Herbaceous crops are fundamental in the agricultural production of our country. We are going to discuss the cultivation of grasses and how the way to control the irrigation with probes in herbaceous can improve their quality and quantity.
What do we understand by herbaceous crops?
Herbaceous crops are cereals that we grow to obtain grain as a main product and straw as a by-product. Once dry straw has multiple applications, as feed for livestock and as a product for compost.
We are going to focus on grasses, herbaceous grain:
- Wheat , which can be soft (used for bakery flour) and hard more used for pasta or semolina.
- Barley , one of the most cultivated herbaceous since ancient times.
- Rye , highly valued for bakery after wheat.
- Oats , essential for livestock feed along with barley.
- Triticale : wheat and rye cross cereal.
- Corn : one of the oldest herbaceous. Also the one that reaches the highest. It is one of the most demanding in irrigation.
Herbaceous characteristics
As its name indicates, herbaceous crops are herbs, considered vascular plants, that is, they do not have a woody stem, with a fasciculate root system and annual, binual or perennial cycles.
Our goal is to focus on irrigation of herbaceous crops . We already have experience since 2018 in controlling irrigation with probes in which we have already studied the different types of land and the forms of irrigation most used as sprinklers by Pivot , runoff or drip.
Herbaceous roots are of three types:
- Adventicias : they are born after the nodes that brush the surface and serve as a support for the plant, especially if it is windy.
- Permanent : they are born when the plant emerges from the ground.
- Primary : are those that absorb nutrients and water from the soil.
The roots vary somewhat in size, depending on the species. Absorption is carried out mainly in the first 25 centimeters.
Wheat and barley have a root system that can reach a meter deep.
Rye and oats have deeper roots and are better suited to sandier soils.
Corn also has anchor-like roots for support and absorption roots are not very deep either.
It is not advisable to sow in clay soils and neither in flooded land.
Nutrición de los herbáceos
Uno de los principales nutrientes de los herbáceos es el abono orgánico procedente de purines, compost y rastrojos de otras cosechas.
Además debemos aportar minerales , especialmente en cultivos intensivos:
- Nitrógeno: es el mineral más importante para conseguir un buen desarrollo de las plantas, especialmente del tallo. que sirve de soporte a la planta..
- Fósforo: favorece el sistema radicular, por tanto la extracción de otros nutrientes. Es muy importante en la formación del grano.
- Potasio: ayuda a evitar enfermedades.
- Magnesio y azufre: repercuten en el desarrollo del grano.
Irrigation with probes in herbaceous
Large expanses of herbaceous are difficult to control if we do not resort to precision agriculture, to obtain information from the air with drones or satellite images and from the subsoil with humidity, temperature and conductivity sensors or probes. Fundamentally for its extension and density of the crop.
The irrigation with probes in herbaceous is very important because we already indicated that the root system is small and therefore they do not seek moisture at great depths. That implies that we have to maintain a constant and controlled irrigation, especially if there is a lot of evaporation.
- Control with humidity probes will allow me to assess the need for irrigation and prevent the plant from suffering from water stress. They adapt to different root depths.
- The conductivity sensors assess the amount of salts accumulated by evaporation, which is usually high in this type of plantation and more so in the areas of Castilla during spring and summer. The accumulation of salts occurs because the evaporated water does not contain salts. Those carried by the irrigation water remain accumulated around the wet bulb and on the surface of the land. The higher the irrigation, the more salinity. The absorption of the small roots suffers because the soil with the salts is compacted.
- The subsoil temperature probe indicates the health of the root system and its possible alterations.
View the irrigation with probes in your herbaceous crops from your mobile
As we have already indicated on multiple occasions, the sensors are wireless, with a Hub / receiver that sends signals to the platform and in real time the farmer receives information about the crop on his mobile or tablet .
As we have already indicated on multiple occasions, the sensors are wireless, with a Hub / receiver that sends signals to the platform and in real time the farmer receives information about the crop on his mobile or tablet .
We can also measure relative humidity and outside temperature . All without travel and saving time, water and energy.
Our team of technicians assesses the plantation, the type of land and determines the key points that we must control. In addition to the installation, they advise you on everything related to precision agriculture that is increasingly on the rise.
English 
Spanish