What are the precautions for growing oats?
Oats are a coarse grain with relatively high nutritional value and fairly wide uses, but the one we hear about most often is certainly oatmeal, and most of what we commonly call flour is also made from oats. So today let us learn about what issues need attention when growing oats in order to ensure its yield and quality.
1. Growing environment
Oats have relatively strong resistance, so oats can be grown in ordinary soil, but for high yield it is best to choose a plot with relatively fertile soil and relatively loose texture. When preparing the land, plow as deep as possible and make the soil as fine as possible, which helps prevent lodging in oats to some extent. The growing temperature for oats should be kept at around 15 to 20 degrees, which can ensure plump oat grains and reduce flat grains.
2. Seed treatment
Before sowing, the seeds need to be treated. Dry the seeds in the sun for two or three days, which can have a sterilizing effect and increase the germination rate of the seeds. Then mix the seeds with chemicals aimed at some oat problems, which can prevent many diseases in advance. After the seed treatment is finished, sowing can begin.
3. Sowing density
When sowing, first estimate the area of the plot. The planting density should be neither too high nor too low. If the density is too high, some oat seedlings will be shaded and unable to carry out photosynthesis, causing the oat grains to be less plump and reducing yield. At the same time, the humidity in the oat field will increase and ventilation will be poor, so it is very easy to cause lodging across the whole field, and in that case both the yield and quality of the oats will be greatly affected.
4. Fertilizer and water management
Sufficient nutrients and water are an important factor for high oat yields. During the seedling stage, oats generally need only a moderate amount of water, and fertility is also moderate, so when the seedlings grow to 5 to 10 cm, one application of fertilizer is needed. The jointing stage of oats requires large amounts of water and nutrients, so topdressing must be done in time at this point; otherwise the joints will be fewer and thin, and the ears formed will certainly be small, and even if the ears are large they cannot be supported. If the ears are small, the yield will certainly not be high, so this fertilization is crucial. The last fertilization is at the flowering and earing stage, which can promote the plumpness of the grains and improve the quality of the oats.
5. Disease prevention
The most common diseases of oats include smut, red leaf disease and stem rust. These diseases generally occur in the middle and late stages of oat growth. Chemical seed dressing before sowing can provide a certain degree of prevention and control for these diseases, but during periods when multiple diseases occur, pay attention to observing changes in the oat field. Once they appear, promptly buy targeted chemicals from an agrochemical store and spray them.
6. Weeding methods
For weeding during the oat growing period, intertillage weeding is generally used. Carry out the first weeding when the oats grow to 10 to 15 cm, which can enhance soil permeability and prevent disease. The second weeding should wait until jointing begins; at this time it can help the soil retain a certain amount of moisture, enough to carry the oats through to flowering and earing. Finally, one more weeding can be done after jointing is complete.
7. Timely harvest
The oat maturation season is generally in August each year. The grains cannot all mature completely at the same time, so harvesting is generally done when 80 percent of the grains on the oat plants have hardened and gradually turned yellow-green. After harvesting, the oats need to be sun-dried and threshed. After all the grains have been threshed, dry them in the sun, and finally remove the oat husks, after which they can be packed and stored.