The moderate temperatures of spring and summer are favorable for the growth of flax. Flax sprouts well and grows at t not exceeding 16-17°C. Seeds are able to germinate at 2-5°C. High temperatures (above 18-22 0) destroy flax, especially during the budding period, when it grows vigorously. The sum of active temperatures is 1000-1300°C. the growing season ranges from 70-100 days.
moisture loving plant long day. Seeds, when swollen in the soil, absorb at least 100% of water in relation to their own weight. Demanding on moisture during the period of budding - flowering. Frequent rains after flowering are unfavorable: flax can lie down and be affected by fungal diseases. During the ripening period, dry, warm and sunny weather is favorable.
In the development of fiber flax, the following phases are distinguished: germination, "herringbone", budding, flowering and ripening. In the initial period (about 1 month), flax grows very slowly. Vigorous growth is observed before budding (daily growth reaches 4-5 cm). at this time it is especially important to create favorable conditions for nutrition and water supply. At the end of budding and the beginning of flowering, flax growth slows down, and by the end of flowering it stops.
The critical period of nitrogen demand is observed from the “herringbone” phase to budding, in phosphorus - in the initial period of growth to the phase of 5-6 pairs of leaves, in potassium - in the first 20 days of life.
Due to the weak assimilation ability of flax roots and the short period of intensive stem growth, flax is very demanding on soil fertility. It requires soils of medium cohesion (medium loam), sufficiently moist, fertile and well aerated. Sandy soils are less suitable. Heavy, clayey, cold, and acidic soils are of little use.
On soils with excess lime content, the fiber is coarse and brittle. On poor soils, fiber flax plants grow low, and on rich soils they lie down.
The All-Russian Research Institute of Flax has developed an intensive technology for the cultivation of fiber flax. Her successful and full application designed to obtain 0.55-0.8 t/ha of flax fiber and 0.45-0.5 t/ha of seeds.
Place in crop rotation
It should not be returned to its original place earlier than after 7-8 years. On cultivated fields and the use of herbicides, fiber flax gives high yields after fertilized winter crops, grain legumes, potatoes, and a layer of clover. After rye, potatoes and peas, flax stalks are more even, do not lodge, and are suitable for mechanized harvesting. It is advisable after harvesting grain crops to sow the field under flax with intermediate crops from the cruciferous family (rapeseed, colza, oil radish), using them for fodder or green manure.
Flax does not greatly deplete the soil, after which winter wheat and rye, spring wheat, potatoes, and buckwheat can be placed in the crop rotation.
tillage
Early autumn plowing of fallow land and a layer of perennial grasses contributes to an increase in yield and fiber quality. The main tillage for flax is carried out in two versions: traditional and semi-fallow. The first option includes stubble plowing and autumn plowing, the second - autumn plowing and several continuous tillage of the field with a cultivator.
Fertilizer
Flax is quite picky about fertilizer. When full mineral fertilizer is applied, the yield of flax straw increases by 0.4-0.8 t/ha. The increase in straw yield on soddy-podzolic soils is 5-7 kg per 1 kg of a.i. fertilizers.
When applying manure (up to 30-40 t/ha) together with phosphorus flour (0.4-0.6 t) and potassium chloride (0.15-0.2 t) for previous winter or tilled crops, the flax yield increases by 25 -30% or more.
It is better not to apply manure and composts directly under flax to avoid lodging of plants and uneven stems, as well as a decrease in fiber yield due to the greater coarseness of the stems.
Phosphorus (P 60-100) and potash (K 60-120) fertilizers should be applied under plowing. Nitrogen fertilizers (N 30-45) are applied in the spring before sowing and in top dressing in the form of ammonium nitrate, urea.
Phosphorus fertilizers help accelerate the maturation of flax and improve the quality of the fiber. Phosphorite flour, double superphosphate are most suitable for flax.
The introduction of potash fertilizers (potassium chloride, potassium salt, potassium sulfate) increases the yield and quality of the fiber.
It is effective to use complex fertilizers when fertilizing flax: ammophos, nitrophoska, nitroammophoska.
Ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulphate (20-30 kg N), superphosphate (30-40 kg P 2 O 5), potassium chloride (30 kg K 2 O per 1 ha) are used as top dressing. Top dressing is carried out at a seedling height of 6-8 cm (no later than 20 days after their appearance).
Sowing. For sowing, seeds of the best zoned combs should be used. Before sowing, flax seeds are dressed using TMTD, granosan. Simultaneously with dressing, flax seeds can be treated with microfertilizers - boric acid, sulfate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate.
A great advantage has been established for the early sowing of flax in soil heated at a depth of 10 cm to 7-8°C. With early sowing, plants use soil moisture more fully, and are less affected by fungal diseases.
Flax is sown with narrow-row flax seeders (SZL-3.6) with row spacing of 7.5 cm. The sowing depth of flax seeds is 1.5-3 cm, the seeding rate is 20-25 million viable seeds (100-120 kg) per 1 ha. For seed purposes, fiber flax is sown in a wide-row (45 cm) method at a reduced rate.
Crop care
It is important to protect fiber flax from weeds. The most common are spring - wild radish, white gauze, knotweed mountaineer, flax chaff, flax toriza; wintering - blue cornflower, field yarutka, yellow sow thistle.
The main control measures are agrotechnical, the herbicide 2M-4X sodium salt is used - 0.9-1.4 kg/ha. Crops are treated in the "herringbone" phase at a plant height of 5 to 15 cm, when the leaves are covered with a wax coating and large drops of the herbicide solution easily roll off them. Creeping couch grass is destroyed in the fall when cultivating the soil using sodium trichloroacetate.
Chemical weeding of flax can be combined with foliar fertilization with nitrogen fertilizers.
Pests cause great harm to flax. This is a linen flea, a linen codling moth. The following diseases of fiber flax are common: rust, fusarium, bacteriosis, anthracnose. It is important to sow resistant varieties, treat seeds, and strictly observe agrotechnical requirements: crop rotation, early sowing.
Cleaning
The following phases of flax ripeness are distinguished.
green ripeness
Flax stems and bolls are green, and the leaves of the lower third of the stem begin to turn yellow. Seeds in boxes are soft, in a state of milky ripeness. The fiber bundles have formed, but the fibers are not yet sufficiently completed. When harvesting flax in green ripeness, a reduced yield of not very strong, but thin, shiny fiber is obtained, suitable for thin products (lace, cambric).
early yellow ripeness
Flax crops have a light yellow. The leaves of the lower third of the stems turn brown and remain, while the rest turn yellow and wilt. Boxes with greenish veins. The seeds in them are in the phase of wax ripeness. The fiber has formed, but not yet coarsened, the fibers are sufficiently completed. When harvesting in this phase, the fiber is soft, silky. The seeds, although not fully ripe, are quite suitable not only for technical purposes, but also for sowing.
yellow ripeness
Comes in 5-7 days after early yellow ripeness. Crops turn yellow. The leaves of the lower half of the stems turn brown and crumble, and in the upper half they are yellow, wilted. The bolls turn yellow and partially turn brown. The seeds in them harden and have a normal color for the variety. The fiber at the bottom of the stems begins to coarsen.
Full ripeness
Stems and bolls turn brown. Most of the leaves have already fallen off. Seeds in boxes are fully ripe, hardened and noisy when shaken. The fiber loses its elasticity and becomes stiff and dry.
