Detailed Explanation of Oil Sunflower Planting Methods and Technical Key Points
The main purpose of oil sunflower is for oil extraction. It is a relatively important oil crop in our country, and together with peanut, soybean, and rapeseed, it is known as one of the four major oil crops. Moreover, oil sunflower ranks far ahead in the world, and the oil produced from oil sunflower is very healthy and nutritious. It looks very similar to sunflower and is also called oil sunflower, but it is shorter than sunflower, with plump seeds and extremely high oil content. Because its nutritional value and edible value are both considerable, it is a relatively profitable product in the planting industry. So today, Qinnong Network will take everyone to see how oil sunflower is planted.
1. Land selection and land preparation
Like sunflower, oil sunflower has strong adaptability to the environment, so it does not have excessive requirements for soil. However, when planting oil sunflower, attention must be paid to crop rotation, and it cannot be repeatedly planted in the same piece of land, because otherwise the yield of oil sunflower will not only be low, but the disease incidence rate will also be extremely high. Land preparation is a relatively important task. We need to carry out deep plowing, which can clean up some residual pests, bacteria, and weeds in the farmland, thus saving a great deal of labor for later field management. Finally, after deep plowing, we need to spread sufficient base fertilizer in the field, mainly farmyard manure, averaging about two thousand jin per mu, and secondly, an appropriate amount of chemical fertilizer can be mixed in. The base fertilizer must be applied sufficiently, because base fertilizer is the foundation for high yield of oil sunflower.
2. Timely sowing
Under normal conditions, oil sunflower can be sown in two seasons. The planting time is generally around April each year and in June to July each year. In short, the average daily temperature must remain between ten degrees and fifteen degrees, and of course the temperature can also be higher. These two time periods are very suitable for the development and growth of oil sunflower. As for sowing methods, we can use drilling, hole sowing, or dibbling, and the method we most commonly use is dibbling. On the prepared land, we only need to evenly scatter the seeds according to a certain spacing, then press the seeds into the soil and cover them with soil. Drilling is slightly more troublesome, because it requires opening furrows one by one in the field, then scattering seeds and covering them with soil. Hole sowing is even more troublesome.
3. Field management
The first thing in field management is checking seedlings, filling gaps, and thinning seedlings. First, check whether there are missing seedlings in the field. If there are, then we need to thin the seedlings, separate out the excess seedlings, and use them to fill gaps, ensuring that the seedlings in the field are uniform. After filling gaps, water must be added in time, so as to ensure the survival rate of transplanting. Second, about seven to ten days after planting, we need to carry out one intertillage and weeding, which can help reduce nutrient loss and also let the soil breathe, thereby promoting the growth rate of oil sunflower. Of course, we also need to prune relatively dense branches and leaves of oil sunflower. At the same time, if the oil sunflower flower disk is very small and the seeds are not plump, these can also be pruned, trying as much as possible to retain high-quality products. Finally, oil sunflower needs insect-assisted pollination, wind-assisted pollination, or manual-assisted pollination to bear fruit, so we can choose the pollination method according to the planting area.
4. Fertilizer and water management
The early growth of oil sunflower does not require many nutrients, so as long as we apply sufficient base fertilizer, basically no secondary fertilization is needed. However, special situations cannot be ruled out, so we still need to topdress oil sunflower once or twice. Generally, at the seedling stage, apply urea once to promote the growth of oil sunflower seedlings, and then after flowering, apply potassium fertilizer once as topdressing. Water management is also relatively easy, because oil sunflower has extremely strong drought resistance, so generally, if there is no rainfall before flowering, then one watering is needed. Also, when rainfall is relatively heavy, the water in the field must be drained, otherwise it is very easy for disease to occur.
5. Pest and disease control
The main diseases of oil sunflower are sclerotinia and black spot. Sclerotinia not only harms the stems and leaves of the plant but also affects the flower disk of oil sunflower, while black spot mainly harms the stems and leaves of the plant. The control method is to spray with carbendazim, and generally two to three applications are enough for recovery. The most common pests are cutworm and weevil, and we can use phoxim emulsifiable concentrate for control.