Chicory, also known as European chicory and French chicory, is a biennial to perennial herb of chicory family and is a variety of wild chicory. Native to the Mediterranean, Central Asia and North Africa, especially in European countries.
Chicory was introduced into China and cultivated successfully in 1990s. Chicory is a kind of pollution-free vegetable with great development prospects, which is welcomed by the majority of consumers as soon as it is listed in China. So how is chicory grown? What should be paid attention to when planting chicory? Please read down with me with your questions!
Field planting techniques of chicory chicory chicory is a kind of cold resistant vegetable, which likes to be cold and cool. Its roots can overwinter in the open field in the middle and south of Hebei Province. High temperature and long sunshine in spring can promote the bolting and flowering of Cichorium intybus, while the gradually cool climate in autumn is conducive to the formation of good roots. Softening chicory needs to go through two cultivation stages to form products. Generally, root plants are cultivated in the field in autumn, and softening buds are formed by softening root plants in winter, which are supplied to the market in winter and spring.
1、 Seed treatment
7-10 days before sowing, put the seeds in a cool and ventilated place for 1-2 days to improve the germination rate, but do not expose them to the sun on the cement floor. In order to ensure the whole seedling, the germination rate should be determined before sowing. Generally, imported chicory seeds are treated with fungicides and can be dry sown (seeds with red or green color are treated with pesticides and washed with soap after hand contact). If the seeds are self collected or bred in China, the seeds can be soaked in cold water to remove the floating seeds. After the sinking full seeds come out of water, they can be sown after the water is removed.
2、 Sowing date
The best sowing date was from July 22 to August 5, and from July 25 to 28. The seeds were sown in the middle and late July in Eastern Hebei, and in the early June in Zhangcheng. Direct seeding needs 120-150g seeds per mu. Precision sowing is adopted for plug seedling, and the seed consumption per mu is 18-20g, which is much less than that of direct seeding.
3、 Preparation before sowing
20-25 days before sowing, the former stubble was broken by rotary tiller, and the worse the broken, the better. Apply enough base fertilizer, 5000 kg of high-quality compost per mu, 30 kg of diammonium phosphate and 20 kg of potassium sulfate. Deep ploughing and land preparation: after spreading the base fertilizer on the surface of the earth, plough the soil 25-30 cm deep, level the soil and pick up the stubble. When sowing single ridge, the ridge should be raised at a distance of 40-50 cm, with a height of 15-17 cm; when sowing double ridge, the ridge should be raised at a distance of 80-90 cm, with a height of 12-15 cm, and made into a bed with a length of 10-15 M. The water should be evenly watered, and the dry water can be watered and the waterlogged water can be drained.
Planting technique of chicory -- preparation before sowing
4、 Sowing
(1) Live broadcast
Chicory is suitable for direct seeding. Direct seeding method is ridging cultivation, equal row spacing of 40 cm, sowing at the top of the ridge. Double ridge sowing can be carried out in large and small rows with a spacing of 30cm. First, draw a small ditch 0.5cm deep with a bamboo pole. Hold the seeds in your hands, twist the seeds into the ditch with two fingers, and gently level them with a hoe.
Water immediately after sowing, do not cross the ridge, do not overflow the top. Water before emergence, then water after emergence. The first thinning of Cichorium intybus with 2-3 leaves and the second thinning of Cichorium intybus with 4-5 leaves were carried out. When the leaves are 7-9, the plant spacing is 17 cm for single row sowing and 19 cm for double row sowing, with 8500-10000 seedlings per mu.
(2) Seedling raising
Seedling facilities can be small nutrient soil or plug seedling. The 288 hole seedling tray is selected to raise seedlings, which can not scatter lumps and damage roots, and has high survival rate.
Medium for seedling. If conditions permit, 2 parts of peat, 1 part of vermiculite, or 1 part of peat, waste mushroom and vermiculite can be mixed. If 288 hole seedling trays are used, 40-50 seedling trays are needed for planting 1 mu of chicory, and 300 trays can be loaded per cubic meter of substrate. When preparing the substrate, 0.7 kg of compound fertilizer is added to each cubic meter of substrate, or 0.5 kg of urea and 0.5 kg of potassium dihydrogen phosphate are mixed with the substrate and filled into the hole tray for standby.