Fiber flax harvesting is a complex and time-consuming process. Depending on the conditions, flax is harvested using a combine, separate or sheaf method.
The combine harvesting method has become the main one: it is carried out by LK-4A flax harvesters with a spreading device and LKV-4A with a sheaf binder. The combine harvesting method includes the following technological operations: pulling plants, stripping seed pods. Knitting straw into sheaves or spreading it with a ribbon on a flax, collecting a heap (boxes, seeds, impurities). Fibrous products are sold in the form of straw or straw.
When selling straw, cleaning can be carried out in two ways:
1. flax is pulled by a combine with a knitting machine. The combed straw, tied into sheaves, is set for natural drying in headstock and after 6-10 days is taken to the flax mill.
2. Flax is pulled by a combine with a spreader. After 4-6 days of drying, the straw spread with a ribbon is lifted and knitted into sheaves or pressed into rolls.
For the preparation of trusts, flax, pulled out and spread with ribbons, is left for aging. To improve the conditions for aging of the trust and improve its quality, two additional methods are carried out:
1. in the spring, simultaneously with the sowing of flax, perennial grass grass of the winter type (meadow fescue, perennial ryegrass) or creeping clover is sown.
2. in order to ensure uniform maturation in the tape, it is necessary to achieve an even color of the stems, in order to speed up the maturation and prevent the tape from overgrowing with grass, it is wrapped in 3-4 and 10-12 days after growing.
Dry trust (moisture content not more than 20%) is lifted and knitted into sheaves with a pick-up for natural drying.
The other day I got organic rye with an unusual green hue, I was surprised, because before that I had only met dark brown rye. I suspected that she might not have ripened yet, but after looking at what kind of rye is, I calmed down: it can be yellow, and brown, and even with a purple tint, and shaped like wheat - short and pot-bellied, and long, like oats, and, of course, like my current rye. And I came across a grain of a uniform beige-green color, mostly whole, without damage or flaws, quite hard, not raw, which means it’s quite normal.
Raw grain is very problematic in grinding, especially when grinding with stone millstones: the grains will be smeared by the millstones, clog them and can disable the mill. But from sprouted rye, even if you grind flour, you can’t bake good bread, it will turn out sticky and wet (but you can make malt from sprouted rye - but that’s another story).
Everything is more complicated with wheat flour, because so many factors influence its properties, and this is, first of all, the protein content. And in general, wheat flour can vary greatly depending on the batch, even in the store, flour with the same indicators of protein-carbohydrates, but from different manufacturers, actually has a big difference. Rye flour from batch to batch is approximately the same in its properties, especially when it comes to whole grain, which practically does not need to rest after grinding and the concept of “strong” or “weak” does not apply to it.
I looked through Auermann's textbook and found out very interesting things about rye flour. In general, it has a lot in common with wheat, despite the fact that the properties of rye flour dough are very different from wheat dough. In rye flour, as well as in wheat, a high carbohydrate content is about 70%, and the protein content is about 10-11%, there is gluten, so people with allergies to it cannot. Moreover, rye and wheat proteins have a similar amino acid composition, and rye protein, like wheat protein, contains gluten and gliadin, the very substances that make wheat protein elastic and elastic at the same time. However, rye flour dough cannot be called elastic and resilient, it is very sticky and slippery, it is useless to knead it, trying to achieve smoothness, gluten in the usual sense will never develop in it.
The reason for this is mucus (pentosans), which are present in large quantities in rye flour. In wheat, they are also present, moreover, in approximately the same amount as in rye, but wheat pentosans are slightly soluble in water, while rye pentosans are mostly soluble. While rye flour is mixed with water, the same mucus begins to swell and envelop the particles of backing, preventing it from forming threads. By themselves, the slime of rye flour is very moisture-intensive and is able to absorb moisture almost ten times its own weight. In addition, they are very viscous, so much so that even gelatin is superior in viscosity. If you compare a gelatin solution and a rye pentosans solution of the same concentration, the pentosan solution will be more viscous. At this point, I would like to clarify regarding the mucus ripening of rye flour after milling. It is believed that rye flour (I mean whole grain) does not need to rest and can be used immediately, and bread baked from such flour will be incredibly tasty, an order of magnitude tastier than from stale flour. At the same time, after a couple of days of resting, rye flour changes its properties and becomes more moisture-intensive just because of the effect of oxygen on pentosans. During maturation, they increase their viscosity, rye flour retains moisture better, dough, especially hearth products, less spread and crack during baking.
Here, for example, rye sourdough in the process of stirring: it is clear that the rye dough is in no hurry to dissolve in water, despite the large amount of liquid.
It is difficult to achieve uniformity, even with effort, the sourdough spreads into large pieces, then small ones, which keep their shape for a long time.
Here's cornbread for comparison. It hardly comes into contact with water and begins to disintegrate into grains of flour, it is not restrained by either protein or mucus. The photo on the left is dry cornmeal in water, the photo on the left is corn dough. It can be seen that it simply by itself, only after entering the water, begins to disperse in the liquid.
The moisture capacity of rye flour is a merit not only of mucus, but also of protein. It is generally accepted that protein in rye flour is of no practical importance, because it cannot form the "skeleton" of the dough, as happens with wheat flour. Scientists as an experiment even tried to wash rye gluten, but they did not succeed. At the same time, it is also impossible to say that rye protein does not affect the properties of the dough in any way: it is able to absorb a large amount of water, swell strongly and create a viscous solution from particles of undissolved protein, mucus, starch and bran particles of grain, in fact, thereby forming "framework" of rye dough. True, this happens on condition that the dough has reached a certain acidity, which is why Rye bread baked on sourdough.
As I wrote above, I got organic grain. I roughly imagined what it was: it means that while growing rye, it was not treated with chemicals and poisons, the land on which it grew, respectively, was cultivated without synthetic fertilizers, and the harvested grain was stored without the use of poisonous or, in principle, synthetic substances. In a word, the concept of "organic" for me was very generalized and meant - "no chemistry." But, having talked with adherents of organic farming, I learned a lot of interesting and sometimes even ambiguous information. In fact, the difference between organic and non-organic is bigger and wider - it is in the idea and approach. I recently had a chance to talk with Ukrainians - supporters of organic products, who grow cereals in the fields, vegetables and even cows graze on organic lawns, and so they are sure that organic food, in addition to what differs in taste, has a different, bigger and better nutritional and energy value. Simply put, organic food fills you up faster, while eating less than usual.
"Organic" growers treat their crops with herbal infusions (or preparations based on these herbs), which repel insects, destroy fungi and other enemies. It is also believed that the annual ploughing, which is practiced on "normal" industrial fields, makes crops more vulnerable to bad weather, it depletes the land and reduces yield. Therefore, “organic” land is fertilized exclusively with natural fertilizers, practically not plowed (or plowed, but not so deep), and the ears left after harvesting are left on the field to winter - under the cover of snow they will rot and enrich the land. In order to keep the harvested crop from pests without the use of chemicals, it is regularly poured from bag to bag and the bags are lined with aromatic herbs. In general, these are the methods that our grandmothers used, including mine: in the barn where grain and hay were stored, she laid out bunches of yellow tansy, yarrow, St. John's wort and lavender, and the stocks remained safe and sound.
