Cultivation techniques of chrysanthemum and chicory

Chicory, also known as wild chicory, French chicory, etc., is a 2-year to perennial plant of Compositae. At present, it is cultivated all over the world, especially in France and Italy in Europe. It is an important salad vegetable in Europe. It can be divided into the loose leaf type specially for softening, the red ball type and the bell ball type without softening for eating. Among them, more than half of them are softened, and the cream tender white buds formed by softening, also known as French endive, have a beautiful flavor; while the red chicory without softening, the mesophyll and vein red mosaic, are unique as salad dishes. With the rise of western food industry in China, chicory cultivation in China will attract more and more attention, and will obtain good social and economic benefits.

1. Soil preparation and fertilization

Choose sandy loam soil and loam soil with deep soil layer, good drainage and rich organic matter for cultivation. Deep ploughing 20~ 30cm, applying decomposed compost 1000~ 1500kg per mu, applying compound fertilizer 40~ 50kg per mu when sowing, deep furrow after intensive ploughing, 0.7m wide (continuous furrow), 20~ 30cm wide and 15~ 20cm deep.

II. Sowing and post-sowing management

Dry seed drilling is carried out in the middle and first ten days of August, 2 rows are sown in each row, and the seed amount is 150 - 200 grams per mu. The sowing method is the same as that of Chinese cabbage. If there is no rain after sowing, it should be watered continuously for 3~5 times before the seedlings are ready and fixed. After that, water should be properly maintained to keep the soil dry and wet, and the number of watering times should be increased after the fleshy roots expand rapidly. Seedlings 2~3 leaves, 5~6 leaves seedlings and intertillage weeding, timely watering. Chicory has few diseases and insect pests, mainly cabbage caterpillar, underground pests and aphids, which can be controlled by freezing and sunning, and with high efficiency and low toxicity pesticides. About 100 days after sowing, the fleshy roots will be dug out when the taproot is thick, 25~30 cm long and the root tip is 4 cm thick before the temperature is ~2℃. Leaves outward, roots inward code into a diameter of about 1 meter in situ steamed bun shaped small pile, so as not to freeze and water loss. When it is about to freeze in late November, cut off the leaf cluster, leaving only 2 cm long at the base, dig a storage cellar with width of 1.5 meters and depth of 1.2 meters and extending from east to west at the shady place on the north side of the greenhouse and house, stagger the head and tail, stack according to batches, batch height of 70 - 90 cm, leave 10 cm spacing between batches, cover the cellar with agricultural film and straw curtain, so as to stabilize the temperature at 0 - 2 DEG C, and store it until April of the next year at most.

3. Softening cultivation

The cultivation site can be selected in a greenhouse, greenhouse or empty house with a stable temperature of 8~12℃, using clean river sand or sandy soil as a substrate, or in a pond or barrel for hydroponic cultivation. Cultivation ponds with a width of 1.2 meters, a depth of 0.4 meters and a length of 6 to 8 meters are dug in the shed, and a walkway with a width of 60 centimeters is reserved between the ponds. The fleshy roots are graded after the residual petioles are cut off by a sharp knife, the root spacing is 2 - 3 cm, and 100 - 150 roots per square meter, the upper part is evenly stacked, clean sand is buried to the neck after the stacking, and water is immediately poured once, and sand is covered once after water infiltration, after 2 - 3 days, small arch frames are inserted, black agricultural film is covered, complete darkness conditions are created, and leaf bulbs are softened. Control the temperature in the bed, 12~20℃ is appropriate, at 18~20℃, 20~30 days can be harvested;10~12℃ needs 30~40 days to harvest. During the day must not see the light, otherwise the bud green, lose commodity value. If the humidity is large, it can be opened at night, and generally does not need watering.

IV. Timely harvest

After 20~30 days of chicory bud growth, when the bud ball grows to 10~15 cm high, 3.5~5 cm thick, the single ball weighs about 100 grams, it can be harvested, cut from the base of the bud ball with a sharp knife, the position should not be too high, otherwise it is easy to scatter the ball. At this time, the bud is tender yellow, clean, compact and beautiful. After trimming, it can be packaged in plastic bags or plastic wrap. It can also be stored in the refrigerator for 1~2 weeks. Attention should be given to shading when listed, otherwise the buds will gradually turn green and reduce quality.