Rye and wheat are growing. Features of growing rye, planting and care. Optimal sowing dates

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Photo. Secale cereale L. - Spring rye

Systematic position.

Family Poaceae Barnhart, genus Secale L., species Secale cereale L. - Cherepanov S.K., 1995.
The intraspecific classification of rye, proposed by V.D. Kobylyansky, includes five subspecies: subsp. cereale, subsp. vavilovii (Grossh.) Kobyl., subsp. tetraploidum Kobyl., subsp. derzhavinii (Tzvel.) Kobyl., subsp. tsitsinii Kobyl.

Biology and morphology.

2n=14. An annual herbaceous plant. It has a fibrous root system, consisting of 3-4 embryonic (primary) roots formed during seed germination, and nodal (secondary) roots extending from underground stem nodes in the area of the tillering node. The main primary tillering node is located at a depth of 0.5-2 cm, and it is associated with the length of the mesocotyl (underground internode) connecting the caryopsis to the node. The resistance of rye varieties to root lodging largely depends on the degree of development of the root system and the strength of its adhesion to the soil. The stem is a hollow straw, consisting of 3-7 internodes, separated from each other by nodes. Forms with an upper internode have been found. Plant height of cultivated rye varieties is 80-180 cm, various forms it varies from 10-15 to 300 cm. The color of the stem of vegetative rye is green, with a bluish tint due to a waxy coating. There are forms without a waxy coating. Wax coating does not have a protective effect against the penetration of fungal pathogens into the stem tissue. When mature, the stems are yellow or colored to varying degrees by anthocyanin. The surface of the stem is bare, slightly pubescent under the spike, but forms without pubescence are often found. The leaf consists of a sheath tightly covering the stem, a linear-lanceolate leaf blade with a tongue and ears at the base. The tongue (ligula) of rye is horizontally cut and located at the junction of the sheath and the leaf blade; By tightly fitting the stem, it prevents moisture and insects from entering. Plant forms with an oblique tongue and without a tongue (non-ligulous rye) are identified. It has been established that the size of the second leaf from the top can be used to judge the foliage of plants, since its size is equal to or close to the size of the average leaf. Long, narrow leaves are characteristic of more drought-resistant forms; wide, short leaves are most often found in low-productive, relatively late-ripening forms that are prone to powdery mildew. The inflorescence is a complex spike of incomplete type (without an apical spikelet). On each ledge of a segment of the spike shaft there is one two, less often three, flowering spikelet. The two lower flowers are sessile, the third flower is pedunculated. Each productive stem usually produces one ear. The spike rachis of rye is not branched, but hereditarily branched forms are found. The color of the ear in cultivated varieties is white (straw-yellow), in old local populations there are red-red ears, in weedy field rye - white, red-red, brown, black. Ears of rye are covered with a waxy coating, and the degree of expression can vary, depending on the varietal characteristics and climatic conditions. A strong waxy coating is typical for varieties grown in areas with hot summers, as it protects the ear from overheating, reflecting some of the incident sunlight. The fruit of rye is an oblong or oval-shaped grain, compressed from the sides. The color of rye grain, depending on the combination of color, thickness and transparency of the seed and fruit coats and the color of the aleurone layer, can be white, yellow, green of various shades, blue, purple, brown. Weight of 1000 grains is 30-45 g.

Ecology.

Winter rye is a winter-hardy plant (it tolerates frosts of 30-35°C in winters with little snow), and is quite drought-resistant. Since winter hardiness is a complex trait, and includes frost resistance, resistance to damping off, often associated with resistance to snow mold, as well as resistance to ice crust and bulging, it can be increased through agrotechnical measures (reclamation, high-quality soil cultivation, timely sowing). Frost-resistant plants are distinguished by a number of morphobiological features. They have narrow and short rosette leaves of a small-cellular structure and a flattened bush shape, a thicker outer wall of the epidermis, a short mesocotyl and, accordingly, a deeper location of the tillering node. Frost-resistant plants are characterized by slower growth in autumn, a relatively higher concentration of dry substances in the cell sap and more economical expenditure on growth processes and respiration. The growing season is 120-150 days (autumn 45-50 days and spring-summer 75-100 days). Rye grows on various soils, except swampy ones; the best soils are chernozems. Allogamous (cross-pollinating) wind-pollinated plant. Under favorable conditions, its flowering occurs 7-10 days after heading. In cultivated rye varieties, the anthers usually crack within 1-2 minutes. after leaving the flower, and the pollen is carried by the wind. A feature of rye, like all wind-pollinated plants, is the large amount of pollen produced (up to 60 thousand pollen grains in one flower). In rare cases, the anthers crack before they are completely released from the flower, and self-pollination occurs. The flower is open for 12-30 minutes, but the pollen spills out of it in 2-4 minutes. The flowering of the ear begins in the middle part and, gradually spreading up and down, lasts 4-5 days, with the upper flowers fading before the lowest ones. Each plant blooms for 7-8 days; the ear of the main stem blooms first. In field conditions, at optimal air temperatures (12-15°C), flowering begins at 5-6 a.m. in the southern and central regions of the Russian Federation and at 7-10 a.m. in the northeast and northwest. During the day there are 2-3 maximums, but the most intense flowering occurs in the morning hours. During the period of mass flowering, a pollen cloud forms over the rye crop in warm, dry weather. The viability of pollen in direct sunlight lasts for 15 minutes, in the shade - 4-8 hours, in artificial conditions at low temperatures and high humidity - 1-3 days. In rainy, cloudy weather, pollen is poorly carried by the wind and does not fall on the flowers, as a result of which the throughgrain increases sharply, reaching 30-40% or more. Crossgrass can also be caused by genetic factors. The self-fertility of rye is insignificant and averages 0-6%. From the moment pollen hits the stigma of the pistil until the pollen tube penetrates the cavity of the embryo sac, about 30 minutes pass, and the entire fertilization process lasts 6-8 hours. Unfertilized ovaries retain the ability to pollinate and fertilize for a relatively long time - up to 14 days. It has been established that the decisive factors for the high yield of winter rye are the number of productive stems per 1 m2 and the weight of grain per ear. The density of the stem stand and the number of productive stems per unit area are adaptive traits that characterize the biological resistance of varieties, depending on winter hardiness, drought resistance, resistance to diseases and pests, etc. Resistance to lodging of rye plants, like other grain crops, is associated with plant height and the strength of the stem, the power of the root system and the weight of the ear. 4 types of short-stemmed rye have been identified. The ability of rye to germinate in the ear and the associated alpha-amylase activity are varietal characteristics. Forage varieties of rye used for green fodder and hay in the spring-summer period are characterized by rapid growth, high bushiness, good foliage, the ability to regrow after mowing, and high nutritional value of green mass. They have a thin, non-coarse straw. They are resistant to lodging and respond well to treatment with retardants, which increase resistance to lodging during seed production.

Spreading.

In terms of area sown, rye ranks eighth in world agriculture after wheat, rice, barley, corn, oats, millet and sorghum. Rye, mainly winter rye (99.8%), is cultivated in almost all agroclimatic zones of the Russian Federation (Volga, Volga-Vyatka, Central and Ural economic regions), in Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic countries. In culture since the 1st-2nd millennium BC in the Dnieper, Dniester, Oka basins and in Switzerland, Hungary, Denmark. Spring rye is grown in small areas in Eastern Siberia (Transbaikalia) and mountainous areas Central Asia and Transcaucasia. The main producers of rye are also Poland and Germany; it occupies a significant place in agriculture in the Scandinavian countries, Canada and the USA. In 2001 The area sown with rye in farms of all categories in the Russian Federation amounted to 3,636 thousand hectares (7.7% of the sown area of all grain crops). Currently, about 50 varieties of winter rye and 1 variety of spring rye (Onokhoiskaya) have been zoned. The main varieties of winter rye: Bezenchukskaya 87, Valdai, Volkhova, Vyatka 2, Dymka, Kirovskaya 89, Orlovskaya 9, Radon, Saratovskaya 5, Saratovskaya 7, Talovskaya 15, Talovskaya 29, Talovskaya 33, Chulpan, Era. Breeding institutions: Northwestern Research Institute of Agriculture of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Krasnoyarsk Research Institute of Agriculture, Samara Research Institute of Agriculture named after N.M. Tulaikova, Stavropol Research Institute of Agriculture, Zonal Research Institute of Agriculture of the North-East named after. N.V. Rudnitsky, All-Russian Research Institute of Legumes and Cereals, Ural Research Institute of Agriculture, Tatar Research Institute of Agriculture, Siberian Research Institute of Agriculture, Bashkir Research Institute of Agriculture.

