Highly-efficient Stereo-cultivation Model in Kiwifruit Orchards Interplanting Konjak

Jinping WU,Zili DING,Anquan LIU,Chaozhu YANG,Jiang Zhengjun,Zhengming QIU*

1.Hubei Academy of Agricultural Science,Wuhan 430064,China;

2.Enshi Badong Changyou Konjak Foodstuff Co.,Ltd,Enshi 444300,China;

3.Konjak Institute of Enshi Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Enshi 445000,China;

4.Wuhan City Vegetable Technology Service Station,Wuhan 430023,China

Highly-efficient Stereo-cultivation Model in Kiwifruit Orchards Interplanting Konjak

Jinping WU1,Zili DING1,Anquan LIU2,Chaozhu YANG3,Jiang Zhengjun4,Zhengming QIU1*

1.Hubei Academy of Agricultural Science,Wuhan 430064,China;

2.Enshi Badong Changyou Konjak Foodstuff Co.,Ltd,Enshi 444300,China;

3.Konjak Institute of Enshi Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Enshi 445000,China;

4.Wuhan City Vegetable Technology Service Station,Wuhan 430023,China

The kiwifruit orchards with plants growing for over two years were chosen for interplanting of konjak,which takes advantages of complementation of the two plants in terms of habits,reducing water and soil erosions effectively,and decreasing water evaporation,and konjak diseases.Furthermore,the interplanting doubles planting benefits and constitutes a highly-efficient planting model.

Kiwifruit orchard;Interplanting;Konjak

K iwifruits contain rich carbohydrate,vitamin,and trace elements,especially for Vc,Va and folic acid.For example,the content of Vc in kiwifruit is 10 times as high as that of apple,and kiwifruit, therefore,is famous as the king of Vc. Besides,the skin of kiwifruit is abundant with pectin and the flesh contains much more diversified amino acids, including glutamic acid and arginine, which promote secretion of growth hormone.Furthermore,the fleshes have rows of tiny,black and edible seeds,containing much Vitamin E.Additionally,the contents of Vc,Mg and trace elements keep higher,and kiwifruits ranks the 1stin terms of K content,compared with banana and orange[1].

Konjaks are beneficial alkaline food.For instance,people who take too much acidic food could have some konjaks to achieve acid-base balance, which is conductive for human health. Currently,much research is carried out on clinical test in terms of health-care and medical care effects of konjak and it concludes that konjac glucomannan, a major component,belongs to watersoluble hemicelluloses,performing quite well in adjusting nutrient imbalance by dietary fiber.Different with insoluble fiber of Chinese cabbage and celery,it would participate metabolism of human body and influence enteric bacteria after entering body.What’s more,konjal also contains alkaloid, pectin,17 amino acids,10 mineral trace elements and rich dietary fibers required by human,besides gulcomannan.It is notable that konjak is the only plant containing more gulcomannan,performing excellently in preventing hyperlipidemia,high cholesterol, diabetes,adiposis and constipation. Therefore,it is much popular in food market.In Japan,it has been an essential dish and famous as“magic food”[2-4].

Kiwifruit seedlings are generally cultivated as per the standard of holedistance of 2 m,row spacing of 3 m, and height of scaffolding of 2 m,so that much more lands under trees are left unused.As for closed kiwifruit orchards,especially for the orchards with pergola trellis,fertilizers should be scattered on the orchards as per intertillage because roots are widely distributed in the orchards.Consequently, weeds spring up.In order to guarantee quality of kiwifruit,pesticides are forbidden,and weeds can only be controlled by manual work.Therefore,it is a problem how to make full use of lands and sunshine to improve economic benefits from lands.The konjak is a short plant growing in damp or shady locations.In contrast,kiwifruit growth requires more sunshine.It is obvious that konjak and kiwifruit complement each other’s advantages and the combination would prevent soil and water losses,reduce water evaporation,and decrease disease and insect damages.

