The hedgehog fodder plant is a combined perennial perennial cereal with rough leaf blades of medium width, serrated along the veins and edges. The inflorescence looks like a two-sided lobed panicle, and 3-6-flowered spikelets with scales ending in sphenoid points are crowded at the tips of twigs.
Hedgehog team - perennial herb
The hedgehog team is a herbaceous plant. Herb plants are
higher plants that have stems and leaves that die off at the end of the growing season. Grasses are annual, biennial and perennial. This life form does not have perennial lignified ground parts that can survive adverse seasons.
In perennial herbaceous plants, underground shoots exist for several years, and aboveground shoots change every year. Annual herbs die off completely at the end of the growing season or at the end of flowering and fruiting, but next year they grow from the seeds again. For one season, annuals manage to go through their full life cycle, during which they grow from seed, bloom, bear fruit and then die.
Hedgehog is a perennial plant. In perennials, stems also die off at the end of the growing season, but the underground part of the plant survives and there are several seasons. The development of a new stem comes from the remaining living tissues that are underground (roots, underground shoots) and on the ground (caudex - a thickened portion of the stem located at ground level).
Growth Features
The hedgehog team (photo below) tolerates snowy winters well, but in the absence of snow cover - sparses. Late spring frosts can also greatly damage the plant.
The low winter hardiness of the hedgehog is explained by the fact that the tillering node at it lies relatively shallow from the soil surface. Like many other perennial grasses, this cereal responds poorly to flooding and excessive moisture in the soil and does not withstand more than two weeks in hollow waters, and also hard to tolerate the high location of groundwater. The hedgehog team is considered a drought-tolerant crop, but the paradox is that in arid conditions, its yield is sharply reduced.
Breeding
With the winter type of development, in the year of sowing in hedgehog plants, by the autumn many vegetative shoots are formed. The main number of generative stems is completely formed in the second year from shoots that appeared in the summer-autumn period after vernalization. The plant blooms in the early morning hours, but there are some varieties that bloom in the afternoon and evening. The team begins to bloom the hedgehog from the middle or upper part of the panicle, then the flowers spread throughout the inflorescence. The duration of flowering is an average of 8 days. The plant blooms in June, and seed ripening occurs in mid-July. Seeds are characterized by a trihedral, elongated-pointed shape and gray color.
Growing
The hedgehog team is used in the creation of pastures and hayfields, as well as in fodder crop rotation on dry meadows, mineral soils, drained bogs, in forest-steppe and steppe zones. This plant is an essential component of meadow grass stands in almost all regions. The only exceptions are South Crimea, Buryatia, the Far East, Yakutia and the Arctic. Hedgehog is successfully grown in the irrigated territories of Transcaucasia and Central Asia together with sainfoin and alfalfa. It grows well on clay and loamy soils enriched with the necessary amount of humus and provided with moisture, as well as on cultivated peatlands. Very wet peatlands and dry sandy soil tolerates poorly. The plant develops best in soils with a mild acid reaction.
Productivity
Under favorable conditions, this cereal has a good yield and has excellent feed quality. If mowing is done in the early phases (before mowing), a highly nutritious feed for livestock is obtained from it. With later mowing, the nutrition of the hedgehog decreases sharply, because the protein content decreases, and the fiber content increases. The maximum amount of crude protein is present in the plant at the tillering phase (23%). When heading begins, the protein level drops to 10.4%, and fiber - increases to 30.9%. Hedgehog is able to form more than 2-3 mowing and provides green food earlier than
winter rye. When used on pastures, the plant grows normally with nitrogen fertilizing and tolerates trampling by cattle.
The hedgehog has been kept in grass mixtures for 8-10 years, and if it is sown in its pure form, then good yields of seeds or hay can be expected next year. The plant reaches full development in the third year.