Economic importance.

Rye is the second grain crop after wheat. The grain contains 12-14% protein (lysine in protein is about 4%). The technological qualities of rye grain are assessed by their resistance to activation of enzymes of the carbohydrate-amylase complex. The viscosity of the flour-introducing suspension is determined on an amylograph, and the falling number is determined on a Hagberg-Perten device or its modifications. Varieties used to improve the quality of flour must have an amylograph value of over 600 units. and the number of falls is more than 200 s. Varieties whose flour is suitable for baking bread in its pure form - 300-600 units, respectively. and 140-200 s. Grain is used to produce flour, starch, molasses, animal feed, etc. Green mass, hay and grain are fed to animals. Grown in field crop rotation. The best predecessors are clean and occupied fallow, annual and perennial grasses, flax. Fertilizers: 20-40 tons of manure, 20-30 kg N (in spring feeding), 60-90 kg P 2 O 5 and 40-60 kg K 2 O per 1 ha. They are sown in a narrow-row or conventional row method, the sowing rate is 4.5-6 million viable seeds per 1 ha (200-250 kg), sowing depth is 4-6 cm. They are harvested using a separate method and direct combining. Grain yield is about 2 tons per hectare.

Literature.

State register of selection achievements approved for use. M. 2004. P.11-12
Zhukovsky P.M. Cultivated plants and their relatives. L. 1971
Private selection of field crops. Ed. Konovalova Yu.B. M.1990. P.36-59
Cherepanov S.K. Vascular plants of Russia and neighboring countries. SP-b. 1995. From 759-760

© Gashkova I.V.

Latin name.

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 to produce oil.

A variety of fabrics are produced from fiber flax - from coarse bag, technical and packaging to thin cambric and lace. Technical fabrics made from flax 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 regard. Linen fabrics and products (linen, canvas, tablecloths, towels, etc.) are distinguished by their great strength and beauty.

Short flax fiber (waste, tow, tow) is used as wiping and packaging material, and flax kernels (wood from the stems after the fiber has been separated) are used for the production of paper, construction slabs and insulating materials, as well as fuel.

Seeds of oilseed flax varieties 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 feed for animals, especially for young animals. The nutritional value of 1 kg of flaxseed meal is 1.2 feed, units, it contains about 280 g of digestible protein. Flaxseeds are used in medicine and veterinary medicine.

The most ancient historical centers of flax cultivation are the mountainous regions of India and China. 4-5 thousand years BC. e. flax was grown in Egypt, Assyria and Mesopotamia. There is an assumption that cultivated flax comes from South-West 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, and Canada, flax is grown for fiber on a small scale.

In 1987, 0.97 million hectares were occupied by fiber flax in the CIS. The main areas of cultivation for fiber (55% of the total area) are concentrated in most regions of the Non-Black Earth zone of the European part of our country. Recently, fiber flax crops have been expanded in the Baltic republics, in the north and west of Ukraine, and in Western Siberia. Oilseed flax is much less widespread in the CIS (200 thousand hectares).

In our country, flax has been known since ancient times. In the 12th century. it was cultivated in the Novgorod and Pskov principalities. Vologda, Pskov, Kostroma, and Kashin flax have been famous since ancient times. In the 16th 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, which wove wide fabrics for sails and other needs. Currently, the Soviet Union ranks first in world agriculture in the production of flax fiber.

Botanical characteristics . Of the 45 species of flax cultivated in our country (there are 200 species in the world), one species is of industrial importance - cultivated flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), from the flax family (Linaceae). The Eurasian subspecies of this species has ssp. eurasiaticum Vav. et Ell - three varieties are known (Fig. 39).

Fiber flax (v. elongata) is cultivated mainly for its fiber. The stem is from 60 to 175 cm high, 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 begins from the location of the cotyledons to the first branch of the inflorescence. The most valuable flax fiber is obtained from this part (up to 26-31%). Fiber flax is cultivated in areas with a moderately warm, humid and mild climate. The weight of 1000 seeds is 3-6 g. When they swell, they mucus and absorb 100-180% of water.

Mezheumok flax (v. untermedia) is cultivated mainly for its seeds to obtain oil. Occupies an intermediate position between long flax and curly flax. The stem is 55-65 cm high, less branched than that of the curly tree, but much shorter than that of the long tree.

Produces more bolls (15-25) than fiber flax. The quality and length of the fiber is inferior to fiber flax. Fiber yield is 16-18% (shredded - 13-14%). Mezheumok is distributed in the forest-steppe part of Ukraine, Kursk, Voronezh, Kuibyshev, Saratov regions, Bashkiria and Tatarstan, the North Caucasus, and partly in Siberia.

Curly flax, or stag flax (v. brevimulticaulia), is cultivated in the republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia. It has a short (30-45 cm) branching stem with 35-50 bolls. It is cultivated for seeds, from which oil is obtained (35-45%). The fiber is short and of low quality. The most suitable areas for oilseed flax are those 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% comes from stems, about 10-12% from seeds and the same amount from chaff and other waste. Flax stems 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. Towards 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 larger clearance and thinner walls.

High-quality fiber should be long, thin, without a large cavity, thin-layered, smooth, and clean on the surface. The main indicators of its quality: length, strength, shine, elasticity, softness, cleanliness from the fire, absence of traces of rust and other diseases.

Biological features . Fiber flax works best in moderately warm areas with an even climate, with sufficient rainfall and cloud cover (in diffused light).

Moderate temperatures of spring and summer with intermittent rain and cloudy weather are favorable for flax growth. Flax germinates 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 temperatures (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 implementation full cycle development is 1000-1300 °C depending on the length of the growing season of the variety. The growing season ranges from 70-100 days.

Fiber flax is a moisture-loving, long-day plant. Transpiration coefficient 400-450. When seeds swell in the soil, they absorb at least 100% of water relative to their own weight. It is especially demanding of moisture during the budding - flowering period, when soil moisture of about 70% NV 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 groundwater levels, flax does not succeed well. During the ripening period, dry, moderately warm and sunny weather is most favorable.

The following phases are distinguished in the development of fiber flax: germination, sprouting, 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 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 lead to a delay in flowering (feeding with fertilizers, regulating the water regime, etc.) help lengthen the stem and improve the quality of the fiber. In a short (2 weeks) period of increased growth, flax consumes more than half of the total amount of nutrients.

The critical period of nitrogen requirement is observed from the “herringbone” phase to budding, for phosphorus - during the initial period of growth until the phase of 5-6 pairs of leaves, for potassium - in the first 20 days of life. With a lack of essential nutrients during these periods, flax yields decrease sharply. The maximum consumption of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium was noted in the budding phase (before flowering), as well as during seed formation.

Due to the weak assimilation capacity of flax roots and the short period of increased 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 floating and the formation of a soil crust, as well as acidic, swampy soils with close groundwater without radical improvement are unsuitable 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 correct fertilization system, flax produces high yields of good fiber on 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 short, and on rich soils they lie down.

