When is the best month to plant mustard greens
Here is an introduction for netizens about the best months to plant mustard greens and the planting methods and timing of green plants and flowers. Let's follow the editor to see the specific content!
Mustard greens are annual herbaceous plants of the Brassicaceae family, cultivated in various parts of the country. There are different varieties of mustard greens in different regions, including leaf mustard, stem mustard, and root mustard. Leaf mustard is called "qingcai" in Guizhou and "kucai" in Yunnan. The leaf mustard varieties planted here include jinguang qingcai and ordinary qingcai. Jinguang qingcai is a unique vegetable variety in the county, with elliptical leaves, thick leaf flesh, wrinkled leaf surface, resembling a rooster's comb, thin petioles, green leaves, more leaves than stems, and low mustard flavor. It is the best vegetable for making lianzha lao during the transition from spring to summer in Dafang. Jinguang qingcai grows slowly, with a single leaf weight of 0.5 to 1 kilogram. There are few farmers planting this kind of mustard, and the market price is high, generally more than twice that of ordinary qingcai. Ordinary qingcai has tall plants, wide leaves, flat or nearly round petioles, long elliptical leaves, thick leaf flesh, wavy or bluntly toothed leaf edges, few lobes, and a wrinkled leaf surface. The leaves are green. The stems are tender and spicy, with good quality and adaptability. The harvesting period is from March to April, with high yield. It is a good material for making pickled vegetables and salted vegetables. Mustard is mainly used to make pickled vegetables, which are a major local specialty. The main raw material is mustard, which is washed and boiled for 2-3 minutes before being filtered and squeezed dry, then placed in a jar, adding boiling surface broth and a little sour starter, and sealed for 7-8 hours. When eaten, it is added to mung bean soup and seasoned with chili peppers, litsea cubeba, and garlic leaves, which is delicious and has the effect of refreshing and appetite-stimulating. Pickled vegetables are the most common dish for Dafang people. As the saying goes, "If Dafang people don't eat sour food for three days, they will stagger when walking."
Mustard greens are divided into leaf mustard, stem mustard, and root mustard. Leaf mustard includes varieties such as jinguang qingcai, daye qingcai, huaye kucai, and baobao qingcai. Stem mustard includes types such as zha cai and er cai. Root mustard is mainly大头菜.
I. Sowing Time: The sowing time varies from place to place, generally in October to November. Southern regions can sow all year round, mainly in autumn, while northern regions sow in spring. For example, in Guizhou Province, the suitable time for planting mustard is: leaf mustard is sown directly or transplanted from July to October, stem mustard is sown and raised from September to October, and root mustard is sown directly or transplanted from August to October.
II. Planting Methods
1. Seedling raising: Mustard can be sown directly or transplanted. Most regions choose to raise seedlings for transplanting, as it is easier to manage during the seedling stage, with a high survival rate after transplanting, tall plants, good vegetable quality, and high mustard yield. Seedbed preparation and sowing: Choose a fertile, moist, and well-ventilated plot for the seedbed, apply 1500 kilograms of human and animal waste per mu, deeply plow 16-20 centimeters,晒垄后 after晒垄, crush the soil clumps and level the ground, then create a seedbed 130 centimeters wide and 16 centimeters high for sowing. After sowing, cover the seeds with fine soil and ash from burned soil, then cover with straw, water thoroughly, and the seedlings will emerge in about 3 days, remove the straw. Thin the seedlings once in about 10 days, then thin again 10 days later, maintaining a seedling spacing of 5-7 centimeters, and apply clear manure water at the same time. For leaf mustard, use 50-100 grams of seeds per mu, for stem mustard, use 40-50 grams (for zha cai) or 70-100 grams (for er cai), and for root mustard, use 50-100 grams of seeds per mu.
2. Transplanting
Prepare the land, keeping it away from vegetables such as radishes, cabbage, and lettuce. After harvesting the previous crop, deeply plow 23-37 centimeters, fully晒垄, apply enough base fertilizer, rake and level the soil, and create a bed surface 160-200 centimeters wide and 30 centimeters wide. Transplant when the seedlings have 5-6 leaves. For early-maturing leaf mustard varieties, the row spacing is 33-35 centimeters, the plant spacing is 25-33 centimeters, for late-maturing varieties, the row spacing is 38-45 centimeters, and the plant spacing is 25-33 centimeters. For zha cai, the row spacing is 30-33 centimeters, and the plant spacing is 30-33 centimeters. For er cai, the row spacing is 60 centimeters, and the plant spacing is 50-57 centimeters. For root mustard, the row spacing is 45 centimeters, and the plant spacing is 33-40 centimeters. It is better to transplant in the afternoon on a sunny day, and water the roots while transplanting, planting one plant per hole.
3. Field Management
10-15 days after transplanting, apply about 2000 kilograms of human and animal waste per mu, combined with 4-5 kilograms of urea and an appropriate amount of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. In the early stage of root and stem expansion, apply 12-15 kilograms of urea and 20 kilograms of superphosphate per mu. In the peak stage of root and stem expansion, apply 2000 kilograms of human and animal waste, 7.5-10 kilograms of urea per mu. For seedlings overwintering, apply less fertilizer before the New Year and more fertilizer after the spring. Keep the soil moist, till the soil, remove weeds, and prevent and control pests and diseases.
4. Harvesting and Seed Saving
Leaf mustard can be peeled or harvested all at once when the leaves are mature and large. Zha cai and er cai can be harvested when the heads are fully expanded. Da cai is usually harvested when the basal leaves have turned yellow and the root head has turned from green to yellow.
For seed saving, select stem mustard and root mustard with good head shape, leaf mustard with large leaves, characteristic features of the original variety, strong growth, no diseases and pests, and uniform bolting as seed plants, strengthen management, harvest when the seed pods turn yellow, and dry for seeds.
The above is a specific introduction to the best month to plant mustard greens and its planting methods and timing, hoping to bring some knowledge of flowers and plants to green enthusiasts.