How to Grow Lentils? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Cultivation Techniques

Lentil is a plant of the legume family, also known as the lentil or small lentil, and is a plant used both as medicine and food. At present, lentils in China are mainly distributed in Hebei, Shaanxi, as well as Shaanxi and Sichuan, and other places. The planting scale is not large, and it has not yet been widely adopted in China. So how much do we really know about this plant that has not yet been widely adopted? And how should it be grown? Let's take a look below.

1. Land preparation

The growth cycle of lentils is relatively short compared with the cultivation of many crops, and it is also often grown as a catch crop to fill gaps. The soil for growing lentils should have moderate acidity and alkalinity, or be weakly alkaline soil, and it must not be grown in soil where the previous crop was a legume, solanaceous plant, or similar. Before planting, plow the soil deeply. Too much fertilizer is not needed; with excessive nutrients, the yield will instead not be high. Also promptly break up the soil clods and rake it level to retain moisture, and finally open furrows and make beds, ready for sowing.

2. Sowing

Lentils can be planted in two seasons, namely between late March and early April in spring and at the end of September in autumn. Because the growth of lentils is rather special, the seeds need to be inoculated with rhizobia before sowing, and then sown in rows with a row spacing of 25 cm. The sowing depth is generally about 4 to 5 cm, and no more than 6 cm at the deepest. Under normal conditions, about more than 60,000 lentil plants are grown per mu, and no more than 67,000 plants at most, otherwise the yield of lentils will be affected.

3. Fertilizing

Although the nitrogen fixed by the symbiotic root nodules of lentils can meet the nitrogen needed for their growth and development, this only occurs under the condition that the lentil root nodules have formed and are fixing nitrogen. When lentils are still in the seedling stage, they also need to rely on artificial fertilization. At this time we usually apply nitrogen fertilizer, and at the same time, in order to promote plant growth, we can scientifically use phosphate fertilizer, which is beneficial to the formation of root nodules for nitrogen fixation. When fertilizing, it is usually done in combination with deep plowing, mainly applying organic fertilizer, zinc sulfate, and potassium fertilizer deeply, and spraying boron fertilizer and ammonium fertilizer on the leaves.

4. Watering

Lentils have extremely strong drought tolerance. Generally speaking, when there is rainfall, basically no watering is needed throughout their entire growth process. But if it is shortly after the lentils have emerged, or if there is no rainfall for a long time during their flowering and pod-setting stages, then timely watering is needed. Of course, continuous rainfall cannot be ruled out either. If that happens, we must also be prepared for waterlogging and promptly drain excess water from the field.

5. Weeding

During the entire growth process of lentils, generally only two rounds of intertillage and weeding are needed. The first is after the seedlings have survived transplanting; if weeds appear in the field, weed promptly. The second is about two months after sowing; if the weeds in the field are growing too aggressively and seriously affecting the growth of the lentils, carry out a second weeding. Of course, under special circumstances, the number of weedings also needs to be appropriately increased according to the specific situation.

Lentils have very strong vitality, and they are also very simple to grow. Field operations are not complicated either, so generally anyone with even a little growing experience can learn how to do it. That is all for today's sharing. If you still have other questions to ask, you can leave a message for us.