I don’t have a lot of beautiful rye with a green tint, only a couple of kilos, so it doesn’t make sense to be very worried that someone will eat it before me. Before grinding, I went over the grain a little, removing what my eye fell on: particles of ears, grains of dirt, sunflower seeds and obviously damaged grains. In general, there was quite a bit of garbage, wheat, by the way, I got more weedy.
I ground rye at my mill and now I want to show how it was, and what kind of flour was obtained from organic grain. Usually I grind wheat at the smallest setting, rye stalled at this: the millstones are spinning, the mill is buzzing, but nothing flies out. I moved the lever from “one” to “troika” and saw my first rye flour!
At first it fell down, as usual, and then things like this came up. However, the grinding is not larger than that of store-bought flour.
Someone named Masha diligently helped, because it was very important for me that the freshly ground flour was inspected, the grinding and especially the taste were evaluated.
My mill ground a kilogram of grain in about 5 minutes, and at the same time the flour poured intermittently, that is, there was a time when nothing flew out of the mill, and then a compressed lump of flour popped out. I think this says, nevertheless, about the moisture content of the grain - it is clearly higher than that of wheat. The ground flour turned out to be quite hot, I measured it - the temperature was 56.3 degrees.
The next day I put a sourdough on this flour. Finally, my own homemade rye sourdough! Hooray!
There are two directions in flax growing in our country, the main one is the cultivation of flax for fiber and seeds. Oilseed flax is cultivated for oil production.
A variety of fabrics are produced from fiber flax - from coarse bag, technical and packaging to fine cambric and lace. Linen technical fabrics are used in many industries. Tarpaulins, drive belts, hoses, twisted threads, etc. are made from flax fiber. Linen yarn is stronger than cotton and wool and is second only to silk in this respect. Linen fabrics and products (linen, canvas, tablecloths, towels, etc.) are distinguished by great strength and beauty.
Short flax fiber (waste, tow, tow) is used as a cleaning and packaging material, and flax fire (stem wood after separation of the fiber) is used for the production of paper, construction fire slabs and insulating materials, as well as fuel.
Seeds of oil-bearing varieties of flax contain 35-45% oil, which is used in food, soap, paint, rubber and other industries.
Flaxseed cake, containing up to 30-36% protein and up to 32% digestible nitrogen-free substances, is a highly concentrated animal feed, especially for young animals. The nutritional value of 1 kg of linseed cake is 1.2 feed units, it contains about 280 g of digestible protein. Flax seeds are used in medicine, veterinary medicine.
The oldest historical centers of flax cultivation are the mountainous regions of India and China. For 4-5 thousand years BC. e. flax was grown in Egypt, Assyria and Mesopotamia. There is an assumption that cultivated flax comes from Southwest and East Asia (large-seeded forms - from the Mediterranean).
The cultivation of flax for fiber is widespread in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, the GDR, Czechoslovakia and other countries. In Japan, the USA, Canada, flax for fiber is cultivated on a small scale.
In 1987, fiber flax covered 0.97 million hectares in the CIS. The main areas of its cultivation for fiber (55% total area) are concentrated in most areas of the Non-Chernozem zone of the European part of our country. IN Lately expanded crops of fiber flax in the Baltic republics, in the north and west of Ukraine, in Western Siberia. Oilseed flax is much less common in the CIS (200,000 ha).
In our country, flax has been known since ancient times. In the XII century. it was cultivated in the Novgorod and Pskov principalities. Vologda, Pskov, Kostroma, Kashin flax are famous from time immemorial. In the XVI century. The first rope factory appeared in Russia. In 1711, Peter I issued a decree on the cultivation of flax in all provinces. State linen factories were created, where wide fabrics were woven for sails and other needs. At present, the production of flax fiber Soviet Union ranks first in world agriculture.
Botanical characteristic . Of the 45 types of flax cultivated in our country (there are 200 species in the world), one species is of industrial importance - common, cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), from the flax family (Linaceae). In the Eurasian subspecies of this species, ssp. eurasiaticum Vav. et Ell - three varieties are known (Fig. 39).
Fiber flax (v. elongata) is cultivated mainly for fiber. Stem height from 60 to 175 cm, branching only in the upper part. There are few seed pods (with dense sowing 2-3 pods, on average 6-10). The productive (technical) part of the fiber flax stem starts from the location of the cotyledons to the first branch of the inflorescence. From this part, the most valuable flax fiber is obtained (up to 26-31%). Fiber flax is cultivated in areas with a moderately warm, humid and mild climate. The mass of 1000 seeds is 3-6 g. When they swell, they become slimy and absorb 100-180% of water.
Intermediate flax (v. untermedia) is cultivated mainly for seeds to produce oil. It occupies an intermediate position between fiber flax and curly flax. The stem is 55-65 cm high, less branched than that of the curly, but much shorter than that of the long-haired.
Forms more bolls (15-25) than fiber flax. In terms of fiber quality and length, it is inferior to fiber flax. Fiber yield 16-18% (trepango - 13-14%). Mezheumok is common in the forest-steppe part of Ukraine, Kursk, Voronezh, Kuibyshev, Saratov regions, Bashkiria and Tatarstan, in the North Caucasus, partly in Siberia.
Curly flax, or horn (v. brevimulticaulia), cultivated in the republics Central Asia and Transcaucasia. It has a short (30-45 cm) branching stem with 35-50 bolls. Cultivated for seeds, from which oil is obtained (35-45%). The fiber is short, of low quality. The most suitable for oil flax are areas with relatively dry and warm summers with a predominance of sunny days.
The structure of the stem. Flax fiber. In the fiber flax harvest, about 75-80% is accounted for by stems, about 10-12% by seeds, and the same amount by chaff and other waste. Flax stalks contain 20-30% fiber, which consists of fiber (88-90%), pectin (6-7%) and waxy (3%) substances and ash (1-2%).
At the base of the fiber flax stem, the fiber is thick, coarse, partially lignified, and makes up about 12% of the mass of the corresponding part of the stem. Toward the middle part of the stem, the fiber content increases to 35%. This is the most valuable, thin, strong and long fiber, with the smallest cavity inside and thick walls. In the upper part, the amount of fiber decreases to 28-30% and its quality decreases: the fibers have a larger clearance and thinner walls.
High-quality fiber should be long, thin, without a large cavity, thin-layered, smooth, clean from the surface. The main indicators of its quality: length, strength, gloss, elasticity, softness, cleanliness from the fire, the absence of traces of rust and other diseases.
Biological features . Fiber flax works best in warm temperate regions with an even climate, with sufficient rainfall and cloudiness (in diffused light).
Flax grows favorably with moderate temperatures in spring and summer, with intermittent rain and cloudy weather. Flax sprouts well and grows at temperatures not exceeding 16-17 °C. Its seeds are able to germinate at 2-5°C, and seedlings tolerate frosts down to -3...-5°C. High temperature (above 18-22 ° C) and sharp daily fluctuations inhibit flax, especially during the budding period, when it grows vigorously. The sum of active temperatures required for the full cycle of development is 1000-1300 °C, depending on the length of the vegetation period of the variety. The growing season ranges from 70-100 days.
