1. Site selection:
Peony is a fleshy deep-rooted plant. It prefers dryness to wetness and grows vigorously in sunny places. Therefore, to cultivate peonies, we must first be good at choosing terrain and land. The terrain should be high and dry to facilitate drainage; the soil layer should be deep, loose and fertile, and neutral loam or sandy loam is preferred. Peonies cannot tolerate raw soil, swampy soil, and are most afraid of alkaline soil and slag soil.
2. Planting:
After division, it is best to cut off the aboveground part before planting. The planting can be appropriately deeper, but not too deep. If the planting is too deep, it will not flourish after survival; if the planting is too shallow, it will not be conducive to rooting and affect survival. The planting depth is generally based on the root neck part being flush with the ground surface. The planting period is preferably from the autumnal equinox to the cold dew in the Yellow River Basin, and can be appropriately delayed in the south of the Yangtze River. The size of the hole depends on the size of the plant, generally 30×45 cm square, with a depth of 45-50 cm.
3. Fertilization:
According to the growth law of peony "spring branches, autumn roots, summer nap, winter dormancy", fertilization is to apply before the ground freezes in winter, and the amount of fertilizer can be more. This fertilization can not only play the role of fertilizer, but also help protect the winter. It is mainly to apply fully decomposed and crushed cake fertilizer or dry human feces, mixed with a small amount of phosphorus fertilizer.
4. Pruning and bud removal:
For the purpose of reproduction, you can keep more, for the purpose of ornamental and medicinal use, you can keep less, and for both purposes, generally keep 5-8 branches (stocks). If you don't take the buds and let them grow arbitrarily, they will not bloom after a long time.
5. Division:
First dig out the four or five-year-old large peony from the soil, remove the root soil, and expose it to the sun for 1-2 days to make the roots lose water and soften before division. When dividing the plants, first check the texture and separate them with your hands or a cleaver according to the natural trend. The lush ones can be divided into 3-5 seedlings. Each seedling should have some fine roots. The division time is in autumn combined with planting. Although it can be carried out between the autumnal equinox and the beginning of winter. However, the best effect is achieved during the period from the autumnal equinox to the frost, when the peony is divided and planted for rooting. If the division is too late, the roots will be weak or no new roots will be produced in the current year, and the plants will grow weakly in the next spring, and will not tolerate drought, which may cause root damage or death after planting.
6. Grafting:
Use peony or peony roots as rootstocks, and select one-year-old strong branches as scions, about 6-10 cm long, with the base cut into a wedge shape. When grafting, cut a 4-5 cm long crack longitudinally on one side of the rootstock, and then insert the scion into the crack so that the cortex of both sides is closely connected, and then tighten it with hemp skin or plastic cloth strips, and apply mud on the outside.
7. Disease and pest control:
Use 500 times diluted carbendazim to spray 2-3 times a month in the rainy season to prevent leaf spot disease, and insecticides can be used to prevent pests.
8. Reproduction:
In order to cultivate new varieties or reproduce rootstocks for grafting, sowing can be used for reproduction. Under the natural conditions of the Yellow River Basin, peony seeds begin to mature from the beginning of summer, and then sowing can be adopted. In this way, the germination will be uniform in the spring of the second year. If the seeds are old or sown too late, they will not germinate in the spring of the second year. Some seeds will not germinate until the third year. In order to make the peony seeds germinate uniformly in the spring of the second year, wet sand can be used to accelerate the germination of the seeds after they are mature and harvested.
Before sowing, the land should be prepared, 18-20 cm deep plowing, then raking and leveling to make ridges, 4-6 cm deep sowing furrows should be opened according to the row spacing of 30-40 cm, and one seed should be sown every 3-4 cm. After sowing, cover the soil with 2-3 cm and cover the film on top, which will be removed when the seedlings emerge in March of the following year. Peony seeds have the above hypocotyl dormancy phenomenon. They only take root but do not germinate in the year of sowing. At the end of March and early April of the following year, the seeds begin to germinate and emerge from the soil. The emergence rate is generally 50%-80%. Transplant 2-3 years after sowing, with a row spacing of 50 cm and a plant spacing of 30 cm. After transplanting, they can bloom in succession after two or three years. Some of those that are not transplanted can bloom after four years of growth.