How are chives grown?

Chinese chives are a kind of vegetable formed by the yellowing of the perennial roots of the leek of the Amaryllis family after softening and cultivation. It is also known as yellow leek, yellow leek, and leek white. The leaves of leek are tender yellow and the roots are snow-white. So how are leek grown? Let’s take a look with the editor below.

1. Variety selection

Choose leek varieties that are suitable for the local environment, have fast growth rate, high yield, strong tillering ability and strong disease resistance, such as Tiesifei, Jiaxing Baigen, Shaoxing Snow Leek, Huanggezi Leek, etc.

2. Seed treatment

Soak the chive seeds in warm water at 35-40 degrees for 12-24 hours to break the seed dormancy. During the soaking process, pick out the dead and rotten seeds, then put the seeds in 2%-3% carbendazim solution and mix them for 15 minutes. Then put them in a humid environment for germination. After about 2-3 days when most of the seeds turn white, they can be sown.

3. Site selection and land preparation

Choose a plot with strong soil fertility, deep and loose soil layer, good aeration and high organic matter content. Before sowing, deep plow the soil and apply sufficient base fertilizer. Apply 30-50 kg of compound fertilizer per mu as base fertilizer. After land preparation, make convex and concave ridges 8-10 meters wide and running north-south, connecting the ditches, waist ditches and surrounding ditches.

4. Seeding and planting

The suitable methods for sowing leek are direct seeding and row sowing, and the seed rate is generally 2.5-3 kg per mu. On the bed surface, dig east-west concave sowing furrows with a row spacing of 0.7-0.8 meters. The furrow is 13-15 cm deep and about 15 cm wide at the bottom. Sow the seeds evenly in the furrows and cover them with 1-1.5 cm of fine sand. When the chive seedlings grow 4-5 leaves and are about 20 cm tall, they can be transplanted and planted.

5. Water and fertilizer management

Water chives based on soil moisture. Reduce the amount and frequency of watering when the temperature is low. Apply fertilizer in time after transplanting, and twice before harvesting, when the seedlings are about 25 cm and 40 cm tall respectively. Mainly use fully decomposed organic fertilizer , combined with urea, and apply in the furrows.

6. Soil cultivation and cutting

When the leek leaves grow to 45-50 cm, the first soiling should be carried out. The height of the soiling should reach 1 cm below the leek leaf outlet and the soil layer should be compacted. Organic fertilizer should be applied in the furrows before soil cultivation. Cutting the green leaves means cutting off the leaves above the leek leaf outlet so that the newly grown leek leaves can be cultivated into leek greens. The time for mowing is about 10 days after the first soil cultivation. After mowing, the soil needs to be cultivated for the second time and diluted manure should be applied once.

7. Leek cultivation

The cultivation of leek greens needs to be carried out in completely light-proof conditions. It can be covered with soil, straw mats, cellars, tile tubes, horse manure, fallen leaves, etc., so that the new leaves or pseudostems of the leek can form leek greens in the dark.

The above is an introduction to how leek greens are grown. Leek greens are a specialty vegetable in China and are widely cultivated throughout China, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Wuhan, Gansu and other provinces.