Echinacea purpurea( rudbeckia)
Perennial herbaceous plant of the family of astroids( Asteraceae).In the second year of life during the growing season, develops numerous shoots up to 150 cm high. The stems are powerful, more often solitary, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Leaves are rough, dentate, lower - ovate, on long winged petioles, with a drawn apex, with five longitudinal veins. The upper ones are ovate-lanceolate, sitting, with three veins. Inflorescences of the basket( up to 10 cm in diameter), located on the tops of stems and branches, single, scaled, two-four-rowed. Marginal flowers - light crimson, reed, barren. Internal - tubular, bisexual, orange-yellow. Fruit - grayish-brown tetrahedral seed of sphenoid for we narrowed to the base, with a chub. Baskets are fluffy, easily triturated and free seeds. You are acuminate seedy, astringent, tastefully eaten by rodents and birds. The plant blooms from June to autumn. Seeds mature in October. Weight of 1000 seeds - 3,6-4,5 g.
Medicinal raw materials. All organs are Echinodea.
Biological features. Echinacea purpurea propagates by seeds or vegetatively. The laboratory germination of freshly picked achenes is 87-97%, the germination energy is 48%( on day 7).The optimal germination temperature is +20 C. In a lighted room, the seeds germinate better than in the dark. Preseeding seed treatment is not required. High germination lasts for three years. In the field, seeds are demanding for soil moisture and temperature. Echinacea sowing is necessary in the first year of vegetation( especially the first 20-35 days).This is due to the fact that the shoots are easily muffled by weeds. The first treatment of the soil is the manual weeding of the rows and the ripening of rows between rows. It is impossible to cover the shoots with earth, as they die at the same time. The formation of the multi-headed rhizome begins at the age of 2-3 years of plant life. Therefore, echinacea is recommended to collect in the second and third year of culture. Later, the quality of raw materials deteriorates.
In the flowering phase, Echinacea enters the end of June and blooms for 32-35 days. Maturation of achenes is observed in late August - early September. First, the seeds of the central baskets, then lateral, first and second orders ripen. The highest number of high quality seed achenes is formed on plants of the 2nd and 3rd years of vegetation.
Distribution. In the natural environment of Echinacea purpurea grows in the subtropical and temperate zones of North America, in mixed and deciduous forests, in the forest-steppe and steppe. As a medicinal plant, it is cultivated in Ukraine by the Institute of Medicinal Plants of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences. Areas of possible cultivation are Polissya and the forest-steppe of Ukraine.
Chemical composition. The plant contains caffeic acid derivatives, essential oil, polysaccharides, resins, phyto-sterols, various organic acids, etc.
Application. Long since Echinacea purpurea was used by Indians of North America for the treatment of festering, dol-go non-healing wounds, burns, bites of poisonous snakes. With a therapeutic purpose, fresh rhizomes with roots are used for abscesses, various infectious and septic diseases.
Echinacea preparations increase the protective forces of the body and as they are modulators of the immune system. According to foreign authors, tincture, juice, ointment injections from Echinacea are effective in bacterial, in and n, respiratory and many chronic autoimmune diseases, with septic processes in many skin, gynecological and urological diseases.
Agrotechnics of cultivation. Site selection. The highest yields of Echinacea purpurea yield on fertile, fairly humid and pure weeds, giving preference to sandy loam or light loams. The best predecessors for her are legumes and tilled crops. In the crop rotation this culture takes at least 2 years.
Soil treatment. When sowing echinacea purple after the grain precursors, the usual soil cultivation is used - stubbling and plowing to a depth of 25-27 cm.
In spring it is necessary to conduct moisture closure by harrowing. Before sowing, cultivation is carried out to a depth of 7-8 cm. To ensure a uniform depth of seed sowing, the field is rolled up with ringed( ZKK-6A) or smooth rollers in one aggregate with harrows and immediately sow.
