Cropping Systems, Tillage and Crop Establishment

Tillage is a critical step in land preparation before planting with the benefits of pest control, incorporation of residues, manures and lime. Moreover it provides a seedbed for seeding equipment and alters physical conditions and temperatures of the soil. Due to the raising demand for the Quinoa, the cultivation of Quinoa became more mechanized and leaves traditional farming systems behind. However the traditional farming systems are seen as much more sustainable and the intensive use of machinery affects the soil in the Quinoa producing regions in Bolivia. One of the tools used today is the plough and the sowing machine which lossens the subsoil and allows pests to breed. Moreover the rotary plough and the disc flow is used which is seen as less sustainable than the traditional farming systems. (Quinoa Production, n.d)  Even though these practices are used, the plant is naturally able to give a high yield without any of these intensive soil tillage. (Wageningen,n .d)

When we are talking about cropping systems we mean the management of crops in space and time that efficiently uses the available climatic and soil resources in that region. Cropping systems can be classified as two group which are continuous cropping and crop rotation. Crop rotation is generally used in the production of quinoa and it is a planned sequence of different crops that are grown over the year on the same land. In this case Quinoa farmers experienced that the crop is grown most efficiently when it is rotated each year with either potatoes or wheat. This should be done in order to give the plant at least one year to ´rest´. (N.Romer, 2015)

Crop establishment on the other side indicated the key factors for good crop development. So it is all about the plants requirements in order to be healthy and produce. In this case the quinoa seed should be planted in a depth of ½ to 1 cm, depending on the soil type and soil moisture. The seed should also have a good seed to soil contact and the soil moisture level need to be controlled. In case the quinoa plant is grown in rows, the space between the individual plants should be about 50 cm, leaving the plant enough space to expend. (A. F. Crop Manual, 1992)

References

Bolivia, Q. P. (n.d). Environmental Problems . year accessed:  2016 from https://sites.google.com/a/cornell.edu/quinoa-production-in-bolivia/analysis/environmental

manual, A. f. (1992). Quinoa. year accessed: 2016 from https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/quinoa.html

Romer, N. (23. 12 2015 ). Do you know where yor Quinoa comes from? . year acessed: 2016 from http://nacla.org/news/2015/12/23/do-you-know-where-your-quinoa-comes

Wageningen. (n.d ). Quinoa .year accessed:  2016 from http://www.wur.nl/en/Expertise-Services/Research-Institutes/show-6/Quinoa-1.htm

Weeds

Weeds are generally classified as plants that grown in places where they are unwanted or cause damage. Therefore any plant can be a weed under the right circumstances. The control of weed in the Quinoa production is problematic because of the slow growth of the plant during the first two weeks after emerge. Some common weeds in the Quinoa production are pigweed, Kochia, Lamsquaters and sunflower. Moreover there are problems to separate wild mustard and sunflower from the Quinoa seed. Commercially herbicides are used to control weeds during crop production however there are no registered herbicides for quinoa at this time. What can be deducted at this time is however,  that the competition from weeds is much greater when quinoa is planted later in the growing season. Moreover numbers of some weeds such as Kochia and Lamsquaters can be reduced when field irrigation is followed by cultivation before seeding.  On the other side pigweed emerges later in the growing season depending on the cultivation practices. Therefore it might be an effective way to control pigweed by planting quinoa on an earlier stage which gives quinoa a good start before the pigweed even has the opportunity to emerge. In general it can be seen that the emergence of weeds can be controlled by methods which are linked to organic farming systems such as crop rotation. These methods are seen as more sustainable than the weed control used in intensive farming systems. (E.A.Oelke, 1992)

References

E.A.Oelke, D. P. (1992). Year accessed: 2016 from Quinoa : https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/quinoa.html

Anatomy and Morphology of Quinoa

The anatomy of a plant refers to the study of arrangements of cells, tissues, organs and other structures of an organism. Where, on the other side Morphology is explained as the study of the form and structure of plants. This article is explaining the anatomy and morphology of Quinoa.

First of all, Quinoa is a dicot plant which means that it has 2 seed leaves or cotyledon within the embryo. The embryo which constitutes the root and the cotyledon is surrounding the seed Perisperm. The Perisperm is the storage organ in the quinoa seed and contains primary starch. Besides the central Perisperm, other two areas are classified to reserve food in the quinoa seed. These are the peripheral embryo and the one to two layered Endosperm, which is surrounding the hypocotyl- radicle axis of the embryo. (I.Prego, 1998)  The major difference between Cereal grains and the quinoa fruit is therefore that the storage reserves for the developing embryo can be found in the Perisperm rather than the endosperm.

Figure1: Chenopodium Quinoa seed

The Picture shows the Chenopodium quinoa seed and explains chemical compostion and how it is made uto the left p. The abbreviations stand for the followig. PE: Pericarp, SC: Seed cover, EN: Endosperm, C: Cotyledons, H: Hypocotyl, SA: Apical Meristem, R: Radicle, P: Perisperm, F:Funiculus,

The basic colors of the quinoa plant are green, purple and red. However the color of the plant changes in general during the maturity phase of the plant. Therefore green plants become white, yellow, orange or red at maturity. Where on the other side, purple plants might turn yellow or even stay purple when maturing. And the red Quinoa plants stay red throughout their life. The different colors of Quinoa are due to the wide spectrum of colors which can be found in the vegetative organs and the Perigonium. The color of the pericarp ranges in colors from yellow, red, orange and white through to black and brown.

Quinoa has a vigorous, deep- routing tap root system which is divided below the root- neck, giving rise to secondary and tertiary roots. Due to the developed branched system, the plant is more resistant to drought.

The leaves of the Quinoa plant are long, fine and furrowed.  The task of the leaves is to possess morphological adaptions, which helps the plant to withstand drought during growth.

The stem of the Quinoa plant is below the root- neck but above the alternating positions of the leaves. The cortex of the plant is firm and compact where the outer stem might be green, green with purple or red stripes, red or green with red axils. The branches of the Quinoa plant are originating from the axils of each leaf on the stem. Therefore the length of the branches might vary from a few centimeters to the same length as the main stem which actually depends on the cultivar as well as the environmental conditions. When a Quinoa plant is cultivated on low density, the plant is likely to branch to some to some extent which is seen as an undesirable characteristic for grain production. Therefore, branching need to be minimized by cultivation techniques.

As Quinoa is from the genus Chenopodium, the plant has incomplete flowers without petals. Accordingly the flowers are hermaphrodite or female, where the hermaphrodite has a size between 2 and 5 mm and consists of 5 numbered perigoniums. Additionally it has a pistol with two or three branched stigma which is surrounded by 5 Stamen. The female flowers on the other side have a size of one to three mm and consist of five numbered perigonium and pistol. (Plantwise Knowledge bank, n.d)

Figure 2: Quinoa plant  (Australian Quinoa. n.d)

The plant can reach a height of 6 ½ ft and arrives at its final maturity between 90 to 125 after it has been planted. The picture to the right shows a basic figure of the quinoa plant and describes briefly its most important characteristics.

References

Bank, P. K. (n.d). Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) . year access: 2016 from http://www.plantwise.org/KnowledgeBank/Datasheet.aspx?dsid=12655

Imelda Prego, S. M. (12. March 1998). Seed Structure and Localization of Reserves in Chenopodium quinoa. Year accessed:  2016 from http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/82/4/481.full.pdf

Quinoa, A. (n.d ). The quinoa plant .year accessed:2016 from http://www.ausquinoa.com.au/the-quinoa-story/the-quinoa-plant/