The All-Union Flax Research Institute has developed an intensive technology for cultivating fiber flax. Its successful and complete application is designed 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 crops in specialized farms, sowing flax in 2-3 crop rotations, placement of flax after the best predecessors, introduction of mineral and organic fertilizers in crop rotation in scientifically based doses calculated for the planned harvest, basic tillage of 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 viable seeds, the use of an integrated plant protection system, pre-harvest desiccation, mechanized harvesting and sale of at least 50% of the crop in the form of straw field-factory diagram, expanding the use of roll harvesting technology. Organizing production on the basis of self-financing, team and family contracts or a lease agreement ensures the best results from the use of intensive technology for cultivating fiber flax.

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 organic-mineral fertilizers and using herbicides, fiber flax produces high yields after fertilized winter crops, grain legumes, potatoes, sugar beets, clover layer or a mixture of clover with timothy, layer turnover and other predecessors. In 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 stems 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 over a layer of clover. In the Netherlands, the best predecessors of flax are considered to be wheat, barley, rye, potatoes, corn, sugar beets, etc. In Belgium, it is recommended to sow flax after grains, beets or chicory. In these countries, they avoid placing flax over clover due to excess nitrogen nutrition (the result is coarse branching straw, flax lodging).

Flax does not deplete the soil too much; after it, 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 plowed land and a layer of perennial grasses helps to increase the yield and quality of fiber flax. The main tillage for flax is carried out in two versions: traditional and semi-steam. The first option includes stubble peeling and fall plowing, the second option includes fall plowing and several continuous cultivations 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. In fields infested primarily with annual weeds, hulling is usually carried out with LDG-10 disc hullers to a depth of 6-8 cm. In fields infested with root shoot weeds, hulling is carried out to a depth of 12-14 cm on light soils and 10-12 cm on heavy soils.

At the same time, in fields clogged only with root shoot weeds, a PPL-10-25 plow-harrower is used, and in fields clogged with wheatgrass, heavy disc harrows BDT-3.0 or BDT-7.0 in two tracks are used. When placing flax after perennial grasses, the layer is disced with a heavy disc harrow BDT-3.0 and plowed with plows with skimmers.

When preparing the soil using 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. In the time remaining before frost, 2-3 cultivations are carried out to a depth of 10-14 cm in a diagonal direction relative to the direction of plowing. In this case, a KPS-4 cultivator with spring tines is used in a unit 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 pointed shares and without harrows.

In fields heavily infested with wheatgrass, herbicides are additionally used in accordance with industry regulations, which are applied over the raised plowed land and covered with harrows or cultivators during the first semi-fallow treatment.

In spring, plow grass is harrowed on sandy loam and light loamy soils or cultivated on heavy loamy soils and soils with high moisture content to a depth of 8-10 cm.

Pre-sowing preparation of sandy loam soils is carried out using heavy toothed harrows working in a double-row coupling, and the field is cultivated in 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 with cultivators to a depth of 5-7 cm. The layer of perennial grasses plowed in the fall is cultivated in the spring with cultivators with pointed tines.

To level the field surface on the eve of sowing flax, the soil is rolled using smooth water-filled rollers and ZKVG-1.4; on heavy soils, a ring-spur roller ZKKSH-6 is used. Heavily moist, heavy soils should not be rolled. In such fields, the soil is leveled using the ShB-2.5 trail harrow coupling.

The use of combined units RVK-3.6 (ripper-leveler-roller) and VIP-5.6 (leveler-chopper-roller) for pre-sowing tillage in fields not clogged with wheatgrass allows for high-quality soil preparation for flax in one pass.

Fertilizer. Flax is quite demanding when it comes to fertilizer. When applying full mineral fertilizer, the yield of flax straw increases by 0.4-0.8 t/ha. The approximate average removal of basic 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.m. fertilizers

In the flax fertilization system, it is necessary to take into account the weak assimilation ability of its root system, high sensitivity to high concentrations of soil solution, as well as the relatively short growing season 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) under previous winter or row crops, flax yield increases by 25 -30% or more. Stubble-sown lupine, seradella, vetch, and rape can be used as green fertilizer.

It is better not to apply manure and compost directly under flax in order to avoid lodging of plants and unevenness of the stem, 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 potassium (K60-120) fertilizers should be applied before plowing. Nitrogen fertilizers (N30-45) are applied in the spring; when properly combined with phosphorus-potassium, they significantly increase the fiber yield and its quality.

When determining doses of mineral fertilizers, one should take into account the agrochemical indicators of the soil, the degree of its fertility, cultivation, planned harvest and other factors (Table 51).

According to VNIIL, on poorly cultivated soils, for 1 part of nitrogen in fertilizer for flax there should be 2 parts of phosphorus and potassium, on moderately cultivated soils - 3, and on highly cultivated soils - 4-6. Excess 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 fertilizing in the form of ammonium nitrate, urea; Ammonium sulfate also has a good effect

On farms that have achieved a noticeable increase in soil fertility, nitrogen fertilizers are not applied directly to flax, but are limited to selective fertilizing as necessary.

Phosphorus fertilizers help accelerate the ripening of flax and improve the quality of the fiber. In this case, special attention should be paid to the forms of phosphorus fertilizers. Excess superphosphate increases soil acidity and can inhibit plants. The most suitable for flax, especially on acidic soils, are phosphate rock, double superphosphate, boron superphosphate and precipitate. Good results are also obtained when using superphosphate in a mixture with phosphate rock.

The application of potassium fertilizers (potassium chloride, potassium salt, potassium sulfate, potassium magnesium) increases the yield and quality of fiber, mitigates the negative effect of excess nitrogen nutrition, and increases the resistance of 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 to avoid reducing the yield and quality of the fiber.

VNIIL experiments have proven the significant effectiveness of boron fertilizers (0.4-0.7 kg of pure boron per 1 ha) applied for plowing or spring harrowing of plowed land. Boron promotes yield growth, weakens the negative effect of excess lime on flax, and reduces damage to plants by bacterial diseases. Boron 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 adding ammophos or granulated superphosphate to the rows when sowing (10-12 kg of N and P2O5 per 1 ha).

It is important to ensure uniform distribution of fertilizers in the soil so that there is no diversity of flax stems (uneven ripening, different heights and branching of plants).

Great importance is attached to feeding flax during the growing season. To do this, use ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate (20-30 kg N), superphosphate (30-40 kg P2O5), potassium chloride (30 kg K2O per 1 ha) or complex fertilizers. Fertilizing is carried out at three seedling heights of 6-8 cm (no later than 20 days after their appearance). Delay in fertilizing with nitrogen can lead to extended flowering and uneven ripening. Often flax is fed only with phosphorus fertilizers.

Currently, flax-growing farms apply 0.8-1 tons of mineral fertilizers per 1 hectare of fiber flax sowing. In flax crop rotations, VNIIL recommends applying organic fertilizers (manure and composts) in combination with mineral ones in two fields - fallow and potatoes, and mineral fertilizers - annually for all crops.

Sowing. For sowing, you should use seeds of the best zoned varieties that meet the requirements of the sowing standard of the first and second classes (purity 99-98%, germination capacity 95-90%, humidity 12%). It is prohibited to sow seeds containing dodder and other harmful weeds. Seeds should be full-bodied, leveled, shiny and greasy to the touch, healthy, with high germination energy. To increase 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 the great advantage of 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, are less affected by fungal diseases and flea beetles, and the fiber obtained is of better quality. According to TSHA experiments, when flax was sown on May 13, the trust yield was 20% higher than when sowed on June 9. With early sowing, only 2.3% of seedlings were damaged by flea beetles, and with late sowing - 34.6%. However, you should avoid sowing too early, when frosts are still possible, as well as sowing seeds in very damp, poorly prepared soil.

