Where and how does lentil grow? Features of growing lentils. Lentil Properties

Lentil is an amazingly valuable plant from a large family of legumes. She is well known in our country, she is popular abroad. How to grow lentils, what are the characteristics of its cultivation, read in the article.

Description of the culture

Lentil is an annual herbaceous plant, whose height reaches sixty centimeters. The bush is not large in size. Its stems have a tetrahedral shape and a reddish hue. They are erect or lodging, depending on the variety. The entire length of the stems is covered with hairs of small size and medium stiffness.

Lentils have complex leaves with a parodermorous structure. The petiole at the base has an antenna, which can be branched or simple. The size and shape of stipules in different varieties of lentils differ. Short peduncles have one or more small flowers, similar in shape to moths. Most often petals are painted white, but there are blue-blue or violet-blue.

Vegetation period varies depending on the variety, weather conditions and soil. Its duration can be from two and a half months to four. Until the flowering period, which occurs at the end of May - beginning of June, is growing slowly. When the first flowers appear (six weeks after the shoots), the growth and branching of the bush are accelerated.

Characteristics of the fetus

This is a bean that ripens in one nest with two leaves. It is elongated, has a rhomboid shape and a tendency to crack when it overrides. Fruits a little, from one to three pieces. They have a round or flattened shape and small sizes, up to two centimeters in length.

Fruits come in yellow, red, green, pink, brown, gray, black, with a marble dotted or spotted pattern.

Lentils in Russia

In our country this culture was known for a long time, five hundred years ago. In those days, lentil cultivation in Russia was carried out on the Russian Plain. As a grain crop, it had a high value. Where does lentils grow in Russia? In the last century the place of its growth in our country was the black earth regions of the Volga and the Urals. Lentils grew in the North Caucasus and Ukraine.

It was called crane pea, soybean, vetch, lishta. Lentils were used for baking bread, cooking porridge and soup. It made sausage and sweets. Currently, lentils in Russia are growing in the Volga region, the Central Chernozem regions of the country, in small areas of Tatarstan, Mordovia, Chuvashia, and western regions of Siberia.

Peculiarities of growing

Bean culture will show all its best qualities while observing the following features of growing lentils:

• For the growth of the plant, the formation of fruits and the production of a high yield, an important feature should be taken into account. The conditions for growing lentils are such that it needs a lot of light for a long time to grow normally. A day of light, even at ten o'clock, will not satisfy her needs. The plant will be frail, the fruit will not ripen, the yield will go down.
• Another feature is the provision of the plant with moisture and heat from the beginning of the growing season. Later, lentils can withstand the drought.

• Seeds are able to germinate in the soil, heated to just five or six degrees of heat. This temperature is considered low.
• Where does lentil grow? The culture can not grow on compacted soils with low fertility.
• How does lentil grow? Immediately after planting, lentils grow slowly. It is very painful to tolerate the presence of weeds in the neighborhood. Therefore, during this period, the beds should be carefully weeded.
• On Roots accumulate nitrogen, which makes the soil fertile. For this reason, legumes in general, and lentils in particular, are of interest to agriculture.
• Fruits can be consumed in an immature form, they are even tastier.

The soil

Where does lentil grow? She prefers sandy loam soils or loamy loam soils. In the absence of such a soil environment, heavy soils are used, obviously counting on a low yield. If the soils are heavily acidified, lime should be added to them or plants planted in areas previously identified for corn, winter crops or potatoes. Ideal are light soils with sufficient moisture. Lentils grow poorly on soils with a high acidity and bogging index.

What fertilizers to make?

Many carry out the cultivation of lentils in the country. After choosing the site, the soil should be fertilized so that the beans grow well and yield a high yield. How does lentil grow? For normal growth in the spring before planting and autumn during digging, the soil must be fertilized to increase its fertility. Ideally suitable complex fertilizers with phosphorus and potassium content. A meter square is enough for fifty grams.

You can make other fertilizers. How does lentil grow? There will be good growth and a high yield, if during the digging of beds in autumn add superphosphate and potassium salt in the amount of 20-50 grams and 10-30, respectively. In spring, the soil is enriched with ammonium nitrate: 10-30 grams per square meter.

Seed sowing

Planting of beans begins early, because it is important that the soil retained moisture, otherwise the plants will germinate later. In the prepared soil, narrow rows are made, twenty centimeters from each other. Lentil crops are always dense. Seeds are embedded in the soil is shallow, enough three to five centimeters. They are small in size. Although there are several of them in the pod, seeds are sown separately in the soil, each ten to fifteen centimeters apart. Deep layers of soil, at the level of seeding, should warm up to a temperature of three to four degrees of heat. In order for the shoots to be friendly, the seedlings covered with soil are rolled up for closer contact with the ground.