Long-day flax is a moisture-loving plant of a long day. Transpiration coefficient 400-450. Seeds, when swollen in the soil, absorb at least 100% of water in relation to their own weight. It is especially demanding on moisture during the period of budding - flowering, when soil moisture of about 70% HB is required to form a high yield. However, frequent rains after flowering are unfavorable: flax can lie down and be affected by fungal diseases. In areas with close ground water flax does poorly. During the ripening period, dry, moderately warm and sunny weather is most favorable.
In the development of fiber flax, the following phases are distinguished: germination, "herringbone", budding, flowering and ripening. In the initial period (about 1 month), flax grows very slowly. The most vigorous growth is observed before budding and in the budding phase, when the daily growth reaches 4-5 cm. At this time, it is especially important to create favorable conditions for nutrition and water supply. At the end of budding and the beginning of flowering, flax growth slows down, and by the end of flowering it stops. Therefore, agricultural practices that delay flowering (fertilizing, water regulation, etc.) contribute to stem elongation and fiber quality. In a short (2 weeks) period of enhanced growth, flax consumes more than half of the total amount of nutrients.
The critical period of nitrogen demand is observed from the “herringbone” phase to budding, in phosphorus - in the initial period of growth up to the phase of 5-6 pairs of leaves, in potassium - in the first 20 days of life. With a lack of essential nutrients during these periods, the yield of flax is sharply reduced. The maximum consumption of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was noted in the budding phase (before flowering), as well as during the formation of seeds.
Due to the weak assimilation ability of flax roots and the short period of intensive stem growth, flax is very demanding on soil fertility. It requires soils of medium cohesion (medium loam), sufficiently moist, fertile and well aerated, free from weeds. Light sandy loam and sandy soils are less suitable for fiber flax. Heavy, clayey, cold, prone to flooding and the formation of a soil crust, as well as acidic, waterlogged soils with a close standing of groundwater, without a radical improvement, are of little use for flax cultivation. A slightly acidic soil reaction is preferred - pH 5.9-6.3.
When flax is placed on good predecessors, with liming and the right fertilization system, flax produces high yields of good fiber in a wide variety of podzolic soils. On soils with excess lime content, the fiber is coarse and brittle. On poor soils, fiber flax plants grow low, and on rich soils they lie down.
The All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Flax has developed an intensive technology for the cultivation of fiber flax. Its successful and complete application is expected to produce 0.55-0.8 t/ha of flax fiber and 0.45-0.5 t/ha of seeds. This technology includes: concentration of fiber flax sowing in specialized farms that sow flax in 2-3 crop rotations, placing flax after the best predecessors, applying mineral and organic fertilizers in the crop rotation in scientifically justified doses calculated for the planned crop, basic tillage according to the semi-fallow type , improved pre-sowing tillage, sowing at optimal times with seeds of the first and second classes with a seeding rate of 18-22 million / ha of germinating seeds, the use of an integrated plant protection system, pre-harvest desiccation, mechanized harvesting and the sale of at least 50% of the crop in the form of straw according to scheme field - plant, expanding the use of roll harvesting technology. The organization of production on the basis of self-financing, brigade and family contracts or a lease provides the best results from the use of intensive fiber flax cultivation technology.
Place in crop rotation. Fiber flax should not be returned to its original place earlier than after 7-8 years.
On cultivated fields, when applying organo-mineral fertilizers and using herbicides, fiber flax gives high yields after fertilized winter crops, grain legumes, potatoes, sugar beet, clover layer or a mixture of clover with timothy grass, layer rotation and other predecessors. Under the conditions of increased agricultural culture and high soil fertility, perennial grasses, as predecessors of flax, are inferior to other predecessors. After rye, potatoes and peas, flax stalks are more even, do not lie down, and are suitable for mechanized harvesting.
IN Western Europe on cultivated and well-fertilized soils, they avoid sowing flax directly on the clover layer. In the Netherlands, wheat, barley, rye, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, etc. are considered the best predecessors of flax. In Belgium, it is recommended to sow flax after cereals, beets or chicory. In these countries, they avoid placing flax on clover due to an excess of nitrogen nutrition (coarse branching straw is obtained, flax lodges).
Flax slightly depletes the soil, after which winter wheat and rye, spring wheat and other spring grains, buckwheat, potatoes and beets can be placed in the crop rotation.
Soil cultivation. Early autumn plowing of fallow land and a layer of perennial grasses contributes to an increase in the yield and quality of fiber flax fiber. The main tillage for flax is carried out in two versions: traditional and semi-fallow. The first option includes stubble plowing and autumn plowing, the second - autumn plowing and several continuous tillage of the field with a cultivator.
Peeling is carried out immediately after harvesting the predecessor, it stimulates the germination of weed seeds, which are destroyed by subsequent plowing. On fields littered mainly with annual weeds, plowing is usually carried out with LDG-10 disc cultivators to a depth of 6-8 cm. On fields littered with root weeds, plowing is carried out to a depth of 12-14 cm on light soils and 10-12 cm on heavy soils.
At the same time, on fields littered only with root weeds, a share plow-cultivator PPL-10-25 is used, and on fields littered with couch grass, heavy disc harrows BDT-3.0 or BDT-7.0 are used in two tracks. When placing flax after perennial grasses, the layer is disked with a heavy disc harrow BDT-3.0 and plowing with plows with skimmers.
When preparing the soil according to the semi-fallow type (with early harvesting of the predecessor), soil cultivation begins with plowing with plows with skimmers to the depth of the arable layer. In dry weather, the plow works in conjunction with a ring-spur roller, and in wet weather, with heavy harrows. For the time remaining before frost, 2-3 cultivations are carried out to a depth of 10-14 cm in a diagonal direction with respect to the direction of plowing. In this case, the KPS-4 cultivator with spring paws is used in an aggregate with harrows. The last cultivation is carried out 10-15 days before frost to a depth of 8-10 cm with a KPS-4 cultivator equipped with lancet shares and without harrows.
In fields heavily littered with couch grass, herbicides are additionally used in accordance with the industry regulations, which are applied along the raised fallow and covered with harrows or cultivators during the first processing of the semi-fallow.
In spring, plowing is harrowed on sandy and light loamy soils or cultivated on heavy loamy soils and soils with a high moisture content to a depth of 8-10 cm.
Pre-sowing preparation of sandy loamy soils is carried out with the help of heavy toothed harrows operating in a two-row hitch, and the field is cultivated in mutually intersecting directions. On light and medium loams, the use of needle (BIG-ZA) and spring (BP-8) harrows is effective. On medium and heavy loams and clay soils, pre-sowing soil preparation is carried out by cultivators to a depth of 5-7 cm.
To level the surface of the field on the eve of sowing flax, the soil is rolled with smooth water-filled rollers-and ZKVG-1.4, on heavy soils, the ring-spur roller ZKKSH-6 is used. Heavily moist, heavy soils should not be rolled. In such fields, the soil is leveled with a hitch of ShB-2.5 harrows.
The use of combined units RVK-3.6 (ripper-leveller-skating rink) and VIP-5.6 (leveller-chopper-packer) for pre-sowing tillage in fields not littered with wheatgrass makes it possible to carry out high-quality soil preparation for flax in one pass.