In order to evenly distribute fiber flax seeds, they are 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 sowing rate is 20-25 million viable seeds (100- 120 kg) per 1 ha. For varieties prone to lodging, the seeding rate is slightly reduced. For seed purposes, fiber flax is sown in a wide row (45 cm) or strip 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, or a ring-spur roller.

It is very important to protect fiber flax from weeds, which reduce its yield and fiber quality. The most common weeds of flax crops include spring weeds - wild radish, white pigweed, commonweed, bindweed, flax chaff, flaxseed, and tenacious bedstraw. There are also wintering weeds - blue cornflower, odorless chamomile, field grass. The most common perennial weeds: creeping wheatgrass, pink sow thistle, yellow sow thistle.

The main weed control measures are agrotechnical: choosing a good predecessor, semi-steam tillage, good seed cleaning using a SOM-ZOO seed cleaning machine and an EMS-1A electromagnetic machine.

Pests cause great harm to flax. These are the flax flea beetle, flax tripe, flax codling moth, and gamma cutworm. The following diseases of fiber flax are common: rust, fusarium blight, polysporium blight, bacteriosis, anthracnose, etc. They reduce plant productivity and fiber quality. It is important to sow resistant varieties, treat seeds, and strictly adhere to agrotechnical requirements: crop rotation, early sowing, destruction of flax residues on the field, etc.

Cleaning. The overall result in flax growing depends on high-quality and timely cleaning.

The following phases of flax ripeness are distinguished.

Green ripeness (green flax). The stems and bolls of flax are green, and the leaves of the lower third of the stem begin to turn yellow. The seeds in the boxes are soft, in a state of milky ripeness. The fiber bundles have formed, but the fibers are not yet fully formed.

When harvesting flax in the green ripeness phase, a reduced yield of not very strong, but thin, shiny fiber is obtained, suitable for thin products (lace, cambric).

Early yellow ripeness. Flax crops are light yellow in color. The leaves of the lower third of the stems turn brown and crumble, and the rest become yellow, wither, and only in the upper part of the stem do they still remain greenish. The capsules also have greenish veins. The seeds in them are in the waxy ripeness phase. The fiber has formed, but has not yet become coarse; the fibers are sufficiently completed. When harvested in this phase, the fiber is soft, silky and quite strong. The seeds, although not fully ripe, are quite suitable not only for technical purposes, but also for sowing.

Yellow ripeness. Occurs 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 and withered. The bolls become 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 become coarser (woody).

Full ripeness. Stems and boxes turn brown. Most of the leaves have already fallen. The seeds in the boxes are fully ripe, hardened and make noise when shaken. The fiber is already overripe, especially in the lower part of the stem, becomes somewhat woody, loses elasticity and becomes hard and dry.

When grown for fiber, fiber flax is usually harvested in the early yellow ripeness phase, and in the seed areas - in the yellow ripeness phase.

Pre-harvest desiccation of fiber flax crops has become widespread. Drying flax plants with desiccants while they are still growing eliminates processes such as field drying and ripening of flax in sheaves (when using seeds for sowing).

Harvesting fiber flax is a complex and labor-intensive process. Depending on the conditions, flax is harvested using a combine, split 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-tying machine. 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, binding straw into sheaves or spreading it with a ribbon on flax, collecting heaps (pods, seeds, impurities) in tractor trailers. Fiber products are sold in the form of straw or trust. When selling straw, harvesting can be done in two ways.

According to the first option, flax is pulled with a combine with a knitting machine. The combed straw, tied into sheaves, is placed in the headstocks for natural drying and after 6-10 days they are taken to the flax mill. To select and load sheaves, the PPS-3 sheaf pick-up loader is used.

According to the second option, the flax is pulled with a combine with a spreading device. The straw, spread out with a ribbon, after 4-6 days of drying, is lifted and knitted into sheaves using a PTN-1 pick-up with a knitting machine or pressed into rolls using a converted roll baler PRP-1.6. Rolls are loaded into vehicles using a PF-0.5 front loader with a flax attachment.

To prepare the trusts, the flax, pulled out and spread in ribbons, is left to age. To improve aging conditions and improve its quality, trusts carry out two additional methods to the traditional technology. Firstly, in the spring, simultaneously with sowing flax, some perennial winter-type cereal grass (meadow fescue, perennial ryegrass) or creeping clover is sown. Flax is spread on the grass cover. Secondly, in order to ensure uniform aging in the tape, achieve an even color of the stems, as well as speed up aging and prevent the tape from becoming overgrown with grass, it is wrapped 3-4 and 10-20 days after spreading and before lifting the finished cane. This operation is performed with an OSN-1 wrapper, which is mounted on a T-25A tractor.

Dry trust (humidity no more than 20%) is lifted and knitted into sheaves using a PTN-1 trust picker or formed into rolls using a PRP-1.6 baler.

In inclement weather, with high humidity, trusts use the PNP-3 pick-up portion former to prevent it from overstaying. The trusta collected in portions is knitted by hand into sheaves, which are placed in cones or tents for natural drying.

There are high demands on the quality of work of combine harvesters: the purity of pulling must be no lower than 99%, the purity of tow - no less than 98, seed loss - no more than 4%. The combines must be sealed.

The flax heap obtained after stripping the heads has a complex fractional composition, its humidity at the beginning of harvesting is 35-60%. 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 separating machine, thresher-winnower MV-2.5A, and then goes to seed cleaning machines: SM-4, OS-4.5A, flax cleaning hump OSG-0.2A, magnetic seed cleaning machine EMS-1A or SMShch-0.4, "Petkus-Giant" K-531/1. During long-term storage, seed moisture should not exceed 8-12%.

Primary processing of flax fiber. The task of primary processing of flax straw is the most complete (without loss) fiber extraction without deteriorating its quality. Straw is sorted by length, thickness, color and other characteristics (2-3 grades). Plants affected by rust, fusarium and other diseases are removed and processed separately from healthy ones. On farms, dew or water soaks of flax are used to extract fiber from the stems, and in factories, heat soaks are used, as well as chemical treatment in alkaline solutions.

Flax trust(soaked flax straw), depending on the fiber content in it, its color, strength and other quality indicators, is divided into numbers: 4; 3.5; 2.5; 2; 1.75;1.5; 1.25; 1.0; 0.75 and 0.5. The flax trust number is determined upon delivery organoleptically, comparing the selected sheaves with the standards. When delivered, the flax trust must be uniform in length, with a moisture content of no more than 20%, a contamination level of no 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 mills do not accept flax straw of the last two numbers (0.75 and 0.5).

To extract pure fiber from the trusta, the brome (wood from the stems) must be removed. For this purpose, roller grinders are used. The resulting raw fiber is separated from the remnants of the fire using scutching machines. A good fiber should be clean from the fire, tensile strength, long, thin, soft, greasy to the touch, heavy and uniform in color (light silver, white).

The yield of pure fiber is usually at least 15% of the straw mass or at least 20% of the trust mass. Long flax fiber according to GOST 10330-76, depending on quality, is divided into grades designated 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 higher, which has foreign impurities and a putrid odor, is not accepted.

Features of oilseed flax agricultural technology . Curly flax seeds from the high mountainous regions of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Armenia have the highest oil content (up to 46-48%). Curly flax (horn flax) has a limited distribution. Most often, flax is used to obtain seeds for oil - mezheumok.

Curly flax and mezeumok are less demanding on moisture and soil fertility than long-lasting flax. They are cultivated in arid steppe regions, as well as in foothill and mountainous areas with sufficient moisture. The best soils for oilseed flax are black soils that are free from weeds. It also works well on chestnut soils. Soils prone to waterlogging, heavy, clayey, and solonetzic are unsuitable for its cultivation.

