A STUDY ON THE TECHNOLOGY OF ESTABLISHING ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATING NURSERY OF THE HOST MOSS

The success of the production of Chinese gallnuts mostly depends upon whether the moss which is the winter host of the Chinese gall aphids is surely supplied,However,the habitats where the moss grows have seriously been destroyed by the excessive cultivation of the land in recent years.At the same time,when the local people take profusely the natu-ral moss for developing the production of gallnuts,they pay no attention to protecting the natural resource of the moss so that it is now under increasing threat of exhaustion due to over-exploitation.This problem is particularly remarkable with the Jiao Bei(a main type of the Chinese gallnuts)production.The preservation of the natural resource of the moss,Plagiomnium maximovizii(Lindb).T.Kop.as the winter host of the Chinese gall aphids,Schlectendalia chinensis(Bell),is becoming urgent. This paper first reports the experimental results of establishing the artificial propa-gating nursery of the moss,Plagiomnium maximovizii(Lindb).T.Kop.,at Fengdu County,Sichuan Province from September 1992.And the measures of the technology for establishing the moss nursery have been suggested as follows:(1)to select the evergreen forestland as the nursery on which the degree of closeness must be over 80%;(2)the abscission amount must be small and the fallen leaves must be baken easily:(3)to clear away the under-shrub weeds and other non-host mosses and remain the original host moss,Plagiomnium maximovizii(Lindb).T.Kop which grows in the nursery;(4)to plant the host moss in the manner of twig transplanting,broken-twig spreading or moss-fragments transplanting;(5)to assure enough humidity of the soil and the air; (6)to take the general management in the growth period,of the moss;(7)to use the host moss as the breeding moss according to a taking-remaining ratio of 4 to 6 or 5 to 5, in the manner of the small piece-shape or belt-shape. The artificial propagating nursery of the moss is not for raising the Chinese gall aphids It may easily supply enough host moss for developing the production of the gallnuts.The problem of protecting the natural resource of the moss would be solved satis-factorily with this technology.