Care

The technology of growing lentils provides many agrotechnical measures, one of which is nursing. This legume crop is an unpretentious plant. As lentils grow, it is clearly visible in the photo. She calmly tolerates drought and small frosts. But in the first six months after planting, you need to regularly (daily) water the soil to prevent it from drying out.

Moisture is needed for the growth of the whole plant, but in this period especially for the roots. When they get stronger and gain strength, watering is reduced to two or three times a week. If there are a lot of weeds on the bed, they should be weeded in row-spacing and bushes, otherwise they will drown out lentils, and it may die.

Harvest

The ripening of beans is uneven: the lower pods ripen before the upper ones. For this reason, they are collected in two stages: the first - when all the beans are ripe, except those that grow in the upper part of the stem, the second - the final harvest with full ripening of the beans throughout the plant. Fruits are of good quality - do not crack.

Many crop operators mistakenly believe that cleaning can wait. This wrong opinion. In the late harvesting period , the fruits retain their appearance, but lose their useful qualities. The green color of the beans indicates a high quality of lentils, while in overripe fruits it changes to a brownish shade.

How to germinate lentils?

This process is not complicated. First you need to give the beans a steep boiling water. This will stimulate growth. Then pour water for a period of eight to fourteen hours. After this time, the beans are washed and put on a moistened cloth. Above, they cover themselves with several layers of gauze and are placed in a dark place. It should be the warmest in the room. Every day twice, lentils are washed. Germs will germinate very quickly. When their length is one or two centimeters, you can use. Sprouted beans should be stored in the refrigerator for five days, no more.

Healing properties

Lentils have long been used for medicinal purposes. It has the following healing properties:

• Growing in any conditions, lentils are distinguished by the absence of nitrates, radionuclides and other toxic substances, it has the ability not to accumulate them.
• Its fruits contribute to strengthening the heart muscle, normalize the process of hematopoiesis.
• Regular use of dishes from lentils lowers blood sugar. It is recommended to include in the diet of people with diabetes.
• With a stomach ulcer and colitis, the patient is prescribed a special diet, which includes first and second dishes based on lentils.
• In its composition, even after treatment with high temperatures, important substances remain - isoflavones, which support women's health. They resist cancer cells of the breast, do not spread tumors.
• People who consume lentils are less susceptible to cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

Nutritive value

The food and medicinal qualities of lentils have long been appreciated in Europe, where it has spread to the eastern regions, where it is becoming increasingly popular. The nutritional value of legumes is as follows:

• Lentils are adapted to perception by the human body. It is well digested and digested. Complex proteins and carbohydrates in the composition of lentils saturate the body, hunger for a long time disappears, although a hundred grams of the product contains less than three hundred kilocalories.
• Due to the large content of proteins, which are easily digested, beans replace meat. This is especially important for nutrition with diets. A small portion of beans per day can satisfy a person's need for such a valuable substance as folic acid.
• In lentils, a little fat, a hundred grams of the product has only one gram. This amount of fat will not increase body weight, but a sense of satiety, health and beauty will provide.

• Lentil is distinguished by the content of almost all chemical elements of the periodic table, it contains vitamins of different groups. It is generally accepted that only chocolate contains serotonin. This is not true. In large quantities, the composition of lentils includes the amino acid tryptophan. In the body, it is converted into serotonin, which is called the "vitamin of happiness". And on the right: the psyche becomes more stable, the person has an exposure in stressful situations, depressive states fall by the periods.

The damage of lentils

Undoubtedly, beans have a mass of useful nutritional and healing properties. But they have drawbacks. It is necessary to refuse dishes from lentils to people suffering from such diseases as gout, uracid diathesis, disruption of the vessels and heart, joint and genitourinary system diseases, overweight.

Diseases and pests

Lentils, like many other plants, are susceptible to pest and disease. Beans are a nutrient medium for lentil grains, scoops and a meadow moth. The plant has weak immunity. He suffers from fusariosis, ascohitosis and rust.

Helpful Tips

Those who cultivate vegetables, including lentils, any good advice will do good.

• During the sowing of seeds you have to move around the bed. To not leave deep marks on the soil, you can use the boards. They are put directly to the ground. They not only protect the loose soil, but even it is trampled, providing close contact with the seeds.
• Fruits for a better germination are soaked for two days in a specially prepared solution. In a glass of water, put a few stones of silicon and insist for about two weeks.
• To collect the beans quickly cleared, the pods are dried in the sun, folded into a bag and rolled. Fruits are instantly released from the pods.

Application

Lentils are used in the food industry. Concentrates of mashed potatoes and soups are made from it. From the beans cook first dishes, porridge, prepare salads, they stew, use in combination with mint and other condiments. Especially appreciated are fruit sprouts rich in folic acid.