Application of fertilizers. Echinacea purpurea is very sensitive to fertilizers. As a basic fertilizer, humus is applied at a rate of 20 t / ha and mineral fertilizers( NPK) of 60 kg / ha under plowing. To ensure the supply of plants in the early period with seeds, they sow superphosphate in a dose of 20-30 kg / ha. Top dressing of plants is carried out at the age of 2 in the phase of growth.
Reproduction. Sowing is necessary to produce dry seeds in the spring( April), when the soil warms up to +10 ° C.The sowing is carried out with vegetable seeders( SON-2,8, SKON-4,2, СО-4,2), equipped with seed depth stops at a depth of 2-3 cm, with a wide-row method with 45 cm spacing at a seeding rate of 12 kg / ha. The granulated screened superphosphate is evenly mixed with the seeds just before the mixture is filled in the drill. Seedlings appear 15-30 days after sowing.
Care for plantations. The first cultivation is carried out with cultivators with unilateral razor rails and protections and s with with shields to a depth of 4-5 cm. Weeding of weeds and spacing of rows is carried out by cultivators KRN-2,8;КРН-4,2.In total for the vegetation in the first year 3-4 interrow cultivations and 2-3 hand weeding are performed.
In the second and subsequent years of the Echinacea vegetation in the spring, before the beginning of regrowth buds, the dry stems are removed and the seeding is harvested transversely along the rows with medium and heavy harrows. Further 2-3 inter-row treatments are performed before the overground mass of plants in the beds is closed. The depth of tillage is 8-10 cm. Weeding in rows is carried out as necessary.
Harvesting. Grass harvesting for raw materials is carried out at the 2nd year of life during the first half of the mass flowering phase( July).The yield of dry grass is on average 100 centner / ha. The harvested mass is brought to the drying site and dried on conveyor or other dryers using a heat regulator. Drying is carried out at a temperature of 40-50 ° C.The yield of grass is 27%.Rhizomes and roots, depending on weather conditions, are removed in late September - early October. Before their harvest, the aboveground mass is mowed down with a silo harvester and taken out of the field. Rhizomes and roots are excavated by the potato digger KST-1,4, by means of which they are shaken off from the ground and folded on the surface. Loading of raw materials into transport can be done manually or with a valerian-harvesting combine VK-0,3 and transported to a sink.
For cleaning rhizomes and roots from the soil using drum-type washing machines, the washing is done quickly, taking 15-20 minutes for this process. Washed roots with rhizomes spread out for 1-2 days under a canopy in well-ventilated shelves or paved areas with a layer of 15-20 cm for podvyamivaniya. Raw materials shake 2-3 times a day. The dried up rhizomes are dried before drying, removing the decayed parts and remnants of the above-ground Parts.
Dry the raw materials on wireframe dryers with heat generators VPP-400, VPT-600.The drying temperature is 40-50 ° C.The dried raw materials are ground. The yield of dry roots is 22 D / ha.
Storage. In a dry, clean, well-ventilated room on the shelves.
Seed growing. To obtain seeds, seed plots can be isolated from general industrial sowings of silt to lay them specially for this purpose.
Agrotechnics for growing and caring for seed plantations are the same as for raw materials. Collect the seeds of echinacea from the second year of vegetation. They ripen unevenly. Cleaning is started when the achenes in the central and lateral baskets of the second order acquire a dark brown color, and their forelock is easily separated.
Calendar time for harvesting achenes is the end of September - beginning of October, depending on the weather conditions of the year. The seedlings are cleaned manually by ripping the baskets and putting them into bags, or by the grain harvester SK-5.For the separation of chumbers the threshed mass is passed through clover. Seedling can not be sown if among them there are fruits and seeds of quarantine weeds, pests and diseases. Preserve achenes in bags, according to GOST 6070-80 40 kg in dry warehouses on racks located at a height of not less than 10 cm from the floor.
The yield of acacia seeds of Echinacea purpurea from 2-3-year-old plantations is 2.5-3.0 c / ha.