Complementary Effect of Interplanting of Kiwifruit and Konjak

In terms of crop growth habits,kiwifruit orchards actually provide proper growth conditions for konjak,due to the shades under support structures in the orchards and diffused sunshine, which would mprove quality and yield of konjak(Fig.1-Fig.2).With consideration of use rate of soil layers,most roots of konjak are distributed in soil layers above 25 cm,and roots of kiwifruits are in soil layers of 30-60 cm. hence,the two plants would fully exploit soil layers.Besides,weeds of konjak are few,and weeding work would be light.As for water and soil use rates,weeding,fertilization of additional fertilizer,and irrigation could proceed simultaneously for both of kiwifruit and konjak,which significantly reduces work efforts and increaseswork effects.Furthermore,konjak stalks can be used as organic fertilizer to enhance soil fertility and the interplanting with konjak actually plays the role of keeping soil moist and preventing soil and water losses[5-6].Konjaks usually grow under shrubs,but frequently diseased with extension of growing area and change of growth environment[7-8].Specifically,Erwinia carotovora is the disease most seriously damaging konjaks,when the yield loss can be as high as 30%-50%,and even 80%or higher[7,9].By interplanting with kiwifruit,however, the damages decline considerably.

Soil Preparation and Fertilization

The kiwifruit orchards with plants growing for over two years can be chosen,where a row spacing should be about 3 m,and support structure of 1.8-2 m.According to planting index, base fertilizers should be scattered on vacant lots 80 cm away from kiwifruit trees at 60.0-75.0 t/hm2,and disinfectant powders,involving sulfur,quicklime and plant ash,with a proportion of 1:25:25,at 50 kg should be applied evenly.Subsequently,soils were ploughed of 30-35 cm,and ground to ridge,with height of 20 cm,and width of 60-80 cm(width of ditch of 20-30 cm)for konjak cultivation.

Selection of Konjak tubers

Quality of Amorphophallus albus is the best,but the yield of Amorphophallus konjac keeps higher,with high adaptation[10].In general,healthy tubers with short and strong leafbuds and terminal buds(＜3 cm),are selected and classified as per size.

Growing of Kongjak

Tubers were sown from end of March to early April.Specifically,the depth should be 15-20 cm;row spacing should be 7-9 times as long as that of tuber diameter;plant distance should be 4-6 times as long as tuber diameter.At sowing,base fertilizer should be applied on bottom of holes, followed by soil coverage,which should be repeated twice.It is notable that base fertilizers should be scattered at 180-220 kg with proportions of potassium sulphate,calcium,magnesia and phosphate fertilizer,superphosphate and plant ash of 1:2:3.5:5. Then,additional fertilizers(fermented liquid dung)should be applied in late June,early August,and early September on bases of petioles at 12 000-15 000 kg/hm2.

Preventions of Diseases and Insect Damages

After sowing,48%Lorsban missible oil(×1 000)was sprayed on ridges, followed by covering with straws.In the end of May,10%glyphosate(× 250)was sprayed on farmlands for weeding,and when konjak grew, weeding should be conducted by hand.In general,the planting density should be well controlled and greenhouse ventilation should be guaranteed.What’s more,humidity can be decreased and branches be pruned earlier.In later growth period,however,farming work should be reduced to lessen cuts on plants and chemical pesticides should be provided if necessary.

Harvesting

In late November,when ground parts fall and wither,and even die,it is recommended to dig the plants in sunny days from the location 20 cm away from plants with depths of 25-30 cm.It is notable that earth should be cleaned,as well as tassels,and the skins should be dried.

Yield Benefits

As shown in Table 1,the incomes can be as high as 150 000-180 000 yuan/hm2.The cost of intercropping of konjac tuber was 45 000 yuan/hm2,but the incomes increased by 147 000 yuan/hm2by planting konjac.

With 1 000 history,it is not difficult for growing konjac.It is much common that konjac can be found planted in some households,without diseases. Recently,however,led by market and government,most farmers take konjac as an important industrial crop and grow the plant in farmlands.Still,the growth environment of konjac can not meet the demands.Consequently, konjac is diseased with Erwinia caro-

Table 1Benefits of intercropping konjac in kiwifruit orchards in 2014

tovora,affecting farmers’activity[11]. The intercropping of konjac and kiwifruit just provides better environment,and makes the planting more scientific,which improves land use rate,increases farmer’s incomes and effectively control diseases.

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Responsible editor:Xiaoxue WANG

Responsible proofreader:Xiaoyan WU

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Should the article be accepted and published byAgricultural Science&Technology,the author hereby grants exclusively to the editorial department ofAgricultural Science&Technologythe digital reproduction,distribution, compilation and information network transmission rights.

Spported by Hubei Public Science and technology Program[Grant No.2013BBB08], Wuhan Science&Technology Planning Project(Grant No.2014020101010075);Special Fund of Hubei Konjak Industry Development in 2013 and the Natural Science Foundation of China[31401706].

*Corresponding author.E-mail:qiusunmoon@163.com

Received:April 3,2015 Accepted:May 14,2015