Many people like buckwheat dishes, so they have already become traditional. Not everyone knows how buckwheat grows, from which plant it is extracted. The botanical description of the buckwheat plant, how it looks in the fields, how to care for it, deserves a more thorough study.

Botanical description of buckwheat

Edible sowing buckwheat is popularly called simply buckwheat. It serves to produce buckwheat. It is a mistake to attribute this culture to cereal or grain. It is a cereal cereal plant whose seeds differ from monocotyledonous grains. Sowing buckwheat refers to the annual or perennial pseudo-cereal crops of the Buckwheat family. Plant height reaches from 20 cm to 1.2 m.

Did you know? Russia leads among countries growing buckwheat. For the year, 700,000 tons of its grains are harvested here.

Here is a more detailed description of it:

1. Root system. In the center is a long, large root. Many smaller horizontal subordinate roots depart from it.
2. The stalks. Durable, ribbed, can produce up to 12 branches. At the end of the growing season they turn red and become very rough. Each individual stem consists of three parts. Below is a submucosal knee, from which stem roots extend. Branches are located in the middle, and the fruiting zone is located on top.
3. Foliage. Distributed on the stems in turn. The leaves on the main stem and its branches are wide, have a spear-like or arrow-shaped shape. The upper leaves are on long petioles, and the lower ones sit tightly to the branches. Cirrus veins are visible on each of them. The color is green.
4. Flowers. They have the correct form of five pink or red petals of a pale color. Characterized by three columns and eight stamens. Blooming small brushes look like shields. They are pollinated crosswise, so the percentage of fertilization is high. Pollination is carried out by insects or wind.

Buckwheat and buckwheat - what is the difference

Buckwheat is cereal, and buckwheat is the plant from which it is extracted. Their differences can be compared with apple and apple. You buy buckwheat on store shelves, and buckwheat grows on the field (a seed plant from the buckwheat family).

Features of buckwheat seeds

In Latin, buckwheat sounds like “fagopurum”. Translated, this means "beech-like nut." Such a strange name was the form of its grains - they are similar to the fruits of beech. That is why the inhabitants of Western Europe also call it "beech wheat." Buckwheat is a small trihedral nut covered in a dense shell. Inside each grain there is a core with a root and two folded folds of cotyledons. The weight of 1000 seeds is from 20 to 45 g (depending on variety).

When the fruits sprout after sowing, their cotyledons emerge on the surface of the soil in the form of two false leaves. Further, the formation of the plant continues from the bud located between them. People learned to eat various forms of buckwheat in food. Most prefer whole kernels, others prefer crushed grains (done). There are also lovers of chopped buckwheat (Smolensk groats) or buckwheat flour.

Types of Buckwheat

The most popular varieties of buckwheat in Russia are the following:

• Hero;
• Kazan;
• Bolshevik;
• Terekhovsky;
• Slav.

Important! When buying buckwheat in a store, it is better to stop on non-fried grains. They have a light yellowish tint.

Cultivated buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) has two varieties:

1. Common (vulgare).
2. Multifoliate (multifolium).

In addition to the cultivated species, weed (Tatar) is also found.

Where does buckwheat grow in the world

It is believed that the modern cultural fagopurum was bred in the XIII-XIV century by the inhabitants of North India and Tibet, Nepal. Then she appeared in southwestern China. There and now its wild species grow. The Chinese brought her to Korea, Japan. She later came to Central Asia, the Middle East and the Caucasus. Europeans began to practice buckwheat cultivation after the Tatar-Mongol invasion.

Cultivars today are grown all over the globe. They serve not only as a source of valuable cereals, but also flour, feed and honey. In Russia, the highest productivity of this crop is observed in the forest-steppes and Polesie. A lot of buckwheat is sown in Altai, in Bashkiria, Stavropol Territory, Primorye, and the Krasnodar Territory. It also grows in chernozem areas: Tula, Kursk, Oryol, Lipetsk.

How does buckwheat grow

For the good development of the fagopurum culture, moderate warming of air and soil is important. Temperature conditions above + 30 ° C negatively affect it. She also needs enough light. Buckwheat is not capricious, but most of all it is comfortable in the forest-steppe zone with loose light earth.

It is preferable if the following crops used to grow in the fields before it:

• wheat or other winter crops;
• beans;
• row crops: corn, millet, sugar beets, sunflowers;
• soy and peas.

Did you know? Most of all, Japan imports buckwheat. Here they learned to make even noodles from it.

How to Buckwheat

Unlike cereals and other cereal crops, buckwheat has a large vegetative mass. Only an experienced agronomist can grow a good crop of this crop. It is very important to fertilize the plant on time. During the growth of the culture, it is necessary to make mineral top dressing. At this point, she needs potash fertilizers. Also, the vegetative mass of the plant is increased by nitrogen compounds. Phosphorus and nitrogen are carefully added at the time of flowering in a ratio of 1: 1.

