Vetch is a plant from the family of legumes. Description, properties, cultivation

Many legumes have long been the favorite plants on the site. They not only give a delicious harvest, but also, as is known, enrich the soil with nitrogen with the help of special nodule bacteria on the roots. However, few people know the botanical name. They belong to the numerous genera of flowering plants - Vic. The plant (photo, seeds, we consider in the article) is known as mouse peas - vetch sowing, beans - vetch fava. In addition, there are many other representatives, widely used as food and fodder crops.

The Vick's genus (peas)

The genus contains about 140 species of plants, home to which are South America, Europe and North Africa. In natural conditions peas grow in floodplains of rivers, in flood meadows and fringes, in steppes. The main mass is perennial plants, less often annuals. The stem is most often climbing, sometimes erect. Leaves parnoperistye. Flowers are single characteristic species: the calyx has a short tube and teeth, a flag with a not very pronounced nail, a dull boat, wings with a plate.

Botanical description: sowing vetch

A plant whose description is familiar to many, perhaps. It is also called "pea seed". This is an annual or biennial plant in height from 20 to 80 cm. The stem can be erect or ascending, bordered, lowered or bare, with or without branching. The characteristic parroperty leaves at the end have antennae, with which peas clings to the support. Flowers are almost sessile, paired or solitary. Fruit is a bean, cylindrical or slightly flattened to 6 cm in length.

However, the plant should not be confused with a very similar, but still different species - planting peas. This is the most common and famous representative of the kind mentioned. A variety of varietal forms are distinguished, differing in taste and size of seeds, maturation terms. All of them are grouped into three groups: shelling, sugar and cereal peas.

Seed propagation

Vika is a plant whose name in Latin sounds like Vicia sativa. It is widely distributed in the European part of Russia, Western Siberia, the mountainous zone of the Caucasus and the Crimea, on the Kamchatka peninsula. You can meet as a weed in the fields, less often along the roadside, in garbage places, deposits. Development and growth best occurs in the "company" with other herbs that support its creeping stem. The natural appearance is rather cold and resistant to -6 ° C. Vetch - a plant hygrophilous, especially during the formation of buds and flowering, otherwise unpretentious and undemanding to environmental conditions.

Use as a fertilizer

Vetch sowing is a wonderful siderat, known to mankind since ancient times. The main way to use it in this format is clean sowing and subsequent instillation of green mass into the soil. By the level of action, this fertilizer is compared with manure, the positive effect lasts for 4-5 years. In about three months the vetch sowing accumulates up to 30 kg of biomass per 10 m ² , in which a high content of nitrogen (160 g), potassium (200 g) and phosphorus (75 g) is observed.

Sowing and grooming

Peas planting (vetch) - the plant as a whole unpretentious, but its cultivation has some features. Peas can grow in both light and heavy soils, but the pH prefers neutral. If the soil is acidic, there is a depression of nodule bacteria on the roots, they will be small and poorly fixing atmospheric nitrogen or may be absent altogether.

The sowing is carried out in rows, the width between them should be 15-20 cm, between the seeds - 5 cm. The depth of the closure depends on the structure of the soil: on the lungs - 7 cm, on the heavy - 5 cm. In dry weather, it is recommended to soil the soil after sowing, if It is moist, then do not do this. Care for the siderata is extremely simple and consists in the timely weeding and loosening of the crust after rain and watering. Vika is a plant of a long day of light, moisture-loving, but not carrying water stagnation.

It is recommended to use trellis to prevent lodging of stems with a single landing. Sometimes the plant is sown together with corn, sunflower, in which case the latter act as a support.

Terms of sowing

You can sow polka dots in two ways.

Early spring as a precursor of later crops, for example cabbage. After the growth of the green mass, it is buried before the onset of flowering into the soil.

Early autumn or in the second half of summer, after growing and harvesting early crops. In this case, the plant must be buried in the soil before the onset of frost.

Orientation is necessary for the climatic conditions of the region.

Use as feed

A sowing wick is a plant whose useful properties are not limited to using as a siderata. Its composition, calculated on dried material, includes up to 20% of vegetable protein, a small amount of fiber and dietary fiber. In fresh form, the leaves contain lysine, beta-carotene, some fat and water. All these characteristics allow the plant to be used as a full-value feed for animals. Used green mass, hay, haylage, grass meal, silage, crushed grain and grain flour. For these purposes peas are cultivated, as a rule, with oats or barley, less often with wheat, for silage, add sunflower, corn, rye.

In addition, the vetch is a plant (photo is presented in the article), which is an excellent medon. This fact makes it especially valuable for beekeeping. A plentiful flowering lasts for about a month approximately from the beginning to the middle of June. The index of honey production is most high in a wiry shaggy (winter) - 140-200 kg per hectare planting, in sowing it is much less - 20 kg / ha, for beans a little more - 20-40 kg / ha. This fact allows you to use plants to attract bees to your site. So, the vetch sowing, having good decorative qualities, can be planted in the garden or in the garden. It will attract insect pollinators, and pests, on the contrary, will scare away. The plant is an excellent neighbor for crops that love nitrogen: tomatoes, sweet peppers, lettuce, aubergines, carrots. It blends well with fruit trees and shrubs.