Fertilizer. Flax is quite picky about fertilizer. When full mineral fertilizer is applied, the yield of flax straw increases by 0.4-0.8 t/ha. The approximate average removal of the main nutrients by flax plants per 1 ton of straw with seeds is: N - 10-14 kg, P2O5 - 4.5-7.5, K2O - 11-17.5 kg. The increase in straw yield on soddy-podzolic soils is 5-7 kg per 1 kg of a.i. fertilizers.
In the flax fertilization system, it is necessary to take into account the weak assimilation capacity of its root system, high sensitivity to a high concentration of soil solution, as well as a relatively short vegetation period of this crop.
When applying manure (up to 30-40 t/ha) together with phosphate rock (0.4-0.6 t) and potassium chloride (0.15-0.2 t) for previous winter or tilled crops, the flax yield increases by 25 -30% or more. Lupine, seradella, vetch, and rapeseed sown stubble can be used as green fertilizer.
It is better not to apply manure and composts directly under flax to avoid lodging of plants and uneven stems, as well as a decrease in fiber yield due to the greater coarseness of the stems. On soils poor in organic matter, peat-manure or manure-phosphorite compost can be used.
Phosphorus (P60-100) and potash (K60-120) fertilizers should be applied under plowing. Nitrogen fertilizers (N30-45) are applied in spring; at the right combination with phosphorus-potassium, they significantly increase the yield of fiber and its quality.
When determining the doses of mineral fertilizers, one should take into account the agrochemical indicators of the soil, the degree of its fertility, cultivation, the planned harvest and other factors (Table 51).
According to VNIIL, on poorly cultivated soils, 1 part of nitrogen in fertilizer for flax should account for 2 parts of phosphorus and potassium, on medium cultivated soils - 3 parts each, on highly cultivated soils - 4-6. An excess of nitrogen can cause lodging and branching of flax, as well as a decrease in fiber yield. Nitrogen fertilizers are usually applied before sowing and in top dressing in the form of ammonium nitrate, urea; ammonium sulphate also has a good effect
In farms that have achieved a noticeable increase in soil fertility, nitrogen fertilizers are not applied directly under flax, but are limited to selective feeding as necessary.
Phosphorus fertilizers help accelerate the maturation of flax and improve the quality of the fiber. In this case, special attention should be paid to the forms of phosphate fertilizers. Excess superphosphate increases the acidity of the soil and can inhibit plants. The most suitable for flax, especially on acidic soils, phosphate rock, double superphosphate, boric superphosphate and precipitate. Good results are also obtained when using superphosphate mixed with phosphate rock.
The introduction of potash fertilizers (potassium chloride, potassium salt, potassium sulfate, potassium magnesia) increases the yield and quality of the fiber, softens negative action excess nitrogen nutrition, increases the resistance of the stems to lodging. It is effective to use complex fertilizers when fertilizing flax: ammophos, nitrophoska, nitroammophoska. It is not recommended to apply lime directly under flax in order to avoid reducing the yield and quality of the fiber.
The experiments of VNIIL proved the significant effectiveness of boron fertilizers (0.4-0.7 kg of pure boron per 1 ha), applied under plowing or under spring harrowing of fallow. Boron contributes to the growth of yields, weakens the negative effect of excess lime on flax, and reduces the damage to plants by bacterial diseases. Boric fertilizers should be used on calcareous podzolic and marshy soils, as well as on newly developed lands.
Good results on flax crops are ensured by the introduction of ammophos or granulated superphosphate into the rows when sowing (10-12 kg of N and P2O5 per 1 ha).
It is important to ensure a uniform distribution of fertilizers in the soil so that there is no variegation of the flax stem (uneven ripening, different heights and branching of plants).
Great importance is attached to top dressing of flax during the growing season. To do this, use ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulphate (20-30 kg N), superphosphate (30-40 kg P2O5), potassium chloride (30 kg K2O per 1 ha) or complex fertilizers. Top dressing is carried out with three seedling heights of 6-8 cm (no later than 20 days after their appearance). Delay in nitrogen fertilization can lead to stretching of flowering and uneven ripening. Often, flax is fed only with phosphate fertilizers.
At present, in flax-sowing farms, 0.8-1 tons of mineral fertilizers are applied per 1 ha of fiber flax. In flax crop rotations, VNIIL recommends applying organic fertilizers (manure and composts) in combination with mineral fertilizers in two fields - for fallow and potatoes, and mineral fertilizers - annually for all crops.
Sowing. For sowing, seeds of the best zoned varieties should be used that meet the requirements of the sowing standard of the first and second classes (purity 99-98%, germination 95-90%, moisture content 12%). Sowing seeds containing an admixture of dodder and other malicious weeds is prohibited. Seeds should be full-weight, even, shiny and oily to the touch, healthy, with high germination vigor. To increase the germination energy and field germination, flax seeds are subjected to air-thermal heating (for 5-7 days) in open areas or in well-ventilated areas (for 8-10 days) 10-15 days before sowing.
The practice of advanced collective farms has established a great advantage of the early sowing of flax in soil warmed up to 7-8 ° C at a depth of 10 cm. With early sowing, plants use soil moisture more fully, are less affected by fungal diseases and earthen flea, and the fiber is of better quality. According to the TSCA experiments, when flax was sown on May 13, the yield of trust was 20% higher than when flax was sown on June 9. With early sowing, only 2.3% of seedlings were damaged by fleas, and with late sowing - 34.6%. However, too early sowing, when frosts are still possible, as well as sowing seeds in very damp, poorly cut soil, should be avoided.
To evenly place the seeds of fiber flax, they are sown with narrow-row flax seeders (SZL-3.6) with a row spacing of 7.5 cm. The sowing depth of flax seeds is 1.5-3 cm, the seeding rate is 20-25 million viable seeds 120 kg) per 1 ha. In varieties prone to lodging, the seeding rate is somewhat reduced. For seed purposes, fiber flax is sown in a wide-row (45 cm) or tape method (45x7.5x7.5 cm) at a reduced rate.
Crop care. Under favorable conditions, flax seedlings appear 5 days after sowing. When it rains, a crust may form, delaying the emergence of seedlings. It is destroyed with a light sowing, rotary or mesh harrow, ring-spur roller.
It is very important to protect fiber flax from weeds that reduce its yield and fiber quality. The most common weeds of flax crops include spring weeds - wild radish, white gauze, zebra pikulnik, bindweed mountaineer, flax chaff, flax toriza, tenacious bedstraw. There are also wintering weeds - blue cornflower, odorless chamomile, field yarutka. The most common perennial weeds are: couch grass, pink thistle, yellow thistle.
The main measures for weed control are agrotechnical: the choice of a good predecessor, semi-steam tillage, good seed cleaning on the SOM-ZOO seed cleaning machine and the EMS-1A electromagnetic machine.
Pests cause great harm to flax. This is a linen flea, a linen tripe, a linen codling moth, a scoop-gamma. The following diseases of fiber flax are common: rust, fusarium, polysporiosis, bacteriosis, anthracnose, etc. They reduce plant productivity and fiber quality. It is important to sow resistant varieties, treat seeds, and strictly comply with agrotechnical requirements: crop rotation, early sowing, destruction of flax residues in the field, etc.
Cleaning. The overall result in flax growing depends on the quality and timely harvesting.
The following phases of flax ripeness are distinguished.