The best place for sowing oil flax is deposits and a layer of perennial grasses. Good predecessors are winter grains, grain legumes, melons, corn and other row 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 potassium fertilizers should be applied during fall plowing in doses taken for grain crops. A good result is obtained by adding granulated superphosphate to the rows when sowing flax (seed yield increases by 0.3 t/ha).

Oilseed flax is sown with conventional grain seeders simultaneously with early grain grains. In the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, stubble crops of flax are also quite successful, yielding 0.6-0.8 t/ha of seeds or more. The method of sowing oilseed flax is narrow-row or ordinary row. The seed sowing rate is 40-60 kg/ha. In very arid conditions (Kazakhstan), wide-row crops are sometimes used, and the seeding rate is reduced to 30-20 kg/ha. When using flax on both sides (for fiber and seeds), the seeding rate is increased by 10-15 kg. The seed sowing depth is 4-5 cm.

In areas where flax stems are not used for fiber, harvesting is carried out at the beginning of full ripeness using combines at a low cut. When using oil flax on both sides, it is picked in the yellow ripeness phase, followed by ripening of the seeds in sheaves and threshing them on special flax threshing machines. Seeds cleaned on sorters and flax triers are stored at a moisture content of no more than 11%.

Moderate temperatures of spring and summer are favorable for flax growth. Flax germinates well and grows at a temperature 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.

A moisture-loving, long-day plant. When seeds swell in the soil, they absorb at least 100% of water relative 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.

On soils with excess lime content, the fiber is coarse and brittle. On poor soils, fiber flax plants grow short, and on rich soils they lie down.

The All-Russian Flax Research Institute has developed an intensive technology for cultivating fiber flax. Its successful and complete application is designed to produce 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 produces high yields after fertilized winter crops, grain legumes, potatoes, and clover. After rye, potatoes and peas, flax stems are more aligned, do not lie down, and are suitable for mechanized harvesting. After harvesting grain crops, it is advisable to sow the field under flax with intermediate crops from the cruciferous family (rapeseed, rapeseed, oilseed radish), using them for feed 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 crop rotation.

Tillage

Early autumn plowing of plowed land and a layer of perennial grasses helps to increase yield and fiber quality. The main tillage for flax is carried out in two versions: traditional and semi-steam. The first option includes stubble peeling and fall plowing, the second option includes fall plowing and several continuous cultivations of the field with a cultivator.

Fertilizer

Flax is quite demanding when it comes to fertilizer. When applying full mineral fertilizer, the yield of flax straw increases by 0.4-0.8 t/ha. The increase in straw yield on sod-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) under previous winter or row crops, flax yield increases by 25 -30% or more.

Phosphorus (P 60-100) and potassium (K 60-120) fertilizers should be applied before plowing. Nitrogen fertilizers (N 30-45) are applied in the spring before sowing and in fertilizing in the form of ammonium nitrate and urea.

Phosphorus fertilizers help accelerate the ripening of flax and improve the quality of the fiber. The most suitable for flax are phosphate rock and double superphosphate.

The application of potassium fertilizers (potassium chloride, potassium salt, potassium sulfate) increases the yield and quality of fiber.

It is effective to use complex fertilizers when fertilizing flax: ammophos, nitrophoska, nitroammophoska.

Ammonium nitrate or ammonium sulfate (20-30 kg N), superphosphate (30-40 kg P 2 O 5), potassium chloride (30 kg K 2 O per 1 ha) are used for fertilizing. Feeding is carried out when the height of the seedlings is 6-8 cm (no later than 20 days after their appearance).

Sowing. For sowing, seeds of the best zoned honeycombs should be used. Before sowing, flax seeds are treated using TMTD, granosan. Simultaneously with dressing, flax seeds can be treated with microfertilizers - boric acid, sulfate, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate.

The great advantage of early sowing of flax in soil heated at a depth of 10 cm to 7-8°C has been established. 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 include spring crops - wild radish, white pigweed, bindweed, flax chaff, flax hawthorn; wintering - blue cornflower, field grass, yellow sow thistle.

The main control measures are agrotechnical, using the herbicide 2M-4X sodium salt - 0.9-1.4 kg/ha. Crops are treated in the “herringbone” phase when the plant height is from 5 to 15 cm, when the leaves are covered with a waxy coating and large drops of the herbicide solution easily roll off them. Creeping wheatgrass is destroyed in the fall when cultivating the soil using sodium trichloroacetate.

Chemical weeding of flax can be combined with foliar fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers.

Pests cause great harm to flax. This is a flax flea beetle, a flax moth. The following diseases of fiber flax are common: rust, fusarium blight, bacteriosis, anthracnose. It is important to sow resistant varieties, treat seeds, and strictly adhere to agrotechnical requirements: crop rotation, early sowing.

Cleaning

The following phases of flax ripeness are distinguished.

Green ripeness

The stems and bolls of flax are green, and the leaves of the lower third of the stem begin to turn yellow. The seeds in the boxes are soft, in a state of milky ripeness. The fiber bundles have formed, but the fibers are not yet sufficiently formed. When harvesting flax in green ripeness, a reduced yield of not very strong, but thin, shiny fiber is obtained, suitable for delicate products (lace, cambric).

Early yellow ripeness

Flax crops are light yellow in color. The leaves of the lower third of the stems turn brown and remain, while the rest turn yellow and wither. Boxes with greenish veins. The seeds in them are in the waxy ripeness phase. The fiber has formed, but has not yet become coarse; the fibers are sufficiently completed. When harvested in this phase, the fiber becomes soft and silky. The seeds, although not fully ripe, are quite suitable not only for technical purposes, but also for sowing.

Yellow ripeness

Occurs 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 and withered. The bolls become 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 coarse.

Full ripeness

Stems and boxes turn brown. Most of the leaves have already fallen. The seeds in the boxes are fully ripe, hardened and make noise when shaken. The fiber loses its elasticity and becomes hard and dry.

Harvesting fiber flax is a complex and labor-intensive process. Depending on the conditions, flax is harvested using a combine, split 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-tying machine. 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 flax, collecting heaps (bolls, seeds, impurities). Fiber products are sold in the form of straw or trust.

When selling straw, harvesting can be done in two ways:

1. flax is pulled by a combine with a knitting machine. The combed straw, tied into sheaves, is placed in the headstocks for natural drying and after 6-10 days they are taken to the flax mill.

2. Flax is pulled by a combine with a spreading device. After drying for 4-6 days, the straw, spread out with a ribbon, is lifted and knitted into sheaves or pressed into rolls.

To prepare the trusts, the flax, pulled out and spread in ribbons, is left to age. To improve the trust's aging conditions and improve its quality, two additional techniques are carried out:

1. In the spring, simultaneously with sowing flax, perennial winter grass (meadow fescue, perennial ryegrass) or creeping clover is sown.

2. to ensure uniform aging in the tape, it is necessary to achieve an even color of the stems, in order to speed up aging and prevent the tape from becoming overgrown with grass, it is wrapped 3-4 and 10-12 days after growing.

Dry trust (humidity no more than 20%) is lifted and knitted into sheaves with a pick-up for natural drying.

In the southern regions of the country, where wheat for a long time - the main, leading crop; with proper agricultural technology, even higher yields are obtained. For example, the new winter wheat variety Bezostaya-4 gave an average yield of 40 centners per hectare on collective farm fields. And at the state farm named after. 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 yield of another new variety - Bezostaya-41 - in 1959 reached 50-60 centners per hectare in variety testing areas. 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 throughout the world, 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 produces high yields on sandy soils. In addition, it is more frost-resistant: its crops have crossed the Arctic Circle and now reach 69° N. w. Compared to the pre-revolutionary period, wheat 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 rye varieties 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 precursor for winter rye is fertilized fallow.

In many regions of the European part of the USSR, winter rye yields in height and stability significantly exceed spring grain yields. For example, the leading collective farms of the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, 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: it is used as bedding for livestock, and mats for greenhouses are knitted from it. Rye straw is also used in industry as a raw material for the production of paper and cardboard.

