PRODUCTIVITY OF AMARANTH OF CULTIVAR IRISTON IN THE CONDITIONS OF NORTH OSSETIA—ALANIA - Ecological Consequences of Increasing Crop Productivity - page 30

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Finding ways to improve the use and introduction of nontraditional plants to create
new food products, as well as facilities for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry,
is an urgent requirement. One of these objectives in the mountains and foothills of the
Republic of North Ossetia — Alania is the culture of amaranth, in particular, creating a
new cultivar of Iriston [1, 2].
The productivity of forage crops, including amaranth, primarily depends on the
individual plant stand of grass, which is highly dependent on the method of planting
and seeding rate [3]. Creating optimal density grass is the key to obtain high yield. In
the initial phases of development amaranth plants grow slowly. In this regard, special
attention should be paid to the treatment of soil, retaining moisture in the top layer,
because the depth of seed placement is small (1-2 cm). Germination begins with the
formation of plant density, which in turn allows estimation of fi eld germination and
preservation of plants [3-5].

4.2 MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY
For the purpose of increasing the efficiency of a new grade of an amaranth of Iriston,
we studied ways of crops at row-spacings of 15 cm (narrow-rowed) and 45 cm (wide-
row) with norm of seeding of seeds 1.5, 1.75, and 2 million pieces/ha. At this we
studied viability of seeds, proportion of surviving seeds (%), density of grass stand,
photosynthetic activity, considering the area of leaves (AL), and the photosynthetic
potential, productivity of green material and seeds from unit of area. The photosyn-
thetic potential is an indicator, which is used for an assessment of a condition of crops
[5]. It represents the sum of daily indicators of the area of leaves for a certain period
on unit of area. The area of each allotment made 30 m 2 in quadruple frequency. Green
material was analyzed according to the content of nutrients (fodder pieces, a digestible
protein, solid, exchange energy).

4.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As a result, it was shown that the viability of seeds and plant survival completely depen-
dent on seeding rate and method of sowing culture (Table 4.1).

TABLE 4.1 Influence of ways and norms of seeding on field viability and safety of plants of
an amaranth of a grade of Iriston (an average for 2010-2012)

Density of plants
(one thousand pieces/ha)

Norm of seeding
(one million
pieces/ha)

Field
germination
(%)

Safety
(%)

Way of crops

In a phase of
shoots

Before
harvesting

1.5 944.4 220.6 63.0 23.4

15 сm
(ordinary way)

1.75 1107.6 242.3 63.3 21.9

2.0 1270.8 267.5 63.5 21.1

0.5 318.2 135.6 63.6 42.6

45 сm
(wide row)

0.75 482.1 156.8 64.3 32.5

1.0 663.5 174.4 66.4 26.3