Oil radish

Oil radish (Raphanus sativum d. var. oleifera Metrg.) is an annual herbaceous plant. The height of its stem is 120 cm. Mass of 1000 seeds is 8-12 gr. The plant has been considered to be rare for a long time. However, since 70’s it has been used in after-cutting and stubby crops in the green conveyer system. It can be added to corn for green forage purpose in the phase of 3-4 leaves. Oil radish is used for green fodder, grazing, silage, and grass meal. It effectively suppresses weeds and pathogens and yields nectar. Oil radish has a lot of advantages: high nutritional value, ease of cultivation, a high rate of seed multiplication and high yields of green mass which approaches Lucerne in its nutritional value. Also noticed is its positive effect on increasing milk yields of cows as well as increasing the fat content in milk so an economization on high-concentrated feed is possible. Even in after-cutting and stubby crops in forest steppe and woodlands forms up to 300 centner/ he of high-protein green mass.
The culture is moisture-loving, immediate, cold resistant as well as fast growing, it has a high ability to bind inorganic nitrogen in the soil. In the forest steppe area the plants of stubbly crop accumulate an average of 85 kg/he of nitrogen, 24,2 kg/he of phosphorus and 100,6 kg/he of potassium, which proves the high ability of this culture to accumulate the basic mineral elements. The best predecessors for this culture are scanty or dead perennial grasses, organic-fertilized fields after flax, cereals, potatoes or other cultivated crops.
Summer radish is sown in early spring. The sowing method is wide row (30-45 cm), wide line (intercropping width 45 cm, line – 5-12 cm) or thin line. The seeding rate for the wide row method is 0, 4-0, 6 gr/m for wide line and thin line – 0, 6-1 gr/m. The seed is enfolded 0, 5-1, 5 cm deep. After planting, the soil is compressed. Caring for the plants is the same as for radish. The peculiarity of cultivation is that in rows and in lines plants are weeded out at 4-5 cm distance, and in the growth period the spacing between rows is hoed 2-3 times.