Green ripeness (green flax). Flax stems and bolls are green, and the leaves of the lower third of the stem begin to turn yellow. Seeds in boxes are soft, in a state of milky ripeness. The fiber bundles have formed, but the fibrils are not yet sufficiently completed.
When harvesting flax in the phase of green ripeness, a reduced yield of not very strong, but thin, shiny fiber is obtained, suitable for thin products (lace, cambric).
Early yellow ripeness. Flax crops have a light yellow color. The leaves of the lower third of the stems turn brown and crumble, while the rest turn yellow, wither, and only in the upper part of the stem they still remain greenish. Boxes are also with greenish streaks. The seeds in them are in the phase of wax ripeness. The fiber has formed, but not yet coarsened, the fibers are sufficiently completed. When harvested in this phase, the fiber is soft, silky and strong enough. The seeds, although not fully ripe, are quite suitable not only for technical purposes, but also for sowing.
Yellow ripeness. Comes in 5-7 days after early yellow ripeness. Crops turn yellow. The leaves of the lower half of the stems turn brown and crumble, and in the upper half they are yellow, wilted. The bolls turn yellow and partially turn brown. The seeds in them harden and have a normal color for the variety. The fiber in the lower part of the stems begins to coarsen (lignify).
Full ripeness. Stems and bolls turn brown. Most of the leaves have already fallen off. Seeds in boxes are fully ripe, hardened and noisy when shaken. The fiber is already overripe, especially in the lower part of the stem, becomes somewhat lignified, loses elasticity and becomes hard and dry.
In fiber culture, fiber flax is usually harvested in the phase of early yellow ripeness, and in the seed plots - in the phase of yellow ripeness.
Pre-harvest desiccation of fiber flax crops has become widespread. Drying flax plants with desiccants while still in the vine makes it possible to exclude such processes as field drying and ripening of flax in sheaves (when using seeds for sowing).
Harvesting fiber flax is a complex and time-consuming process. Depending on the conditions, flax is harvested using a combine, separate or sheaf method.
The combine harvesting method has become the main one; it is carried out by flax harvesters LK-4A with a spreading device and LKV-4A with a sheaf binder. Both combines are equipped with a stripping device. Flax harvesters are aggregated with the MTZ tractor. The combine harvesting method includes the following technological operations: pulling plants, stripping seed pods, tying straw into sheaves or spreading it with a ribbon on a flax, collecting a heap (boxes, seeds, impurities) into tractor trailers. Fibrous products are sold in the form of straw or straw. When selling straw, cleaning can be carried out in two ways.
According to the first option, flax is pulled by a combine with a knitting machine. The combed straw, tied into sheaves, is set for natural drying in headstock and after 6-10 days is taken to the flax mill. For the selection and loading of sheaves, a pick-up loader of sheaves PPS-3 is used.
According to the second option, flax is pulled by a combine with a spreading device. After 4-6 days of drying, the straw spread with a ribbon is lifted and knitted into sheaves with a PTN-1 picker with a knitting machine or pressed into rolls with a converted PRP-1.6 round baler. Rolls are loaded into vehicles by a PF-0.5 front loader with a flax attachment.
For the preparation of trusts, flax, pulled out and spread with ribbons, is left for aging. In order to improve the conditions of aging, the trusts carry out two additional receptions to the traditional technology. Firstly, in the spring, along with the sowing of flax, some perennial cereal grass of the winter type (meadow fescue, perennial ryegrass) or creeping clover is sown. Linen is spread on the grass cover. Secondly, in order to ensure uniform maturation in the tape, to achieve an even color of the stems, as well as to speed up the maturation and prevent the tape from overgrowing with grass, it is wrapped 3-4 and 10-20 days after spreading and before raising the finished trust. This operation is carried out with a turner OSN-1, which is hung on a T-25A tractor.
Dry straw (moisture content not more than 20%) is lifted and knitted into sheaves with a PTN-1 straw baler or formed into rolls with a PRP-1.6 baler.
In inclement weather, with high humidity, trusts use the PNP-3 pick-up-portioner to prevent its overstaying. The trust collected in a portion is knitted by hand into sheaves, which are placed for natural drying in cones or tents.
High demands are placed on the quality of combine harvesters: the cleanliness of pulling must be at least 99%, the cleanliness of the tow must be at least 98, the loss of seeds must not exceed 4%. Be sure to seal the combines.
The flax heap obtained after stripping has a complex fractional composition, its moisture content at the beginning of harvesting is 35-60%. In order to avoid self-heating and spoilage of seeds, flax heaps received from the field are immediately dried with heated or atmospheric air at special drying points. The dry heap is processed on a heap-cutting machine MV-2.5A threshing machine, and then fed to seed-cleaning machines: SM-4, OS-4.5A, flax-cleaning hill OSG-0.2A, magnetic seed-cleaning machine EMS-1A or SMShch-0.4, "Petkus-Giant" K-531/1. At long-term storage seed moisture should not exceed 8-12%.
Primary processing of flax fiber. The task of the primary processing of flax straw is the most complete (lossless) separation of the fiber without deteriorating its quality. Straw is sorted by length, thickness, color and other features (2-3 grades). Plants affected by rust, fusarium and other diseases are harvested and processed separately from healthy ones. In farms, to isolate fiber from the stems, dew or water flax lobe is used, and in factories - thermal lobe, as well as chemical treatment in alkaline solutions.
flax trust(soaked flax straw), depending on the content of fiber in it, its color, strength and other quality indicators are divided into numbers: 4; 3.5; 2.5; 2; 1.75;1.5; 1.25; 1.0; 0.75 and 0.5. The number of flax straws is determined organoleptically upon delivery, comparing the selected sheaves with standards. Upon delivery, the flax straw must be uniform in length, with a moisture content of not more than 20%, a contamination of not more than 5 and a fiber content in the trust of at least 11%.
Depending on the quality, flax straw is divided into the following numbers: 5; 4.5; 3.5; 3; 2.5; 2; 1.75; 1.5; 1.25; 1.0; 0.75 and 0.5. Flax straw of the last two numbers (0.75 and 0.5) is not accepted by flax mills.
In order to isolate the pure fiber from the trust, it is necessary to remove the bonfire (the wood of the stems). For this, roller grinders are used. The resulting raw fiber is separated from the remnants of the fire on scutching machines. A good fiber should be fire-free, tear-resistant, long, thin, soft, greasy to the touch, heavy and uniform in color (light silver, white).
The yield of pure fiber is usually not less than 15% of the mass of straw or not less than 20% of the mass of trust. Long flax fiber according to GOST 10330-76, depending on the quality, is divided into grades indicated by numbers: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32. Short fiber is divided into numbers: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2. Flax fiber with a moisture content of 16% or more, which has foreign impurities and a putrefactive odor, is not accepted.
Features of agricultural technology of oil flax . The highest oil content (up to 46-48%) has curly flax seeds from the highlands of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Armenia. Len-curly (horn) has a limited distribution. Most often, flax is used to obtain seeds for oil.
Curly flax and mezheumok are less demanding on moisture and soil fertility than fiber flax. They are cultivated in arid steppe regions, as well as in foothill and mountainous regions with sufficient moisture. The best soils for oilseed flax are chernozems that are free of weeds. It works well on chestnut soils. Soils prone to swamping, heavy, clayey, and solonetsous are of little use for its cultivation.
