fodder plant orchard is upland ryhlokustovym perennial grass with rough lamina average width of the veins and jagged edges.The inflorescence appears as a double-sided paddle whisk, and 3-6-flowered spikes with scales ending ostevidnymi pointed, crowded at the tips of branches.
Cocksfoot - a perennial herb
Cocksfoot is a herbaceous plant.Herbaceous plants - is higher plants with stems and leaves, which die off at the end of the growing season.Herbs are annual, biennial and perennial.In this life form no part of the perennial woody ground, able to survive adverse seasons.
perennial herbaceous plants have subterranean shoots there for several years, and every year the aerial change.Annual grasses die completely at the end of the growing season or at the end of flowering and fruiting, but the next year again from the seeds grow.For one season annuals manage to pass their entire life cycle, during which they grow from seed, bloom, bear fruit and then die.
Hedgehog - is a perennial plant.In the stems of perennials die back too at the end of the growing season, but the underground part of the plant survives and there are several seasons.Development of a new stem is derived from the remaining living tissues that are below ground (roots, underground stems) and earth (caudex - thickened portion of the stem, which is located at ground level).
Features growing
Cocksfoot (picture shown below) is well tolerated snowy winters, but in the absence of snow cover - izrezhivaetsya.The plant can also be greatly hurt late spring frosts.
Low hardiness urchins because the tillering node her lies relatively shallow from the surface of the soil.Like many perennial grasses, this grass is bad enough reacts to the flooding and excess soil moisture and can not withstand more than two weeks stay in the hollow waters and heavy transports high location of groundwater.Cocksfoot is considered to be drought-resistant crops, but the paradox is that in the arid conditions of its harvest drops sharply.
Reproduction
When winter type of development in the year of sowing plants urchins to autumn forming a plurality of vegetative shoots.The basic amount of generative stalks fully formed in the second year of the shoots, appeared in the summer-autumn period after vernalization.Blossoms in the early morning hours, but there are some varieties, blooming in the afternoon and evening.It begins to blossom orchard from the middle or upper part of the panicle, and then spread throughout the flowers buds.Duration of flowering an average of 8 days.Plant blooms in June and seed ripening occurs in mid-July.The seeds are characterized by a three-sided, elongated, tapered shape and gray.
Growing
Cocksfoot is used to create pastures and hayfields, as well as in fodder crop rotations on dry meadows, mineral soils, drained marshes, forest steppe and steppe zones.This plant is an essential component of meadow grass stands almost all regions.The only exceptions are the Southern Crimea, Buryatia, Far East, Yakutia and the Arctic.Hedgehog successfully grown in irrigated areas of Transcaucasia and Central Asia, together with sainfoin and alfalfa.It grows well in clay and loamy soils rich in humus and the necessary amount of moisture provided, as well as cultivated peatlands.Very moist peat and dry sandy soil brings bad.It is best to plant growing in soil with weak acid reaction.
Yields
Under favorable conditions, this herb has good yield and has excellent food quality.If mowing is done in the early stages (before vykolashivaniya), it is obtained from a highly livestock feed.At a later mowing nutritious urchins sharply reduced, ie. A. Protein content decreases, and the fiber content increases.The maximum number of crude protein is present in the plant at tillering phase (23%).When begins earing, protein level drops to 10.4%, and the fiber - is increased to 30.9%.Hedgehog is able to generate more than 2-3 silage cuts and provides forage earlier than winter rye.When used on pasture plant normally grows at nitrogen fertilizing and satisfactorily tolerate trampling by cattle.
in mixtures hedgehog holds 8-10 years, and if it is sown in pure form, the good harvests of seeds or hay can be expected in the following year.Full development of the plant reaches a third year.
