillering. The second time was carried out at the seedling height of about 35 cm or at booting, applying 1500 kg of human feces and urine per mu to promote the vigorous growth of the plant and be beneficial to booting. If there is no human feces and urine, topdressing can choose urea or compound fertilizer 20-30 kg each time. Soil cultivation is carried out in combination with fertilization when the seedling height is about 35 cm, which can prevent lodging and is beneficial to root growth.

4. Watering to promote growth: water management is the key to obtain high and stable yield of Coix. Coix is similar to corn and sorghum, people are used to think that it is a dry land crop, and dry land cultivation is also used in production, so the yield per mu is low. Shandong Heze Runkang traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute has proved that Coix is not a dry field crop, but a swamp crop, which is a wet plant. In order to obtain high and stable yield, we must jump out of the misunderstanding of dry land cultivation and adopt wet cultivation method. If planting in dry land, attention must be paid to watering work, and the scientific method of "wet at both ends and dry in the middle" can be adopted during watering; that is, the soil is required to be moist in the early stage of growth, so that the seedlings are neat and strong; in the later stage of tillering, the field should be drained and shelved to control moisture to prevent ineffective tillering; the heading stage should be irrigated and fully watered (during this period, some drought, the number of ears decreased greatly, the number of empty grains increased, and the yield decreased significantly); 10 days before harvest, there can be no irrigation to facilitate harvest.

5. Auxiliary pollination: Coix is generally pollinated naturally by wind, but the pollination rate is low, the yield is unstable and there are many empty seeds. According to the measures of artificial pollination adopted by Runkang Institute of traditional Chinese Medicine in Heze City, Shandong Province in recent years, the effect is good. The specific method is to vibrate the plant with sticks or ropes at 9: 00 noon every day during the flowering period of Coix, so as to make the pollen fly, which has an obvious effect on improving the fruit rate. If possible, the blower can also be used for artificial wind pollination, and the effect is better. 

V. Harvest and processing

Because of the strong branching of Coix, the fruit ripening is inconsistent. It can be harvested when the leaves in the middle and lower parts of the plant turn yellow and 80% of the fruit has ripe and turned black. Artificial harvest, choose sunny day, stand the plant for a few days after harvest, use threshing machine for threshing; large area planting, you can choose wheat or rice combine harvester, after debugging one-time harvest. The harvested fruit is exposed to the sun in a clean drying field until it is all dry, then put it in a ventilated place to remove the empty shell and impurities, separate the fuller Coix in the upwind and the thinner (white grain) in the downwind, and sell it.