Winter rye is sometimes grown for spring feeding of productive cattle, since rye produces an abundance of high-quality green fodder earlier than other plants.

Oats grown mainly for livestock feed. But many food products are also produced from it: cereals, oatmeal, oatmeal (rolled oats).

Oat grains are very nutritious. The grain of filmy varieties contains up to 18% protein, about 6% fat and up to 40% starch. Hull oat grain contains up to 23% protein. Oatmeal is well absorbed by the animal's body and is especially useful for young animals. Oatmeal is a dietary product for children. Oat straw and chaff are used as livestock feed. Oat straw is more nutritious than other grain straws.

Most known species of oats grow among wild flora. The cultivated type of oats - the so-called seed oats - is divided into filmy varieties and naked varieties. There are a lot of varieties of oats, and each of them is adapted to certain soil and climatic conditions.

In the USSR, mainly filmy varieties are cultivated. They were bred by Soviet breeders by selecting from ancient local varieties.

Oats produce the highest yields in mild climates and sufficient precipitation. It is less demanding on soil than other grains; Therefore, as a rule, any crop rotation ends with sowing oats. Compared to other grains, oats are the least valuable crop. Therefore, the expansion of plantings of other grains, such as corn, should come primarily through a reduction in plantings of oats.

Occupies a significantly smaller cultivated area than wheat, rye or oats in the Soviet Union barley. It is used mainly for livestock feed, in the brewing industry and for making barley coffee. But there are countries, for example Tibet, where barley is the main grain plant, since other grains do not ripen there: of all grains, barley is the fastest ripening plant.

Cereals, the grain of which is used not for flour or for baking bread, but for making porridge, are called cereals. Millet is the most important cereal grain in the Soviet Union. Cultivated millet is divided according to the shape of the panicle into three main groups: spreading - with long branches and a loose panicle structure, drooping - with long branches and tightly adjacent to each other, and compact - with short branches, very tightly adjacent to each other. Millet grains are covered with films and after they are dehulled (cleaned), food millet is obtained.

Among all cereals, millet is the most drought-resistant crop. Therefore, in the USSR it is most often sown in the southeastern regions of the country. With good care, millet yields reach 60 centners per hectare or more.

Millet produces the highest yields when sown over a layer of virgin soil or sown perennial grasses. Therefore, in farming practice, millet is considered a layer crop. Millet can also be cultivated on soft soils, but they must be free of weeds. Millet seedlings develop very slowly and therefore become heavily clogged with weeds on clogged soils. In addition to virgin soil and sown perennial grasses, row crops are a good predecessor for millet: potatoes and sugar beets. In turn, millet is considered a good predecessor for spring wheat, barley and oats. Millet is very responsive to phosphorus fertilizers.

The best sowing method is wide-row, since millet is a light-loving plant. The seed sowing rate for conventional row sowing is 20-25 kg per hectare, and for wide-row sowing it is half as much; the adaptability of the variety to soil and climatic conditions is also of great importance. Therefore, sowing with varietal and zoned seeds is a mandatory agrotechnical measure. In the USSR, millet sown areas are concentrated in the Kazakh SSR, the Volga region and the Central Black Earth zone. Millet ripens unevenly and falls off easily. Controlling grain losses during millet harvesting is of paramount importance.

For half the world's population, the main food is rice. Rice has the same importance as bread in Japan, China, India, Indonesia, Burma, and Vietnam. It began to be cultivated a very long time ago. In Southeast Asia, rice was known as a cultivated plant already 4-5 thousand years ago. Rice is grown in fields that are flooded with water. But rice is not a swamp plant, 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 gentle mountain slopes. Monsoons brought heavy rainfall to these mountains. But since the monsoons are a seasonal phenomenon, with such farming it was possible to harvest only one crop per year. To prevent rainfall from sweeping away the earth from the mountain slopes, stone and earthen ramparts began to be erected around the rice crops. This is how terraces were formed, and the water of monsoon showers lingered on them. For cultivated rice, such abundant moisture turned out to be beneficial. It began to produce large harvests, two or three harvests a year. In terms of productivity, irrigated rice surpasses even millet. Gradually, rice culture descended from the mountains into 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 beneficial activity of microorganisms in the soil fades. Therefore, it is better to use shortened flooding: after sowing, 3-4 waterings are carried out, and when the rice reaches waxy ripeness, the water is discharged from the field.

There are now more than 10 thousand varieties of cultivated rice. Soviet breeders developed varieties suitable for our climate. In our country, rice is cultivated in Central Asia, in the Krasnodar Territory, in the south of Ukraine and in the Moldavian SSR. Rice grain is high in nutrients. About 75% of it consists of carbohydrates. Rice straw is a valuable raw material. Thin and durable paper, ropes, ropes, baskets, and hats are made from it.

If you create the best conditions for rice to grow and develop, you can reap an exceptionally high harvest. Until 1958, the largest rice yield was considered to be 170 quintals per hectare. Since 1958, in the People's Republic of China, experimental plots began to produce yields of over 1000 centners per hectare.

Our Chinese friends received such fabulous harvests as a result of thickening the crops, deep tillage and abundant application of mineral and organic fertilizers. Rice culture in China is a transplant crop. Previously, there were about a million rice plants per hectare of crops there; on a hectare of experimental plots there are tens of times more of them - due to transplantation from other plots. With such a sowing density, there is almost no free space between plants. Rice in a thickened area is just ripening on the root, and the area of other areas is freed up for 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, ground bones, leaves of bast crops, and chemical fertilizers.

But our Chinese friends receive high rice yields not only from experimental plots. 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 the cereal grain. Buckwheat is used to prepare cereals. Therefore, we consider buckwheat in the same section with cereals, although it belongs to the buckwheat family.

Buckwheat- an annual herbaceous plant with a strongly branched, 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 the size of sown areas and gross grain harvest belongs to the Soviet Union.

Buckwheat has 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.

Buckwheat is the most important honey plant, but the honey it produces is dark. Buckwheat flowering begins from the lower inflorescences, moves to the upper ones and extends in time until harvesting, so the period of honey collection from buckwheat crops is quite long. Buckwheat also ripens unevenly, and ripe grains may fall off. Therefore, buckwheat harvesting usually begins when two-thirds of the grains on the plant have reached full ripeness.

Buckwheat is an early ripening crop. From its germination to ripening it takes from 65 to 80 days. In the southern regions of the USSR, if there is a sufficient amount of precipitation in the second half of summer, with good agricultural technology it can produce high yields even in stubble sowing, that is, in sowing after harvesting.

When sowing in spring, winter rye, wheat, potatoes, beets, and flax will be good predecessors 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, it is advisable to apply less superphosphate to buckwheat, but cheaper phosphate rock (see 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 strong growth of green mass in buckwheat to the detriment of grain formation. If you add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to the soil, the yield of buckwheat increases sharply.

Buckwheat harvests have been low and unstable in the past. Currently, the leading collective farms of Ukraine, Tula, Moscow, Gorky and other regions receive buckwheat yields of 15-25 and even 30 centners per hectare.

The ancestor of modern cultivated rye is the weedy field rye (Secale segetale) of South-West Asia (most likely the north-western part of Iran, the north-eastern part of Turkey and the southern Transcaucasia), which has been infesting local wheat and barley crops since time immemorial.

Cultivated rye evolved from field weeds as a result of the latter's competition with wheat when they grew together in the extreme conditions of the mountain regime. Perhaps field rye, being a weed, accompanied the crops of wheat and, to a lesser extent, barley from the very moment these plants were introduced into cultivation; in any case, the first finds of rye are found only as an admixture in wheat and barley grains. But historical and archaeological data indicate that rye appeared much later than wheat - only in the Bronze Age, which for most countries of Europe, Asia Minor and Asia Minor covers 2 thousand BC. e. Finds of rye grains were also noted on monuments of the Scythian period (IX–III centuries BC).

