Koenigia Weyrichii (Polygonum weyrichii), also Highlander Weirich, is a perennial fodder crop, plants belong to the Buckwheat family.
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Economic importance
Highlander (buckwheat) Weirich grows early, allows you to get the first cut in early summer, the second – in early autumn. Green mass is used fresh and canned for harvesting silage, haylage, vitamin feed.
The green mass of the mountaineer Weirich is characterized by a high content of protein and ascorbic acid. Good for pure ensiling, but better quality silage is obtained when combined ensiling with high carbohydrate crops. 100 kg of silage contains 12-16 feed units and 1.5-2.4 kg of digestible protein. The palatability of silage, especially combined, is good for animals – up to 35 kg per day per cow.
100 kg of green mass correspond to 13.5 feed units and contain 2.4 kg of digestible protein.
In addition to the Weirich mountaineer, attempts are being made to introduce other species into the culture, for example, mountain mountaineer, tannic mountaineer, Transbaikal mountaineer, Sakhalin mountaineer, fragrant mountaineer.
Crop history
For the first time in Russia, the highlander Weirich was sown at the end of the 19th century in the Botanical Garden of St. Petersburg.
Cultivation areas
In natural phytocenoses, the Weirich mountaineer is found on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, as well as in Japan.
Promising for growing in areas of sufficient moisture in Russia, as well as Belarus, the Baltic States, Ukraine.
Yield
The yield of green mass during the growing season reaches 35-75 t/ha.
Botanical description
Koenigia Weyrichii (Polygonum weyrichii Fr. Schmidt) is a perennial plant of the Buckwheat family. The plant is a large, well leafy shrub.
The root system includes the main well-developed root (rhizome, stem-root), thickens with age and lays more overwintering buds and adventitious roots.
The stem is straight, slightly curved at the nodes, hollow, furrowed, branches weakly, height up to 150-250 cm.
The leaves are large, broadly ovate, pubescent below.
The inflorescence is a loose, branched panicle. Flowers whitish-pink or red. Cross pollination.
The fruit is a trihedral brown nut. Weight of 1000 fruits – 2.0-3.0 g.
Biological features
Highlander Weirich refers to cold-resistant and winter-hardy plants. Rhizomes are able to withstand frosts down to -35 °C (Komi Institute of Biology). The leaves are partially damaged during spring and autumn frosts at -5 … -6 °C.
Moisture-loving, but drought-resistant. Plants are most sensitive to a lack of moisture in the first year of life, especially during the emergence of seedlings and post-emergence development, when the root system is formed. With age, the sensitivity to lack of moisture decreases, plants make good use of precipitation in the autumn-winter period.
Shade-tolerant, refers to plants of a long day.
It is not picky about soils. Medium loamy and sandy loamy soils with an acidity of pH 5.5-6.0 are considered optimal (according to other sources, pH 5.5-7.0).
Plant nutrition
With 1 ton of green mass, 4-5 kg of nitrogen, 0.9-1.0 kg of phosphorus, 5-6 kg of potassium, 1.9-2.3 kg of calcium are removed from the soil.
Vegetation
Highlander Weirich is characterized by rapid growth, aftertaste, ecological plasticity and undemanding to cultivation conditions. The life span of plants is 10-15 years.
The type of development is spring.
In the first year it grows slowly, strongly oppressed by weeds. In the second and subsequent years, it begins to grow immediately after the snow melts. The largest increase in the above-ground mass gives during the period of budding – flowering.
Regrowth after mowing depends on moisture, observed after 1-2 weeks. Shoots appear from buds located on the rhizome and lower uncut stem nodes.
The maximum productivity of crops is noted for 3-4 years and is maintained in subsequent years of life.
Crop rotation
Under the perennial plantations of the mountaineer Weirich, an out-of-crop area clean of weeds is allocated near livestock farms, where seeds are sown or rhizomatous cuttings (seedlings) are planted.
Good predecessors include row and leguminous crops.
Fertilizer
According to the studies of Moscow Agricultural Academy and the Komi Institute of Biology, it is recommended to apply 60-90 t/ha of manure , 4-6 t/ha of lime and 60-90 kg/ha of a.s. to the soil for plowing. mineral fertilizers. Lime fertilizers are best applied with manure.
