Canary seed is the fruit of a cereal plant that is common in the southern tropics, in particular on the Canary Islands. Otherwise, it is also called the "canary", as well as the "canary" and "Canary grass."
Canary seed was once brought to Europe with canaries, because they preferred this particular food to everything else in their homeland.
In Russia, this cereal grows like a weed in the fields and near water bodies, mainly in the southern regions of the country. Nowadays, the canary is rarely cultivated, although it is known that at the beginning of the 20th century, peasants of some provinces were actively engaged in this plant. Today, the canary seed is an export commodity, and its cost is quite high.
The seeds of the plant are used not only as food for songbirds, but also paste is cooked from flour for impregnation of cotton fabrics in order to give it additional strengthening properties. In addition, canary flour is edible because it has high nutritional characteristics. And the plant itself can be used as livestock feed - it goes to the harvesting of hay and for preparing silage.
What does it look like
The photo of the canary seed shows that it is a grayish-brown shiny oblong seed. It is two times larger than the millet known to us and somewhat smaller than oats. On the stem, the seeds ripen in dense ears. By nutrition, they are especially valuable in the stage of milk-wax ripeness. The composition of the canary is correlated with oats, while it contains less fiber and more protein.
As for the plant itself, this is an annual multi-stemmed cereal, with creeping underground shoots with pointed long rough leaves. The stems are straight, branched at the base. Inflorescences are ovoid, reddish or greenish.
How to grow
Today, some lovers of canaries often sow this cereal in their homestead or even on the windowsill.
However, a sowing canary can be borne in mind that this plant does not tolerate cold weather and loves moisture. Therefore, in most regions of Russia, sowing should be carried out in May, when a stable plus temperature has come and the soil has warmed up well. Although in general, the plant is unpretentious and does not require special efforts from the grower, before the onset of cold weather it manages to ripen in the northern regions of the country, in particular, in the Leningrad region.
The best soil for the canary is humus-containing. The distance between the sowing rows should not exceed 20 cm, and the seeds should be sown to a centimeter depth.
As already mentioned, this plant is hygrophilous, therefore, watering plantings up to heading and during it must be constantly. The maximum pause in watering is no more than two days. However, the plant does not tolerate waterlogging and stagnation of water in the soil, this should also be remembered.
This cereal is pollinated by the wind, it begins to bloom in June, and seeds ripen in July.
How to feed
Not only canaries love canaries, but also parrots and most of the captive songbirds.
Moreover, the diet of birds should not consist entirely of canaries. Such a "diet" can only harm your pet, despite the nutritional value of this cereal. Its share in the feed should be no more than half. This is for canaries, 10-15% will be enough for budgies.
We talked about what canary seed looks like, about its use and cultivation.