The later threshing of Soybean and Sunflowers has reduced the sowing of winter crops, which means that the area under spring crops is increased. The cost of transporting Corn do not make it economically interesting, so a reduction in their areas is predicted. The western regions are counting on an increase of Soybeanwho are southern Sunflowers, the central raise both cultures. Ukraine is the number one seller of Sunflowers and sunflower oil on the world market. The cost of transporting a ton of crop to Europe by road is between $150 and $200. Even at such prices can sunflower stay cost effective. At the same time, the increase in supply may Sunflowers negatively affect the level of domestic prices in 2023, so it is worth taking care of optimizing the cost of cultivation right now.
Sunflower as a monoculture
Monoculture is not a good solution for Sunflowers. The longer the sunflower is in the field, the lower the yield. Already in the 4-5 year of cultivation, the yield decreases by a value of 27%. However, as a temporary solution, it is possible two years in a row Sunflowers grow over sunflowers without reducing the yield. To do this, you need to diversify the growth system as much as possible, take care of high-quality feeding, increase the cost of fungicides and in favorable weather.
- The main weather criterion that allows obtaining a stable crop when growing sunflowers in a monoculture for two years in a row is a sufficient amount of rainfall in spring and summer.
- The plant requires 45 kg of nitrogen (43% of which is returned to the soil with crop residues), 14 kg of phosphorus P2O5 (return to soil — 42%) and 26 kg of potassium K2O (return to soil — 95%) to form 1 ton/hectare sunflower crop. To calculate the fertilizer rate, you need to consider the projected yield and crop residues from the previous sunflower. Sunflowers take a lot. The sunflower-by-sunflower system will require significant investment in fertilizers.
- The negative effects of growing sunflowers on sunflowers can be mitigated by providing the widest possible variety of cultivation system. Sow different genetics of sunflowers. For example Clearfield on the classic. Practice different seeding methods, e.g. B. solid and then small.
Why 70cm?
This is how it developed historically. If the horse was the only traction, would Corn and sunflowers were sown 150 cm long so that inter-row treatment and hilling could be done later and the horse would not roll over tall plants. With the advent of the first tractors, they decided to reduce the gears by half. Therefore, Europeans use row spacings of 75 cm and Americans of 76,2 cm (30 inches). In the post-Soviet expanses, 70 cm got used.
What do wheat and sunflower have in common, but is great in corn?
During photosynthesis, nutrients are formed throughout the vegetative mass. While filling the grain nutrient runoff flows from the leaves and stems. The closer the leaf is to the fruit, the more complete the drainage occurs, the more this leaf affects the yield.
In particular, the wheat leaf is responsible for 43% of the harvest. The longer this leaf stays green, the more solar energy it receives, the bigger the harvest will be.
In contrast to Wheat in the case of corn, the fruit is not placed at the top. The leaf closest to it has the greatest influence on the formation of the head. For Wheat has long been proven that a smaller row spacing gives a higher potential harvest. The smaller the row spacing, the better the distribution of the forage area, and the early shading of the lower leaves does not significantly affect the harvest.
In maize, decreasing row spacing reduces interplant competition and improves development in the early stages. But at the same time, the leaf closest to the head will be shaded earlier, and the yield will decrease. Modern genetics of corn is aimed at varieties with the highest point of attachment of the cob (silo — on the contrary, with the lowest point of attachment).
All attempts to reduce the corn row spacing have failed. Modern developments are carried out in the direction of a double row — on the one hand, the duality of the row optimizes the coverage area, on the other hand, wide row spacing allows the sun's rays to access the head. With sunflowers, as with Wheat, the fruits are placed on top and a decrease in row spacing does not cause shading of the upper leaf.
The first experiments with the cultivation of sunflowers sown with grain seeders date back to the 70s. At that time, this practice was considered unsuccessful due to the lack of high-quality herbicide protection, the inability to mechanically control weeds and the inability of grain seeders to qualitatively withstand the sowing depth and low sowing rate.
In the USA and Europe, this topic was repeated back in the 90s, and recently interest in this technology has only increased. ZusaWith our customers, we have been practicing such a method of sowing sunflowers in Ukraine since 2011. Many of our customers sow the whole sunflower or part of it using fixed seeding complexes.
Almost all the problems of the experience of the 70s are solved today:
- There is a wide range of soil and insurance herbicides on the market.
- Modern harrows can control weeds with continuous processing without damaging the sunflowers up to 35 cm high.
