Common Vetch (Vicia Sativa) Also A Green Manure

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The common vetch (Vicia sativa) is an annual belonging to legumes. Its growth is fast but it is demanding in water. It has a high hiding power, which allows it to stifle weeds. Its resistance to frost varies depending on whether it is winter vetch, which supports frost, or vetch of spring, more fragile.

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) also a green manure

The common vetch can reach 60 to 70 cm in height via its slightly hairy climbing stems. The deciduous leaves consist of pairs of leaflets with a few hairs and bear a branched tendril at their ends. The purple flowers measure up to 3 cm and are inserted in pairs on short peduncles. Pods up to 5-6 cm long are formed: they are elongated and a little swollen, they contain the smooth seeds of brown color.

Common Vetch can be found naturally in fields and wood edges, but it is also grown as a green manure that enriches the soil with nitrogen because of its ability to fix nitrogen from the air.

  • Family: Fabaceae
  • Type: annual
  • Origin: Europe, Mediterranean Basin
  • Color: purple flowers
  • Sowing: yes
  • Cutting: no
  • Planting: spring for spring vetch and autumn for winter vetch
  • Flowering: June to August for spring vetch
  • Height: 70 cm

Ideal soil and exposure for planting common vetch

Common vetch does not like poor soil, but soil preparation is not a priority for it to grow.

Planting date of common vetch

The common spring vetch is sown from March to June and the winter common vetch is sown from August to mid-October. The seeds should be buried 3-4 cm deep with a density of 15g / m².

Council of maintenance and culture of vetch

The duration of vegetation of the spring vetch is 2 to 3 months, the time required between sowing and burial.

Do not plan a spring vetch seedling in areas for early growing. In mountain areas, for example, where the period between the beginning of the growing season and the planting of the main plants in the garden is short, it is better to opt for winter vetch which will eventually develop in the spring more serenely. offering more plant biomass.

Be careful, in your garden, if the common vetch comes to smother your neighboring plantations, eliminate it by cutting the stem flush.

Harvest and use of common vetch

Used in green manure, the common vetch must be crushed before burial. Do not wait too long for it to bloom and make seeds because the latter, while dispersing, will become "weeds".

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) also a green manure

Diseases, pests and parasites of common vetch

Vetch can be invaded by ants but it is not to be feared, on the contrary, because it protects against pests, including caterpillars.

Location and favorable association of the common vetch

Generally, it is associated with another cereal such as oats or rye that serves as a guardian.

There are more than a hundred species of vetch. For green manure, you will sow the common species of common vetch, Vicia sativa, but there is also the black vetch (Vicia nigra), the vetch of hedgerows (Vicia sepium), the vetch of Cracow (Vicia cracca), the vetch of Russia (Vicia villosa), the bristling vetch (Vicia hirsuta), the yellow vetch (Vicia lutea)…

Common Vetch (Vicia Sativa) Also A Green Manure

FAQ - 💬

❓ What is another name for vetch?

👉 Vicia sativa, known as the common vetch, garden vetch, tare or simply vetch, is a nitrogen-fixing leguminous plant in the family Fabaceae. It is likely native to North Africa, Western Asia and Europe, but is now naturalized in temperate and subtropical regions worldwide.

❓ Is vetch a leguminous plant?

👉 Vetch is a well known legume also known as common vetch or tares. It scrambling, smothering growth habit and frost tolerance make it a very useful winter cover crop or green manure.

❓ What protein is vetch?

👉 The proximate nutritional content of common vetch seeds is given in Table 1. The average crude protein (CP) content of the seeds is 283.63 g/kg dry matter (DM), equivalent to 52.43% soya bean meal (SBM) (Hess et al., 2006).

❓ How do you eat common vetch?

👉 Which parts of vetch can be eaten? The young leaves and 'pea shoots' can be used as a garnish and in salads. The young seeds can be eaten like peas and have a pea flavour.

❓ What is the scientific name for common vetch?

👉 Vicia sativaCommon Vetch / Scientific name Scientific name: Vicia sativa. A scrambling plant, Common vetch has pink flowers. It is a member of the pea family and can be seen on grassland, farmland and waste ground, as well as at the coast.

❓ What is vetch good for?

👉 A poultice of the leaves has been used to treat spider bites, an infusion of the plant has been used as eyewash and an infusion of the tops has been used as a wash in sweat houses. American vetch has also been used as a panacea, an aphrodisiac, and a good luck charm.

❓ What is common vetch used for?

👉 Often, common vetch is used as a green manure which, when incorporated into the soil, provides valuable carbon, and nitrogen for rotation crops such as wheat and barley. Additional soil carbon often increases water-holding capacity and ability to bind nutrients including nitrate (Reeves, 1997; Bünemann et al., 2018).

❓ Is vetch good for soil?

👉 Benefits. Hairy vetch fixes large amounts of nitrogen (N) that help meet N needs of the following crop, protects soil from erosion, helps improve soil tilth, and provides weed control during its vigorous growth in the spring and when left as a dead mulch at the soil surface.

❓ Is common vetch good for cattle?

👉 However, Vetch hay can cause serious (and potentially fatal) animal health problems, so is not recommended as a primary forage for horses and cows. Most of the anti-nutritional compounds are concentrated in the seeds, so immature harvests are recommended.

❓ Can humans eat common vetch?

👉 The seed pods are edible (much like peas or beans) and although rarely eaten now, there is evidence to suggest ancient people commonly cultivated them for food. Like other legumes, it is very high in protein. It has been used medicinally to treat eczema and skin irritations.

❓ Is vetch good for the soil?

👉 Benefits. Hairy vetch fixes large amounts of nitrogen (N) that help meet N needs of the following crop, protects soil from erosion, helps improve soil tilth, and provides weed control during its vigorous growth in the spring and when left as a dead mulch at the soil surface.

❓ What is a vetch plant?

👉 Vetch is a well known legume also known as common vetch or tares. It scrambling, smothering growth habit and frost tolerance make it a very useful winter cover crop or green manure. Used as an over-winter green cover and soil improver, it can also be grazed by livestock. An annual species, normally dying away after flowering.

❓ Can common vetch seed ( Vicia sativa L) be added to Quail rations?

👉 The effect of common vetch seed ( Vicia sativa L.) added to the quail rations on growth, carcass yield and some blood parameters. Turk Veterinerlik ve Hayvanclk Dergisi, 22 (1): 37-42 Yalçin, S. ; Tuncer, I. ; Onbasilar, E. E., 2003. The use of different levels of common vetch seed ( Vicia sativa L.) in diets for fattening rabbits. Livest.

❓ Is Vetch a good cover crop?

👉 Common vetch helps with the suppression of spring weeds and is a valuable cover crop in vineyards and orchards (Sattell et al., 1998). Weed suppression is increased when the legume is associated with a cereal companion crop (UC SAREP, 2006).

❓ What type of soil is best for vetch?

👉 Goar (1934) stated that common vetch is adapted to a wide range of soil conditions, doing best on the fine-textured clay and clay-loam soils, but also performing well on sandy loam and even on somewhat gravelly soils. According to Duke (1981), common vetch does best on loams, sandy loams or gravelly soil.

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Video: Hairy Vetch - Vicia villosa.

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