The best place for sowing oilseed flax is a deposit and a layer of perennial grasses. Good predecessors are winter grains, grain legumes, melons, corn and other tilled crops. Autumn plowing should be carried out as early as possible with preliminary stubble peeling (15-20 days before plowing). Spring tillage should be aimed at preserving moisture, loosening the seed layer and leveling the soil.
Phosphorus and potash fertilizers should be applied under autumn plowing in the doses adopted for grain crops. A good result is the introduction of granulated superphosphate into the rows when sowing flax (seed yield increases by 0.3 t/ha).
Oilseed flax is sown with conventional grain planters simultaneously with early grain breads. In the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, stubble crops of flax are also quite successful, yielding 0.6-0.8 tons / ha of seeds and more. The method of sowing oil flax is narrow-row or ordinary ordinary. The seeding rate is 40-60 kg/ha. In very dry conditions (Kazakhstan), sometimes wide-row crops are used, while the seeding rate is reduced to 30-20 kg/ha. With the bilateral use of flax - mezheumka (for fiber and seeds), the seeding rate is increased by 10-15 kg. The depth of sowing seeds is 4-5 cm.
In areas where flax stalks are not used for fiber, harvesting is carried out at the beginning of full ripeness by combines at a low cut. With the bilateral use of oil flax, it is pulled in the phase of yellow ripeness, followed by the ripening of seeds in sheaves and threshing them on special flax threshers. Seeds cleaned on sorting and flax trieres are stored at a moisture content of no more than 11%.
Ecofarmer offers seeds and grains for sprouting grown in Altai and in ecologically clean regions of the South of Russia. The grains are cleaned of weeds without the use of heat treatment, carefully sorted and securely packaged by Ecofarmer. We have been studying issues for several years healthy eating and offer customers products whose benefits have been personally verified.
IN scientific world The study of the effect of sprouts on health began relatively recently - in the middle of the 20th century. But since ancient times, it has been known that folk healers and healers used sprouted seeds and grains as a remedy for many ailments.
Germinated sprouts contain a great energy potential. When the grain begins to grow, its chemical composition changes - the nutrients from the dormant state pass into the active phase. Proteins are converted to amino acids, fats are fatty acids carbohydrates are simple sugars. The content of vitamins and antioxidants is many times increased. In a short time (1-2 days) there is a powerful enrichment of seedlings with useful substances exclusively due to the life-giving forces of nature. Sprouts of germinated seeds and grains are an active stimulator of the vital activity of the whole organism.
The introduction of fresh sprouts into the diet starts the processes of self-purification, improves digestion, sexual function, increases hemoglobin, and ensures normal metabolism. Sprouted seeds treat eczema and stomach ulcers, purify the blood, strengthen the immune system, ensure normal metabolism and the full functioning of the nervous system, restore visual acuity, improve the most important functions of the body, and much more. It is difficult to find a similar natural product, whose richness and benefits would be compared with seed sprouts. This is a biogenic food capable of giving the strength of growing life to the human body!
Sprouted rye sprouts contain many useful elements, plant hormones and oils. They are rich in potassium (425 mg/100 g), calcium (58 mg/100 g), phosphorus (292 mg/100 g), magnesium (120 mg/100 g), manganese (2.7 mg/100 g), iron (4.2 mg / 100 g), zinc (2.5 mg / 100 g), there is also fluorine, silicon, sulfur, vanadium, chromium, copper, selenium, molybdenum. And the folic acid content makes sprouted rye an especially important food for expectant mothers. Folic acid affects the growth and division of cells, the processes of hematopoiesis, the development of tissues and organs of the fetus. Folic acid participates in the synthesis of amino acids, including ribonucleic acid, which contributes to the easy and complete absorption of iron, without which, in turn, the formation of hemoglobin is impossible. Regular consumption of rye sprouts contributes to increased activity and efficiency. They compensate for the lack of vitamins and minerals, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, normalize the microflora, stimulate the intestines, help cleanse the body of toxins.
Rye sprouts have no restrictions in compatibility with other products, they are useful to use with fruits and berries, vegetables, add to desserts, salads, etc. General healing occurs due to the energy of the germinating seed. The introduction of germinated sprouts into a regular diet starts the rejuvenation of the whole organism!
In the southern regions of the country, where wheat for a long time - the main, leading crop, with the right agricultural technology, they get even higher yields. Thus, for example, a new variety of winter wheat, Bezostaya-4, yielded an average yield of 40 centners per hectare on collective farm fields. And at the state farm. Kalinin Korenevsky district, Krasnodar region, the same variety of winter wheat yielded 48.6 centners per hectare. On one of the fields of the state farm, with an area of 149 hectares, the harvest was even 54.5 centners per hectare. The harvest of another new variety - Bezostaya-41 - in 1959 reached 50-60 centners per hectare on variety-testing plots. In Siberia and Kazakhstan, on newly developed virgin and fallow lands, the sown area is mainly occupied by spring wheat, the yield of which in 1958 on a number of state farms exceeded 40 centners per hectare.
After wheat, the largest sown area in the USSR is occupied by rye. And worldwide, its cultivated area is in fourth place - after wheat, rice and corn. To soil and climatic conditions rye less demanding than wheat. It also grows on sandy soils, and on sandy loamy soils it gives high yields. In addition, it is more frost-resistant: its crops have crossed the Arctic Circle and now reach 69 ° N. sh. Compared with the pre-revolutionary period, its crops in the USSR decreased due to an increase in wheat crops. But in many parts of the country, it remains the main food crop.
Among the varieties of rye, there are both winter and spring varieties. The main area under rye crops in the USSR is occupied by winter varieties, as they are more productive. The best predecessor for winter rye is fertilized fallow.
In many areas of the European part of the USSR, the yields of winter rye are much higher in height and stability than the yields of spring grains. Thus, for example, the advanced collective farms of the Chuvash ASSR, Moscow, Kursk and other regions receive rye yields of 40 and 50 centners per hectare.
Black bread is made from rye grain. Rye straw is used in agriculture: she goes to bedding cattle, mats are knitted from her for greenhouses. Rye straw is also used in industry as a raw material for the manufacture of paper and cardboard.
Winter rye is sometimes grown for spring feeding of productive cattle, since rye, earlier than other plants, provides an abundance of high-quality green fodder.
oats grown mainly for livestock feed. But a lot of food products are also produced from it: cereals, oatmeal, cereals(Hercules).
Oatmeal is very nutritious. In the grain of hulled varieties, up to 18% protein, about 6% fat and up to 40% starch. The grain of naked oats contains up to 23% protein. Oatmeal is well absorbed by the body of the animal and is especially useful for young animals. Oatmeal - dietary product for children. Straw and oat chaff are fed to livestock. Oat straw is more nutritious than the straw of other cereals.
Most of the known species of oats grow in the wild. The cultivated type of oats - the so-called sowing oats - is divided into membranous and naked varieties. There are a lot of varieties of sowing oats, and each of them is adapted to certain soil and climatic conditions.
In the USSR, mainly membranous varieties are cultivated. They were bred by Soviet breeders by selection from ancient local varieties.
Oats give the highest yields in mild climates and sufficient precipitation. It is less demanding on the soil than other grain breads; therefore, the sowing of oats, as a rule, ends any crop rotation. Compared to other cereals, oats are the least valuable culture. Therefore, the expansion of the sowing of other grains, such as corn, should go primarily at the expense of the reduction in the sowing of oats.