- Modern grain seeders have adopted an individual parallelogram suspension system for each coulter in the fine seeders. This technical solution ensures that the sowing depth is precisely maintained with an average deviation of 0,5 cm. Maintaining friendly shoots is crucial for sunflowers, and a deviation at a depth of more than 1 cm can be a serious problem.
- Modern pneumatic systems can sow small amounts of voluminous, light seeds with a deviation of up to 1%.
The continuous sowing of sunflowers has both technical and technological advantages. The technical requirements for pre-sowing processing can be reduced. The seed complex prepares the soil for itself. The pre-treatment and sowing takes place in one pass. It takes about 2 seconds for moisture to pass between processing, sowing and closing, minimizing moisture loss. High-quality sowing is possible at high speeds (up to 16-18 km/h). The cost of sowing one hectare of sunflowers with a continuous sowing is lower.
Sunflowers can germinate at a soil temperature of +6 °C, but at such a low temperature the shoots are unfriendly and weakened. The optimum soil temperature is between +11 °C. Normally the sunflower is sown in a warmer soil, resulting in a larger harvest. The only reason for early sowing of sunflowers is that at a soil temperature of +10 °C, corn sowing already begins. If you sow sunflowers with cereal complexes, and sow corn with precision seeders, you can partially lay out the sowing of two crops and sow everything on time.
The technological advantages include an optimal distribution of the food area with a chaotic placement of plants. If sowing is done with a continuous sowing, then the smaller the row spacing, the more uniform the chaos in the field. Less competition between plants stimulates better development of both the soil-based vegetative mass and the root system.
A solid sunflower closes the aisles 2 weeks earlier than a broad sunflower. This has several positive effects at once: moisture loss is reduced, the risk of thermal stress is reduced and herbicide cultivation can be avoided. The upper part of the leaf perceives infrared heat well, the lower part is more sensitive to them. The sunflower experiences greater thermal stress from heating from below, away from the ground, than from above. In regions with moderate to adequate moisture, a second wave of weeds occurs two weeks before the aisles close. The second wave of weeds doesn't stand a chance on a sunflower that has been fully sown.
Who shouldn't try a solid sunflower sow? Growing sunflower seeded with grain has many advantages, but it also has its own “pitfalls”:
- Fixed sowing has baskets of different diameters and seeds of different sizes. This method is not suitable for growing confectionery flowers, for which the size of the seeds is important. In part, this issue can be corrected by increasing seed rate by 10%. Due to the even distribution of the area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbfeeding, a solid sunflower withstands an increase in the norm and responds with an increased yield.
- A solid sunflower has a large height, so this method is suitable for established hybrids. Other hybrids need to be treated with a rust regulator.
- The lineless harvesters can shred a solid sunflower without loss. But not all small cutters can do it. Here you have to test each one individually.
- Sunflowers require clear compliance with the depth of sowing and compliance with the sowing rate. Do not sow solid sunflower with aggregates that do not have a modern metering system or a perfect field surface copying system. The logic here is as follows: sowing seeds at different depths will cause unfriendly shoots; later emergence of plants means development lags throughout the growing season and shading from neighbors that came off earlier; Development lags cause baskets at different levels, high competition and lower harvest. Sowing sunflowers is worthwhile only if your seeder can withstand a depth with an average deviation of no more than 0,5 cm.
- You have to be open to new things. When an agronomist gets used to clean lines, the shoots of a solid sunflower can look too messy. With a row spacing of 12,5 cm you have 8 stitches per meter width. Depending on the seeding rate, there will be 5-7 plants on these rows, ie not even on each row. To assess the germination and uniformity of distribution over an area of 1 m2 is not enough, you need to take squares of 1,5×1,5 m or 2×2 m. The chaotic distribution of sunflower seedlings sown in full is a purely psychological factor that you need to get used to. Start with small test areas.
harvest
The experience of more than 50 companies in Ukraine in sunflower cultivation in continuous sowing with Pottinger Terrasem shows the superiority of the latter over the seedlings sown with precision sowing machines (broad-eating sowing). With a sufficient amount of rainfall during the growing season in spring and summer, the crops do not differ in yield, but in the case of continuous sowing, the advantage is to reduce the cost of cultivation. However, in dry years, the yield of sunflowers planted in full increases by 10-15% and increases the profitability of their cultivation.
Source: latifundist (Ukraine)