Serradella

Economic importance

Serradella is often called the clover of sandy soils, because with sufficient moisture it can produce high yields of green matter and hay on light sandy and sandy loam soils.

In crop rotations it serves as an excellent preceding crop for cereals and potatoes. Due to its nitrogen fixation ability, it accumulates nitrogen in the soil.

Protein content averages 15.2% of dry matter.

It tolerates grazing well. It regrows quickly after grazing and mowing.

It is a honey plant.

On poor soils it serves as a good green manure.

Cultivation areas

It is cultivated in the western regions of Russia, the southern and central regions of the Non-Chernozem Zone, Bryansk, Smolensk, and Oryol oblasts, as well as in Belarus and Ukrainian Polesie.

Botanical description

Serradella (Ornithopus sativus Broth.).

The root system is powerful, with well-developed lateral roots. At the beginning of the growing season, the roots grow deeper by up to 7.5 cm per day. They penetrate the soil to a depth of 125 cm. It has a high uptake capacity.

One plant forms 5–16 trailing stems. The stems are thin, soft, branching, 50–70 cm tall, and do not become coarse until autumn. Leafiness is high.

The leaves are odd-pinnate, with 6–10 pairs of lanceolate leaflets.

The inflorescence is a raceme. The flowers are small, pale pink or pink, borne in a raceme.

The fruit is a jointed pod, up to 3 cm long. The pods of one inflorescence resemble a bird's foot, so serradella is sometimes also called bird's-foot. The pod contains 5–6 small, angular, flattened seeds, light brown or greenish in color. The pods break up into segments, which are used as seeds.

Biological characteristics

Growing season

During the first 40–45 days, serradella development is slow. From the onset of flowering, intensive stem growth begins. In wet weather, flowering can continue until late autumn.

It begins to regrow quickly after the cover crop is harvested.

Pods and seeds ripen unevenly 105–110 days after sowing. Often the lower pods ripen while flowers at the top of the stem are just opening.

Cultivation technology

Serradella is grown in fallow as a fallow-occupying crop, or undersown under winter or spring grain crops.

Fertilization

It responds to the application of phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, as well as boron micronutrient fertilizers.

On sandy soils, the application of potassium fertilizers increases hay yield by 24–34%; together with phosphorus fertilizers, by 53%.

Sowing

Usually sown in spring under a cover crop of winter or spring grain crops, or as a stubble crop after harvest.

The seeding rate when grown for hay or green fodder is 40–60 kg/ha.

Sowing dates, especially for seed production, are the earliest possible.

The sowing method for fodder use is row sowing.

Sowing depth is 2–3 cm.

Before sowing, seed treatment with bacterial preparations is recommended.

Harvesting

Hay harvesting begins at the full flowering phase, when green pods form on the lower tiers of the plants.

Seed production

The seeding rate for seed production is 10–15 kg/ha (according to other recommendations, 20–30 kg/ha). The sowing method is wide-row with 25–30 cm row spacing. On fields free of weeds, ordinary row sowing can be used.

Harvesting of seed crops begins when the lower pods turn brown. By this time, the pods of the middle tiers have filled well and are not translucent to light. Mowing is carried out with a mower in the morning or evening hours to reduce seed losses. Delayed harvesting causes the highest-quality seeds to shatter. A 10-day delay reduces the yield by 27–30%. Threshing of the mass dried in windrows is carried out with a combine harvester.

Varieties

Novozybkovskaya 50.

Skorospelaya 3587.

Novozybkovskaya 8.

Sources

1. Vavilov P. P., Gritsenko V. V., Kuznetsov V. S., et al. (1986). Plant Production. Ed. by Vavilov P. P. 5th ed., revised and enlarged. Moscow: Agropromizdat.
2. Niklyaev V. S. (2000). Fundamentals of Agricultural Production Technology. Agriculture and Crop Production. Moscow: Bylina.
3. S_13