Experiment of the Seeding and Cultivation of Smilax ocreata, Characteristic Forest Vegetable Smilax ocreata

Smilax ocreata, a locally high-level wild forest vegetable in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, confronts an increasing market demand with great development potential. This study aims to enhance techniques of its seedling cultivation and provide a foundation for large-scale artificial cultivation. The seeding substrate, the age of seed trees collected, seed storage time and root treatment before transplantation for S. ocreata are conducted in seeding and seedling cultivation experiments. The results indicated that the rate of seed germination in red soil was the highest, reaching 81.00%, followed by 76.33% in river sand, the rate of seed germination for 6-year-old seed trees was up to 81.83%, while the rate of 36.83% for 4-year-old seed trees was the lowest. The highest germination rate of 76.33% was observed when seeds were sown immediately after collection, the longer the storage time, the lower the germination rate. Appropriate root pruning before transplantation favored the growth and development of S. ocreata seedlings. The maximum height of the single tillering plant and the cumulative height of all tillering plants reached 22.22 cm and 42.01 cm, respectively, the ground diameter of the former and the cumulative ground diameter increment of the latter reached 2.37 cm and 5.70 cm, respectively, with tiller number and leaf number being 3.33 and 13.97, separately. In conclusion, collecting seeds from trees older than 6 years, using clean river sand or red soil as the seedling substrate, sowing seeds immediately after collection, and pruning long taproots during transplanting are favorable for enhancing the survival rate of seedling and the increment.