Sowing method. Put 1 seed in each hole, the depth is not more than 1 cm, cover it with a thin layer of vermiculite after sowing, and water it without exposing the seed. After sowing, water should be sprayed, with water dripping from the bottom hole of the plug as the degree. After watering, the grids of the plug should be clearly visible. When the temperature is about 20 ℃, the seedlings will come out in 3-4 days, and the seedlings will be checked in time.
Planting technique of Cichorium intybus
5、 Seedling management
The seedling period is high temperature and rainy season, and the seedling field should be protected from rain and high temperature. For example, in the greenhouse seedling, spray water every day, in the high temperature period, spray once in the morning and once in the evening. When the seedlings have three leaves and one heart, they can be sprayed with 0.3% urea and 0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate for one or two times. About 20 days, the seedlings with 3-4 true leaves can be transplanted into the field.
6、 Management after transplanting
The water should be permeable when planting, and the slow seedling water should be poured once 4-5 days after planting, and then the water should be watered according to the soil moisture. In the later stage of rosette, the root plants enter the expansion stage. Topdressing with urea is 10 kg per mu, 1-2 times, and the topdressing should be combined with watering. In order to control the growth of the above ground part and promote the expansion of the root, it is necessary to plough and weed 1-2 times in time after planting or seedling setting.
7、 Harvest and storage
Chicory plants can be harvested after 110-120 days of cultivation. The harvest time is in the middle of November. When the ground is dry before harvest, a small amount of water should be poured 5-7 days in advance. When collecting and planing, cut the leaves 4-5cm away from the ground, and dig out the roots of Cichorium intybus with pick and shovel. The roots were collected and piled into small piles in the field or beside the cellar, covered with leaves, and stored in the cellar or cold storage after precooling for 2-3 days at the lowest temperature of 0-2 ℃. Or after 10-15 days of storage, they passed the dormancy period and were softened.
There are two main methods of root storage: hoarding and cold storage. Cellar is the use of cold winter natural climate conditions, suitable for short-term storage, generally can be stored until February of the next year, before the sting to use up, otherwise it will sprout or rot cellar. Cold storage can be stored annually, but it needs certain facilities, such as cold storage, supporting refrigeration facilities, technology and power supply. The root plants stored in cold storage can be softened in batches and put on the market, which is suitable for industrial softening cultivation.
Chicory is the most widely planted variety in chicory harvest. The varieties used in chicory production are introduced from abroad and self bred in China. The varieties with strong disease resistance, strong adaptability, straight seed root, high yield and compact bud should be selected. The varieties introduced from abroad include fix, jazz, BIA, etc., while the domestic varieties bred by self breeding include Jingyu, Hongyu, Fengfeng, etc., which are bred by Institute of economic crops, Hebei Academy of agriculture and Forestry Sciences.
Jingyu: four types with different characters were selected from the softened chicory production field in Luquan, and then selected for six generations. After production identification, Jingyu strain has green leaves, white milky secretion in veins, bitter taste, serrated leaves at the base, many leaves, generally 30-35 leaves, upward flush, disease resistance, cold resistance, strong stress resistance and bolting resistance. The soft buds are light yellow, medium rib white, shell shaped, 14-16 cm long, 4-5 cm thick, slightly bitter with sweet taste and crisp taste. It is 12-16 cm long and has 20-30 leaves with a core. The average weight of a single bulb is 100-150 g. the yield of Cichorium intybus per mu is 750-1000 kg.
Ruby: it is selected from Cara imported from Belgium. Its leaves are purplish red, and its veins have white milky secretions. It tastes bitter. The growth is slow, the number of leaves is less, generally 16-22, the leaves are short, the leaves rush up, the growth is weak. Disease resistance, cold resistance, strong stress resistance, bolting resistance. The leaves of softening bud are bright red with white ribs. The bud is cone-shaped, 8-12cm long and 4-5cm thick. It tastes bitter, sweet and crisp. It is 12-16 cm long and has 12-20 leaves with a core. Generally, the weight of a single bulb is 50-100 g. the yield of Cichorium intybus is 400-500 kg per mu.
Fengfeng: it is selected from fix introduced from Belgium. It has green leaves, white milky secretion in veins, bitter taste, serrated leaf base, many leaves, generally 32-38 leaves, strong resistance to diseases and insects, cold, stress and bolting. The soft bud is light yellow with white ribs. The bud is long shell shaped, 14-16 cm long and 5-6 cm thick. It tastes bitter, sweet and crisp. It is 12-15 cm long and has 20-30 leaves with a core. The average weight of a single bulb is 100-150 g. the yield of Cichorium intybus is 800-1000 kg per mu.