Vic: planting and caring for the plant

Vika - plant of the legume family, which is also sometimes called sowing peas. It can grow as a wild plant on uncultivated areas, at the edge of roads, and can be used as a cultivated plant. In the latter case, Vika is more often raised for animal feed. This material focuses on how to grow cultivated plants.

Vic: description and types

First of all, you should understand what a vetch is, what it looks like and what kinds it happens. Depending on the type of plant can be perennial, and maybe one-year. Stems may be erect, but in some species they creep, which cling to the antennae. It reaches a height of 20-100 cm. Numerous leaves have stipules, with pinnate. At the top can be jagged or entire. The main forms: wedge-shaped, linear, oblong. Leaf axis crowns strong mustache.

Vika grass blooms with white, yellowish-white, purple or blue flowers. They can be single axillary, and can be collected in bunches of two or three flowers. Corollas have a sail-like shape. Peduncles are the same in length with the leaves or may slightly exceed them. Flowers appear in June and hold until August. After flowering, oblong flat beans appear, which can be double-seeded, multi-seeded, beard-shaped. The rhizome of the plant is branched, pivotal. It develops deep inside and is able to find enough nutrients.

In total, at least 140 species of peas are known that grow in East Africa, South America, and Europe. These are leguminous crops, fodder and ornamental. A species of Vicia faba, which is known as a garden bean, is grown in Mexico, Thailand, and China as a legume crop for food use. Vika sowing or common Vicia sativa L. found widespread in our latitudes. It has red-blue stems, round brown beans and oblate dark gray grains. It is a creeping plant that reaches 110 cm in length. On the branches grow feathery pairs of leaves for 5-8 pairs.

Winter vetch - another type of plant, distinguished by ripening and drought tolerance. Its nutritional properties are comparable with alfalfa, so it is used for grass meal, hay, haylage, green fodder, early silage. The most common pea in our strip is spring. This vetch is a nutritious plant, therefore it has found its use in agriculture as fodder grass. 123 g of protein per 100 kg of its dry mass. Among ornamental species, Vika Kashuba (Vicia cassubica L., which is common in Scandinavia and Central Europe) is worth mentioning. The perennial has creeping, slightly pubescent stems that extend up to 60 cm in length. have an oval or oblong shape. Dropping red-purple flowers are collected in axillary peduncles of 10-15 pieces. They bloom in mid-summer. The fruits are obtained on one or three oval-shaped seeds, flat. The plant is poorly tolerant, withstands temperatures down to -29 ° C.

Vicia cracca L., or mouse vetch, grows in the USA and Eurasia. The perennial grows to 180 cm. The twin leaves keep on short petioles, a branch tendril forms at the other end. Stipules grow to a centimeter in length. The sheets are about 0.6 cm wide and 3 cm long and grow 6–15 pairs in length, linear-lanceolate. Drooping flowers of bright blue or purple are collected in axillary brushes of 1-30 pieces. Corolla grows to 1.3 cm in length. Flowering lasts from June to August. It is considered a good honey plant. Beans grow up to 2 cm in length, have a concise, oblong-rhombic shape. The plant is also frost resistant. Of the ornamental varieties of the plant, it is worth noting the fence of the fence (Vicia sepium L.), the description of which is similar to the previous varieties. The only leaves grow 3-9 pairs, and dull-purple flowers are collected in brushes of 2-6 pieces. Flowering lasts from June to October. In the gardens they also grow a perennial one-pair Vika (Vicia unijuga A. Braun). Her erect numerous stems are stretched to 70 cm in height. Parotid leaves have only one pair. Bright blue or purple flowers up to 1.5 cm in length are collected in many-flowered brush. Flowering lasts from June to August. The fruits are bare, flat. The plant can withstand temperatures down to -18 ° C.

How to sow Vika

Although vetch vetch have many varieties, care for them is about the same. But planting dates vary depending on the type of plant.

Landing time

As a general rule, if the plant is sown on grain or for feed, it is planted in late April or early May. Do this together with other plants to drown out the growth of weeds. For the autumn feed, it is sown on a plowed field after harvesting rye in July. In winter, Vika is planted in late August; then in the spring she will rise and grow before planting tomatoes and peppers.

Grass planting scheme

The plant propagates with seeds that are sown to a depth of about 2 cm. The row spacing should be a little less than 10 cm. However, because of the arbitrary planting, the plant will not become worse. It grows well in combination with cruciferous. In this case, they are recommended to land in a checkerboard pattern. On the weave of the land it is necessary to sow about 2 kg of seeds.

The first shoots should appear a couple of weeks after sowing, and from the fifth day sprouts begin to branch. The first flowers appear in a month and keep a maximum of a month.At the end of flowering about four weeks later the seeds ripen. Depending on the variety, the growing season lasts from 70 to 120 days.

How to care for Vika

Vika requires not only a special landing, but also care. As soon as the first shoots appear, the plant is recommended to feed. The next feeding should take place during the formation of buds. At this stage, Vika is recommended to prune and hide in the soil. This is usually done by a cultivator. The event must be accompanied by a regular feeding. Trimming is done once or twice a season. This helps the plant to develop better and fill with juices.

Initially, the plant should be watered as needed, but as soon as the period of bud formation begins, watering should be increased. However, this should also be done with caution, since on the wet soil the vetch also grows reluctantly.

The plant has no special requirements for the soil; it can be infertile, but preferably light. Best of all, Vika feels rich in calcium. The plant is of little interest to pests and is not subject to serious diseases.Sometimes during dry periods it can be attacked by aphid.

Cleaning wiki for hay

If the plant was planted on food, then the ideal time for mowing would be the period of fruit formation. At this time, ash elements, proteins and other useful substances are concentrated in stalks and leaves.

How to get wiki seeds

When about 70-80% of the fruits of the wiki become brown, it is time to collect the seeds. Up to 10 centners of plant seeds can be removed per hectare of land. If you skip this phase and collect the seeds later, this figure can be significantly reduced. Over-grown fruit capsules crack easily, especially in sunny weather, which causes seeds to fall to the ground. If you collect the fruits earlier, you will receive planting material of different degrees of maturity.

It is divided into the following degrees:

• dairy - fruits are green;
• milky-wax - green-brown;
• wax - brown and hard;
• full - brown with wax bloom, hard.

Unripe seeds can also germinate, but their quality suffers greatly. They have an insufficient concentration of beneficial substances, therefore germination of the embryo is not always successful. After collecting the seeds, they must be dried and ripened. To do this, they are laid out in a dry warm place, protected from the rays of the sun. If the period of post-harvest ripening will last 1-3 months, you can achieve the highest seed germination rates.

Useful properties of wiki (for soil)

The main beneficial property of the plant is that it accumulates nitrogen in the soil. This plant is grateful to the huge amount of tuberous bacteria that live on its rhizome. That is why Vika is an ideal neighbor for plants that need an increased nitrogen content in the soil.

Among other useful properties worth noting:

• excellent soil loosening due to a branched and deep root system;
• protects the soil;
• improves its microflora;
• damps weeds;
• being an excellent honey plant, it attracts a lot of insects, which are well pollinated and neighboring plants.

As you can see, Vika is an excellent unpretentious and multifunctional plant. It is useful for cleaning the area from weeds, growing feed for livestock, and besides, it has a high decorative value. In the care of peas undemanding. It must be sufficiently watered, but not filled, several times fed, trimmed and removed from the site in time.