Agroclimatic substantiation of common fennel cultivation in the Western Forest-Steppe

Abstract

Common fennel, as a plant with a wide range of uses and a highly profitable crop, is of great interest to researchers and agricultural producers and determines the relevance of the study on the adaptation of the crop in the Western Forest-Steppe zone and the complex of technological factors in its cultivation. The purpose of the study was to identify the influence of active and effective temperatures, sowing time, row spacing width, and seeding rate on the productivity of common fennel. In the course of the study, general scientific, mathematical and statistical methods were used. In the conditions of the Western Forest-Steppe, the authors investigated the sums of active and effective temperatures in dynamics in the context of different weather conditions of the years of research and vegetation phases of common fennel plants. As a result of the conducted studies, the indicators of integral photosynthetic active radiation in the growing, generative, and vegetative periods of plant growth and development were analysed. The yield level of common fennel seeds, when grown on deep low-humus chernozems, was determined, depending on the sowing period and the seeding rate for row spacing under different weather conditions during the years of research. A correlation analysis was performed according to the indicators of the yield of common fennel seeds and total temperatures, which can be attributed to the main uncontrolled factors affecting the yield of agricultural crops in a particular growing zone. The expediency of growing common fennel in the conditions of the Western Forest-Steppe of Ukraine was proved in terms of the sum of active and effective temperatures during the growing season of fennel, which contributed to the generation of a sufficiently high seed yield, and the optimal sowing time, seeding rate, and row spacing for growing crops in specific soil and climatic conditions of the zone were established. The practical value of the study is conditioned by the development of recommendations for production for agricultural enterprises in the conditions of the Western Forest-Steppe on optimising the complex of technological factors in the cultivation of common fennel