A much smaller sown area than wheat, rye or oats occupies in the Soviet Union. barley. It is mainly used for livestock feed, in the brewing industry and for making barley coffee. But there are countries, such as Tibet, where barley is the main cereal plant, since other cereals do not ripen there: of all cereals, barley is the most early-ripening plant.
Cereals, the grain of which is not used for flour and not for baking bread, but for making cereals, are called cereals. Of the cereal grains in the Soviet Union, millet is of the greatest importance. Cultivated millet is divided into three main groups according to the shape of the panicle: spreading - with long branches and a loose structure of the panicle, drooping - with long and tightly adjacent branches, and compact - with short branches very tightly adjacent to each other. Millet grains are covered with films and after their collapse (cleaning) food millet is obtained.
Among all cereals, millet is the most drought-resistant crop. Therefore, in the USSR it is most of all sown in the southeastern regions of the country. With good care, millet yields reach 60 centners per hectare or more.
The highest yields of millet are obtained when sown on a layer of virgin soil or sown perennial grasses. Therefore, in the practice of farming, millet is considered a reservoir crop. You can cultivate millet on soft lands, but they must be clean of weeds. Millet sprouts develop very slowly and therefore are heavily clogged with weeds on weedy soils. In addition to the layer of virgin soil and sown perennial grasses, row crops such as potatoes and sugar beet are a good predecessor for millet. In turn, millet is considered a good predecessor for spring wheat, barley and oats. Millet is very responsive to phosphate fertilizers.
The best sowing method is wide-row, as millet is a photophilous plant. The seeding rate for ordinary row sowing is 20-25 kg per hectare, and for wide-row sowing - two times less, great importance It also has the adaptability of the variety to soil and climatic conditions. Therefore, sowing with varietal and zoned seeds is a mandatory agrotechnical measure. In the USSR, millet cultivation is concentrated in the Kazakh SSR, in the Volga region, and in the Central Chernozem zone. Millet ripens unevenly and crumbles easily. Controlling grain losses in millet harvesting is of paramount importance.
For half the population the globe main food - rice. Rice has the same importance as our bread in Japan, China, India, Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam. It has been cultivated for a very long time. In Southeast Asia, rice was known as a cultivated plant already 4-5 thousand years ago. Rice is grown in fields flooded with water. But rice is not a swamp, but a mountain plant. Its wild species grow, although in a humid climate, but on soil that is not flooded with water. In India, Burma and Vietnam, it was originally cultivated on the gentle slopes of the mountains. The monsoons brought heavy rainfall to these mountains. But since the monsoons are a seasonal phenomenon, with such agriculture it was possible to harvest only one crop per year. In order to prevent downpours from demolishing the earth from the mountain slopes, stone and earthen ramparts began to be erected around the rice crops. Thus terraces were formed, and the water of monsoon rains lingered on them. For cultivated rice, such abundant moisture proved to be beneficial. He began to give large harvests, and two or three crops a year. In terms of yield, irrigated rice surpasses even millet. Gradually, rice culture descended from the mountains to the valleys, where high-water rivers were used to irrigate crops. Where there are no large rivers, for example, on the island of Java, rice is still cultivated on mountain terraces.
With constant flooding of rice fields, the useful activity of microorganisms fades in the soil. Therefore, it is better to use shortened flooding: after sowing, 3-4 irrigations are carried out, and when the rice reaches wax ripeness, water is dumped from the field.
There are now more than 10 thousand varieties of cultivated rice. Soviet breeders have developed varieties suitable for our climate. In our country, rice is cultivated in Central Asia, in Krasnodar Territory, in the south of Ukraine and in the Moldavian SSR. The grain of rice is high in nutrients. Approximately 75% of it consists of carbohydrates. Rice straw is a valuable raw material. It is used to make thin and durable paper, ropes, ropes, baskets, and hats.
If you create rice best conditions for growth and development, an exceptionally high yield can be harvested. Until 1958, 170 centners per hectare was considered the largest rice crop. Since 1958, in the People's Republic of China, on experimental plots, yields of more than 1000 centners per hectare began to be obtained.
Such fabulous harvests were obtained by our Chinese friends as a result of thickening of crops, deep tillage and abundant application of mineral and organic fertilizers. Rice culture in China is a transplant. Previously, there were about a million rice plants per hectare of crops; on a hectare of experimental plots, there are dozens of times more of them - due to transplantation from other plots. With such a density of sowing, there is almost no free space between plants. Rice in the thickened area, only ripens on the vine, and the area of other areas is freed for a new planting. The grown and strengthened plants were transplanted to the experimental plot in deeply plowed and fertilized soil in several layers. They fertilized it with manure, silt, crushed bones, leaves of bast crops, and chemical fertilizers.
But our Chinese friends get high yields of rice not only from experimental plots. Thus, for example, in five provinces - Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Sichuan and Henan - an average rice yield of 375 centners per hectare was obtained in 1958.
Buckwheat grain chemical composition close to a grain of cereals. Buckwheat is used to make cereals. Therefore, buckwheat is considered by us in the same section with cereals, although it belongs to the buckwheat family.
Buckwheat- an annual herbaceous plant with a strongly branching, reddish and ribbed, non-lodging stem, up to a meter high. It is cultivated in all temperate countries, but the first place in terms of sown area and gross grain harvest belongs to the Soviet Union.
Buckwheat is of the greatest economic importance. The nutritional value of its grain is higher than that of cereal grains. Buckwheat grain contains a lot of iron and organic acids (citric and malic). Its protein and carbohydrates are well absorbed by the body. Buckwheat has good taste qualities.
Buckwheat is the most important honey plant, but it produces dark honey. The flowering of buckwheat starts from the lower inflorescences, passes to the upper ones and stretches in time until harvesting, so the period of honey collection from buckwheat crops is quite long. Buckwheat also ripens unevenly, and ripe grain can crumble. Therefore, buckwheat is usually harvested when two-thirds of the grains on the plant reach full ripeness.
Buckwheat is an early ripening crop. From its seedlings to ripening, it takes from 65 to 80 days. In the southern regions of the USSR, if a sufficient amount of atmospheric precipitation falls in the second half of the summer, it can, with good agricultural technology, produce high yields in stubble sowing, that is, in sowing after grain harvest.
When sown in the spring, winter rye, wheat, potatoes, beets, flax will be a good predecessor for it. Buckwheat seedlings are sensitive to frost, and its seeds germinate well at a soil temperature of 12-13 °.
Buckwheat roots dissolve substances containing phosphoric acid well. Therefore, under buckwheat, it is advisable to apply not superphosphate, but cheaper phosphate rock (see the article “Fertilizers and their use”). Then, at a rate of 5-6 centners per hectare, it can increase the grain yield by one and a half to two times. Fresh manure or exclusively nitrogen fertilizers cause a strong growth of green mass in buckwheat to the detriment of grain formation. If nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers are introduced into the soil, the yield of buckwheat increases dramatically.
Buckwheat harvests in the past were low and unstable. At present, the advanced collective farms of the Ukraine, Tula, Moscow, Gorky and other regions are getting 15-25 and even 30 centners per hectare of buckwheat.