Video: feeding buckwheat on vegetation

How to bloom

Fagopurum begins to bloom in June, and fruit ripening occurs in late August. The color of the flowers can be different: white, pink, reddish. Seedlings after sowing appear during the period when the air warms up to + 15 ° C. Bushes at first are growing rapidly in the form of straight stems. Then they branch and change color from green to red. The exact date when buckwheat blooms cannot be said. Flowering begins when the temperature is established at around + 25 ° C, approximately 28 days after germination. Due to cold weather, this process may be delayed. If frost appears during the blooming of flowers, this can completely ruin the crop.

Flowers are revealed first lower, then upper. On one plant they can be up to 1000 pcs. Any of them blooms all day. All of them are collected not in a spikelet, but in a brush.

How to get buckwheat

Buckwheat blooms for a long time: some buds fade and begin to ripen, while others only blossom. It is impossible to wait until all the brushes have fully matured. Harvesting begins when the lower grains mature and turn brown. It is important that 3/4 seeds ripen on the field at the time of harvest. To ensure that the fruits are less showered during harvesting, you must precisely select the moment of mowing.

Important! It is best to plant buckwheat near ponds. Also, the field should be protected by trees from the winds.

Harvesters begin work in the morning or in the evening after sunset. At this time, the air is more humid, which prevents seeds from being damaged so much. Modern technology immediately processes the kernels from the husk. Most often, fruits are harvested from September 20-30. The resulting grain is sorted and sent to warehouses. Crops are sorted: one part goes for future sowing, the other goes to consumers.

The benefits and harms of buckwheat

To get buckwheat is not only because it is nutritious, but also benefits the body.

• It has a positive effect in the following diseases:
• Hypertension, atherosclerosis, edema, liver problems.
• Drugs based on it heal wounds, increase the elasticity of blood vessels, eliminate the symptoms of measles, scarlet fever, radiation sickness.
• Green buckwheat helps fight arthritis, rheumatism, and vascular diseases.
• Organic acids in its composition improve digestion.
• Regular intake of buckwheat porridge improves the functioning of the pancreas, improves metabolism, eliminates heartburn.
• Recommended to increase hemoglobin in anemia.
• Heated cereal dressings are recommended for boils, boils, boils.
• Buckwheat flour is used as a baby powder against diaper rash.

Important! In case of lung disease, it is useful to make tea made from the color of buckwheat. Enough 40 g of dry petals per 1 liter of boiling water.

In large portions, it is contraindicated to consume buckwheat in gastritis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. Pregnant and lactating mothers also need to be careful to avoid bloating. Individual intolerance to the product is rare.

Where and how is buckwheat applied

Buckwheat is one of the few plants that could not be modified at the genetic level. Nature made sure that it can be grown without any growth stimulants and other pesticides. Buckwheat is an environmentally friendly product, therefore it is often used for cooking, in traditional medicine.The husk after seed treatment is used for stuffing orthopedic pillows and mattresses.

Honey collection

Beekeepers really appreciate healthy buckwheat honey. Fagopurum flowers are wonderful honey plants. It is important that favorable weather sets in at that moment. Flowering brushes produce a wonderful aroma, which attracts bees. From one hectare of a flowering field, these insects can collect up to 200 kg of honey. The fresh product has a brown color, and after three months it crystallizes.

Did you know? People learned to cultivate buckwheat in the III century BC. e. Nepalis and Indians called it “black rice”.

His taste is a little tart and causes a slight tickle and burning in the throat. In mid-June, hives are installed around the perimeter of the sown field. In addition to collecting honey, bees still benefit the plant itself by pollinating it and increasing buckwheat yield up to 60%. Beekeepers pump buckwheat honey in late July.

Food use

The most common buckwheat dish is porridge. It is not only boiled, but also poured with boiling water, insist on kefir, yogurt. Honey, nuts, fruits are added to porridge. It goes well with vegetables. Many have loved buckwheat soup since childhood. Recently, cutlets with this cereal - buckwheat - have become popular. Quite often, supermarkets sell bread made from a mixture of buckwheat and wheat flour. From it bake pancakes, pancakes, cakes, dumplings.

The French and English cook thin buckwheat pancakes - crepes. And in Japan, buckwheat flour is considered a traditional and very characteristic national product. They make tender soba noodles from it. Swiss and Italians also produce buckwheat pasta. In some Asian countries, the use of green shoots and buckwheat leaves for salads, marinades, meat seasonings is common.

Biological Pest Control

Growing buckwheat requires agrarians to know how to protect it from pests. A rich and quality crop depends on some specific agricultural measures. A healthy culture is sometimes interrupted by a number of insects.

Important! When growing buckwheat, the use of pesticides is limited, which poison and repel bees.

Agronomists have to fight the following pests after planting:

• buckwheat flea;
• weevil;
• leaf cloud;
• aphids;
• wheat scoop;
• thrips;
• larvae of nutcrackers.

If these insects actively influence crops, then they can simply die. Proven biological products are used in pest control: “LF-Ultrafit”, potassium humate “LF-Humat-List”.

Negatively affect the life of this cultivated plant and weeds. In addition to the mechanical method of destruction of weeds in the form of harrowing crops, soil herbicides are used: Alpha-Prometrin, Ataman, Ataman Extra.

Experts say that buckwheat can grow without special requirements for lighting and air temperature, so many farms are trying to grow this culture. And consumers value buckwheat for a successful combination of powerful beneficial properties.