Movement of rye from the hearths ancient agriculture to the territory of present-day Russia and Western Europe occurred, according to scientists, through the Caucasus. With the advancement of integrated farming and agriculture as its integral part further and further north, the advantages of rye as a more winter-hardy, more hardy and unpretentious plant were discovered more and more clearly. Man moved wheat crops to the north, contaminated with weedy rye, but the wheat fell out in harsh conditions, and the rye brought harvests. The northern farmer relied on natural selection. Rye, put forward not so much by artificial as by natural selection, serves as an example of the origin of a cultivated plant from a companion weed.

Why did rye, accompanying wheat in the crops, gain an advantage over it in the north? Rye, like wheat, is a plant of southern origin, but over a number of millennia it has become much more frost-resistant than wheat. The fact is that wheat is a self-pollinating plant, it self-fertilizes, and the frost resistance genes that arose in individual plants could not be combined into blocks of such genes during reproduction; Rye is a cross-pollinated plant and, due to cross-pollination, can form blocks of frost-resistant genes.

As for the beginning of the cultivation of rye itself, the time of its introduction into culture, then in the forest belt of Eastern Europe, according to archaeological data, it dates back to the early Iron Age (900 BC - beginning of AD) At this time here They grew four types of wheat, barley, millet, rye, oats, beans, peas, field peas, flax and hemp. Moreover, the most common crops were soft wheat, barley and millet; rye and oats were grown in very small quantities. The above composition of crops suggests that until the turn of our era, only spring farming was carried out here and, most likely, almost exclusively on cuttings. [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

The earliest written evidence of the cultivation of rye in Europe is found in chronicles of the 1st century. n. e., and the first information about the cultivation of this crop in Ancient Rus' is in the chronicles of 1056–1115. It is obvious that rye was known in Rus' earlier, but more ancient significant written monuments have not survived to this day (with the exception of birch bark letters with short messages).

For example, in Zaonezhye, on the islands of Kizhi and Volkostrov, the beginning of shifting agriculture and the cultivation of rye, barley, oats and wheat took place around 900, as established by paleobotanical research.

Over time, the ratio of crops grown in the forest belt of Rus' changed greatly. The land use system developed, the climate changed, becoming colder and wetter. For 1 thousand. e. in agriculture, the role of rye and oats has increased significantly: rye becomes the main bread of the population, oats are already a common find in Russian settlements, along with wheat and barley. By the 13th century. millet crops are significantly reduced. All these changes indicate the formation and development of two-field and three-field farming systems with the obligatory allocation of winter, spring and fallow fields. In addition, the predominance of the pair “winter rye - spring crops” and the presence of an admixture of seeds of characteristic field weeds also indicate a transition in the southern part of the forest belt from the slash-and-burn system to the fallow system.

In the north of the forest belt, winter rye was usually sown both in clearings and in fields, until the twentieth century; there, the predominance of rye over wheat, in our opinion, was due to the established severity of the climate. Winter rye was also intended to insure spring crops (mainly oats) that were more susceptible to negative natural influences; We can also talk about mutual insurance in a pair of winter and spring crops: often in a year of poor harvest, spring crops will give birth well and vice versa - that is, the farmer is still not left without bread. In the event of the death of winter crops (usually damping off or freezing), he has the opportunity in the spring to replant the devastated winter field with spring crops.

The predominance of rye over barley, it seems, reflected the formed taste preferences of the northern population: they clearly preferred rye bread to barley bread. In addition, peasant Rus' fasted, and fasting days accounted for more than half of the Orthodox year; people, in whose diet Lenten food occupied so much time and place, apparently chose rye bread for a reason. As scientists established, already in the twentieth century, “the content of complete proteins, high calorie content, as well as the presence of vitamins (A and B) make rye bread especially valuable when the body does not receive an insufficient amount of meat products.”

In the very north of the agricultural zone, rye replaced barley, which, as a spring cereal with the shortest growing season, is capable of ripening even at the polar border of agriculture, where rye cannot withstand harsh climatic conditions.

By the end of the nineteenth century. rye in the forest belt of Russia acquired even greater importance: from 30 to 60% of the total sown area was allocated for it, while wheat occupied less than 1%. In the Olonets province, the ratio of the areas sown with grain in 1881 was as follows: 44.53% of the sown land was occupied by rye, 41.97% by oats, 13.18% by barley, 0.32% by wheat, buckwheat was sown on only 24 dessiatines (1 dessiatine is equal to 1.0925 hectares). In the Velikogubskaya volost (which included Kizhi villages), crops were sown at the beginning of the 20th century. were in the following ratio: rye - 50.2%, oats - 45.5%, barley - 4.3% of the total crop area. As you can see, the share of barley here is even less than the average for the province; the rest of the crops were apparently sown in small quantities. Rye was the bread of men; oats were mainly used to feed horses. [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

In the middle of the twentieth century. the most common grain crops in the forest belt were still rye, oats and barley. This is a brief history of the appearance of rye in Eurasia and its existence in Russia, mainly in its forest part. The current position of rye in world agriculture is as follows: in 2000, at the turn of 2 and 3 thousand, in terms of sown area and gross grain harvest, winter rye occupied 6–7 place among grain crops, inferior to wheat, rice, barley, corn, millet and oats, and provided only 1–1.2% of world grain production. Russia remained and remains the largest “rye power” in the world; in 2000 it produced 26.5% of the world's gross rye grain harvest. At the same time, here, as throughout the world, there is a tendency to annually reduce the sown area allocated to rye.

But the situation in the “rye business” in Russia cannot be called cloudless: the downward trend at the turn of the century turned into a catastrophic decline - from 1981 to 2010. Our area under rye has decreased by 81.9%! The decline stopped only in 2012, when there was a slight, but still increase in the sown area. If earlier Russia could rely on the significant size of its winter wedge, then in modern conditions it has lost this factor of food security. In recent years, there has been a reduction in the production and consumption of rye bread...

As you can see, rye was and is grown in many countries on different continents of the Earth. But only non-black earth Russia of the past, from about the 13th century. to the middle of the twentieth century, can rightfully be called the undivided “kingdom of rye.” So, in the 70s of the nineteenth century. rye was the leading crop in 40 of the 50 provinces of European Russia; moreover, it was cultivated mainly for domestic consumption and was the main cereal of the country. It is interesting that the capital of this “kingdom of black bread” in the 19th century. was Moscow, because in the Moscow province, as of 1881, less wheat was sown than in any other province of European Russia - only 12 acres, accounting for 0.003% of the total sown area, while rye there occupied 55.6% of crops! In this sense, Moscow was truly the people's capital.

The domains of the light-golden queen of the fields in Russia stretched from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean; from Voronezh and Lipetsk, located approximately at latitude 52 degrees, to 69 degrees north latitude in Europe; well, in Siberia they occupied the vast majority of forested arable land, rising north to 64 degrees latitude along the Lena, Vilyuya and Aldan rivers with their tributaries.

Yes, now many, many of our fields are overgrown with weeds and even forest - the gold leaf queen has given up her centuries-old positions. You need to have a fair amount of imagination to imagine your native lands as they were back in the first third of the 20th century. It takes a lot of effort to learn and understand correctly in order for our ancient “rye culture,” which was once and largely unknown even to older Russians, to be resurrected in the soul.

The author came to understand the concept of “rye culture” or even “rye civilization” by living his life on northern soil and growing bread in the exhibition fields of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve, talking with northern farmers, learning from books [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

about the past of the Russian North, finally remembering his grandfather Kuzma Nikitich and his work on the land. Grandfather's house in the Tver province was surrounded on all sides by fields, and each field for us, grandchildren, was like a sea, and most of all among them there were seas of Mother Rye. The seas of rye hid the birds, the hares and foxes, us, and even the cows, if the shepherds didn’t notice - she was tall, boundless...