However, the application of organic and mineral fertilizers in terms of the planned yield in terms of the removal of nutrients with the crop, taking into account the effective soil fertility, the utilization factors of soil nutrients and fertilizer, gives greater efficiency. So, in the Moscow Agricultural Academy experiments, on average over four years, when applying the calculated norms of fertilizers for the planned yield in terms of wet weight, the yield of the mountaineer Weirich was 60.5 t/ha, in terms of dry weight – 10.5 t/ha, while with the introduction of the recommended norms ( 60 tons of manure and N60P60K60) respectively 52.4 t/ha and 9.1 t/ha; the yield on the control without fertilizers was 44.0 t/ha and 7.7 t/ha.
Tillage
With the seed method of laying a plantation, pre-sowing tillage should be more thorough, since this is a small-seeded crop that, when germinating, brings the cotyledons to the surface.
After plowing, disking and leveling of the soil are carried out. Rolling is done before sowing.
Sowing
The seeds of the Koenigia Weyrichii mountaineer are sown in late autumn before the onset of frost. When sown in spring, seedling density decreases sharply. For sowing, vegetable seeders СО-4.2 are used. The sowing method is wide-row with row spacing of 60-70 cm. The seeding rate is 6-8 kg/ha, the seed sowing depth is 1-2 cm. A square-nested sowing method is also possible.
Seeds are poorly stored, after a year they sharply reduce germination, so it is recommended to use freshly harvested seeds of the current year for sowing. When spring sowing, the seeds are subjected to stratification for 20-25 days.
Planting with seedlings is also possible, which is carried out by transplanters in early spring when the shoots grow back. The planting method is also wide-row with row spacing of 60-70 cm and a distance in rows of 40-60 cm. Seedlings are prepared on ridges, sowing seeds before winter using a vegetable seeder. At the same time, the row spacing is 20 cm, the seeding rate is 30 kg/ha. 100 m 2 of nursery is enough for laying 1 hectare of plantation.
The main advantage of the seedling method is much less concern for the cleanliness of plantings from weeds.
Crop care
Highlander Weirich develops slowly in the first year of life, so the main task in caring for crops is weed control. To do this, 2-4 inter-row treatments are performed, if necessary, herbicides are used.
In the second and subsequent years of life, in early spring and after the first harvest, inter-row cultivation is carried out using cultivators KRN-4.2. At the same time, top dressing is done with mineral fertilizers N60-90P60-90K60-90.
Periodically, after 2-3 years, rotted manure is applied to the plantations in autumn or early spring at a rate of 15-20 t/ha. After 4-5 years, surface liming of the soil is carried out.
Harvest
Harvesting of the green mass of the mountaineer Weirich in the first year of life, as a rule, is not carried out, since the yield is low, and mowing weakens the plants. The exception is the seedling sowing method, in which it is possible to get a small cut of 15-20 t/ha in the first year of the plantation life without damaging the plants for overwintering.
From the second and subsequent years of life, harvesting for green fodder and grass flour is carried out in the budding phase, for silage and haylage – in the phase of mass flowering of plants. For harvesting, forage harvesters КС-2,6А, Е-281, КСК-100, КПКУ-75 are used. The second cutting is formed by the end of August – the beginning of September.
According to the Moscow Agricultural Academy data, in the central regions of the Non-Chernozem Zone, harvesting is recommended in late June – early July. So, when harvesting in the flowering phase, the yield of raw and dry mass was, respectively: on June 20 – 71.6 t/ha and 10.5 t/ha; June 30 – 74.8 t/ha and 12.2 t/ha; July 10 – 56.5 t/ha and 12.5 t/ha. It is expedient to alternate two-cut harvesting of plantations every 2-3 years with single-cut harvesting.
Growing for seeds
Highlander Weirich is able to produce seeds in almost all regions of Russia, with the exception of the northern ones.
Ripening of fruits is strongly extended. Ordinary forage crops can be allocated for seed plants, alternating them according to the years of use for fodder or seed purposes.
Harvesting for seeds is started when 70% of the seeds in the panicle reach the phase of wax ripeness. Semi-mounted sorghum harvesters, for example, СМ-2.6, can be used to harvest seeds, which allows you to cut panicles at a height of 140-250 cm. Cut panicles are dried under a canopy, threshing is carried out on a current. The yield of seeds with this method of harvesting reaches 300 kg/ha with high sowing qualities.
After the seed collection is completed, the green above-ground mass can be harvested with forage harvesters.
Sources
Fundamentals of agricultural production technology. Agriculture and crop production. Ed. V.S. Niklyaev. – M .: “Epic”, 2000. – 555 p.