How to get seeds and grow dandelions

Seed preparation

The flower disk shell changes from green to yellow-green and the seeds change from milky white to brown and can be harvested. Do not wait until the flower disk cracks before harvesting, otherwise the seeds will easily fly away and cause great losses. Generally, each inflorescence contains more than 100 seeds. The weight of 1,000 large-leaf dandelion seeds is about 2 grams, and the weight of 1,000 small-leaf dandelion seeds is about 0.8-1.2 grams.

When collecting seeds, you can pick the dandelion flower disk, store it indoors for a day to ripen, wait until the flower disk is completely open, and then dry it in the shade for 1 to 2 days until the seeds are half dry. Rub off the fluff on the tip of the seeds with your hands, and then dry the seeds for later use.

In places where wild dandelion resources are abundant, the roots of wild dandelions can also be directly harvested for cultivation. Usually in October, after digging the roots, they are concentratedly cultivated in a greenhouse with a plant spacing of 8 cm × 3 cm. After planting, they are watered sufficiently. New leaves will sprout in February of the following year. At this time, organic fertilizer is applied again. When they grow to a certain extent, the leaves can be harvested and put on the market.

Land preparation and fertilization

Choose loose, fertile, well-drained sandy loam for planting. Apply 2000-3500 kg of organic fertilizer per mu, mix it with 15 kg of superphosphate, and spread it evenly on the ground. Deeply plow the soil 20 to 25 centimeters, level and harrow it, and make flat beds 1.2 meters wide, 10 meters long, and 20 centimeters high.

Before sowing dandelions, the soil should be plowed and made into ridges. Shallow furrows should be dug in the ridges with a distance of 12 cm and a width of 10 cm. Then the seeds should be sown in the furrows. After sowing, cover the seeds with soil with a thickness of 0.3 to 0.5 cm. The soil must be moist when sowing. If the soil is dry, water it thoroughly two days before sowing. It is best to cover the ground with plastic film during spring sowing, but it is not necessary to cover the ground if there is sufficient rainfall during summer sowing.