In fact, if they talk about the “wheat culture” of Ancient Egypt and other ancient civilizations - the “maize culture” of the Mayan tribes, the “barley culture” of the peoples of the British Isles, the “rice culture” of China and Japan - then the cultures of the majority of the agricultural peoples of European Russia can be unite with the word “rye” - both by the similarity of the role of rye in them, and by the similarity of the economic, ideological and behavioral ways of northern farmers. It seems to me that “rye culture” can be understood as common to them, supranational.

Rye bread made from wholemeal flour with natural sourdough ("sour" - in Zaonezhsky) was for the Russian people not only a food product, but also a constant powerful preventative against obesity, heart, nervous and cancer diseases. Natural rye bread, being the basis healthy eating, since ancient times, has protected offspring, and, consequently, public health.

It is interesting that the ideas about mother rye of the faithful sons of the Russian “rye kingdom” are directly opposite to the opinions about her of the peoples of the more southern “wheat crops”, who considered rye a malicious weed in the crops of their “queen” - wheat, and rye flour - a harmful impurity in wheat flour . Indicative in this regard is the opinion of the famous Roman writer Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), who wrote about the rye grown at the foot of the Alps, the following: “This is the worst bread and is eaten only when hungry. This plant is productive... remarkable for its heaviness. Spelled (an ancient type of wheat) is added to it to soften its bitterness, but even in this form the stomach has difficulty tolerating it. It grows on any soil and serves as a fertilizer itself.” [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

The names of rye in Persian, Arabic, Afghan, Sart and Turkish indicate that the farmer of South-West Asia has known this plant since ancient times only as a weed in wheat and barley crops. In Persian, rye is called “dzhou-dar”, or “chow-dar” - “grass that contaminates barley”; rye is also called in Turkestan, India, Arabia and Asia Minor. In Afghanistan it is called “gandum-dar” - “grass that infests wheat.” Since ancient times, southern farmers have struggled with rye, strongly preferring wheat to it, even when rye was superior to wheat in yield. It was customary for them to treat rye bread with disdain; In general, this attitude of southerners toward rye continues to this day.

Currently, Western countries and those following in their wake - the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand - consume almost exclusively wheat bread, and Western European countries are also striving to get closer to them in this regard. We can say that the dominance of wheat bread is now one of the signs of globalization in the Western style, it affects even the original “rice states”. But still, in the West there are reasonable forces opposing the dictates of commercial civilization: for example, in Germany, Poland and the Scandinavian countries, rye products are included in the group of healthy and dietary nutrition; in Finland, the state is implementing the “Rye” program, aimed at improving the health of the country’s population.

But we will continue our detailed story about our favorite black bread and mother rye. What is it like, rye, which united many northern peoples and played such a significant role in their fate? Let's now look at this wonderful cultivated plant with our eyes, armed with the knowledge of paleobotany, systematics and other plant sciences.

So, where did mother rye come from? The origin of the plant of the rye genus dates back to the middle and upper Tertiary periods of the Cenozoic era, i.e. it appeared approximately 55.8–23.03 million years ago. At this time, cereals arose on earth, to which rye belongs. According to the accepted taxonomy of plants, our field rye belongs to the family Poaceae (cereals), the tribe (tribe) Hordeae (barley), the genus Secale (rye), and has the specific name Secale cereale (rye), given by the founder of plant taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus. In fact, already in the twentieth century. it was found that rye (Secale cereale) originated from field rye (Secale segetale) and is actually its subspecies; but it is impossible to change the species name in favor of field rye, since Secale cereale is a memorial Linnaean species. [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

Within the type of rye, at the end of the 19th century, Körnike identified 5 varieties; later V.D. Kobylyansky also identified five subspecies. N.I. Vavilov, having done a lot of work, established 18 varieties of cultivated rye; at the same time, V.I. and V.F. Antropov described 40 of its varieties. Note that, as a rule, several forms of rye are always found on one field at once, for example forms with light yellow, green and brown grain; plants also usually differ in the degree of development of awns (pointed processes of spikelet scales), the degree of pubescence of the stem, the length of the ears, the openness of the grains and other characteristics.

The main region of origin of the genus Secale, as already indicated, is considered to be Transcaucasia with adjacent Northwestern Iran and Asia Minor. Most of the established wild species that have survived here to this day are concentrated in these places. [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

Rye is an annual, less often biennial or perennial herbaceous plant, usually bushy at the base, having a fibrous (in appearance similar to an “inverted bush”) root system, and this system is the most powerful among all cereals. The roots of our rye penetrate up to 2 m deep and spread widely to the sides. Under the most favorable growing conditions, one rye plant can form 14 million roots (taking into account four orders of branching) with a total length of 600 km and a total surface area of 225 square meters. m! Some sources claim that in terms of the total length of the roots of one plant, rye is superior among all herbaceous plants in the world, and they include it in the list of record holders of the plant world with a result of more than 619 km. The weight of the roots of winter rye per 1 hectare (10,000 sq. m) is 5900 kg, while, for example, that of winter wheat is 3900 kg. It is not surprising that with such a great support in the ground, rye sometimes reaches a three-meter ground height.

Why do we talk in such detail and colorfully about the root system of rye? Because Mother Rye - tall, stately, golden, firmly standing on her native land, her roots firmly and inextricably rooted in her, has become a symbol of Russia, its vitality, beauty and kindness; played a significant role not only in the economic and everyday life of the population, but also in the formation of its aesthetic and even ethical preferences and ideals. Actually, just like in the world, she is a good mother for good children. And the basis of her appearance and beauty are amazing rye roots.

The rye stem is a hollow straw consisting of 3–7 internodes, “knees,” connected by nodes. The color of the stem and leaves of growing rye is green, with a bluish tint due to a waxy coating. As it matures, the bluish-green color of the field changes successively to gray-green, yellowish-gray and finally becomes light gold. Scientists call a rye ear an inflorescence “a complex ear of an unfinished type” (it does not have an apical spikelet). The spike consists of two-flowered (less often three-flowered) spikelets attached to the spike shaft one above the other. Each fruiting stem forms one ear. Ripe ears of our Kizhi rye are whitish or straw-yellow in color. [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

The fruit of rye is an oblong or oval-shaped grain, laterally compressed, with a longitudinal groove running along the entire body, and fluffy or bare at the top.

Rye is wind pollinated and is mainly a cross-pollinated plant (although in the north of Russia and in the Republic of Buryatia self-pollinating forms of rye have developed, guaranteeing grain production in unfavorable weather during flowering); Like all wind-pollinated plants, during flowering it releases a very large amount of pollen (up to 60 thousand pollen grains in one flower), so that in calm, dry weather a real pollen cloud hovers over the rye fields. Rye usually cannot self-pollinate (self-pollinating plants make up no more than 6% of the total) and, thinned out in a lean year, rye, deprived of fertilization by pollen of neighboring plants, suffers from through-grain (ears with half-empty spikelets appear) or complete infertility.

In Russia, almost exclusively winter forms of seed rye have always been grown (and currently winter rye makes up 99.8% of rye crops in the Russian Federation); spring rye - yaritsa - has long been cultivated only in certain areas, for example in Ukraine, on light soils of the Non-Black Earth Region, in Altai and in the Minusinsk Basin, as well as in those areas of Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia where winter rye freezes out. And winter, as you know, are the forms of cereals that do not spike in the summer when sown in the spring, i.e., they require a whole year to fully develop. [text from the website of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve: http://site]

With a thoughtful consideration of rye - its life cycle and growth characteristics - it seems to me that we can learn for ourselves, following our great-grandfathers, the following life lessons and guidelines.