Garden red quinoa, sid, Highlander Weirich and sunflower - growing for food
GROWING FEED CROPS EVEN ON A SMALL SITE - WHAT TO PLANT?
I want to give advice to all owners of small farmsteads who have poultry and livestock: do not be too lazy and start growing fodder crops for your own needs. It is enough to allocate a couple of hundred hectares of land for this, and you will be provided with green fodder from early spring to late autumn.
The choice of forage crops is currently quite wide. For several years I managed to try many plants - both traditional and new for our region. I want to recommend the most, in my opinion, fruitful and problem-free.
Garden quinoa red - one of the very first vitamin feeds. The plant is not only useful, but also very beautiful. Shoots appear in early spring, the growing leaves have a rich beetroot color, and in the fall the plant turns purple, and panicles with raspberry seeds appear on it. Seeds in our climate ripen well.
The leaves of the quinoa contain a large amount of protein, are perfectly eaten by animals, and at the same time they have a good effect on the increase in weight gain and milk yield. By the way, we also love to feast on them. Often add to salads or soups (they taste like spinach in taste).
Red quinoa can be sown both in spring (in pre-prepared grooves) and in autumn. Autumn sowing is more to my liking, as seedlings appear almost immediately after the snow melts. Plants together grow and reach a height of up to 2 m. I use a sowing scheme of 50 × 50 cm. I have a sunny place under the quinoa, the land is rich in humus. This culture does not require any special care, only in a dry summer you have to water it more often, since quinoa loves moisture.
Immediately after the snow melts, it grows and tall sida. Despite the fact that this plant comes from North America, in our area it feels great. Bushes reach 3 m, and from one hundredth you can get almost 1,5 tons of green mass (for a season, seed can be mowed 2-3 times). At the same time, the plant gives greens almost until the snow. Sid does not need watering even in drought, since its roots go far deeper into the soil and extract moisture from there.
Seeds (and they are very small) I usually sow in the autumn; since spring sowing requires stratification. The sowing depth is about 0,5 cm, the distance between the rows is 60-70 cm. In one place, the seed can grow for at least 10 years. During the season, it is very important to mow it in time, since the stems quickly become dense.
Highlander Weirich also differs considerable growth. True, in the first year the plant has only one stem and its height is about 1 m. But over time (and the mountaineer grows in one place without reseeding up to 12-15 years) the number of stems increases to 10 and their height reaches more than 2 m.
I sow this plant in the same way as I sit, and they are similar in yield. But the highlander tolerates a light shadow well, can grow on inconveniences and builds up green mass better with sufficient soil moisture. The plant is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals.
Sunflower topins obtained by crossing Jerusalem artichoke and sunflower. An excellent fodder culture, however, she still needs a little special care. But it’s worth it, because as a result, “tops and roots” are used. Thus, planting a sunflower topsnik, you get, as it were, two crops in one season.
You can plant tubers both in spring and autumn. I prefer spring planting. The plant is undemanding to the soil. Approximately 8 kg of tubers are used per one hundredth, they do not need preliminary germination, the depth of embedding is about 10-12 cm. Shoots appear after 3-4 weeks. But before their appearance and already on them it is advisable to harrow planting, hold a couple of weeds. Sometimes, if the weather is dry, you have to take on a watering can.
In spring and early summer, the plant develops slowly, but in the second half of summer and autumn, growth is already more intense. On average, plants reach 2 m, grows more green mass than Jerusalem artichoke, and it has a higher content of nutrients for cattle, there are also baskets with small seeds.
You can clean the sunflower in spring and autumn. I mow the aerial part at a height of at least 20 cm. Such a high cut is needed in order to get good tubers that can be harvested in a couple of weeks (or better - in a month) after mowing. By the way, tubers winter well under the snow, so it is advisable to leave them until spring, and they will serve as an early nutritious food.
See also: Siberian grassroot - valuable fodder plant (photo)
© Author: A. SOKOLOV Chelyabinsk Region
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