ROSPECTS FOR CULTIVATING BLUE LUPINE

Abstract

The paper presents the results of blue lupine variety studies by the main economic and useful features. The authors determine the efficiency of grain production of early-ripening lupine variety of Ladny in the Northern region of Russia. The research was carried out in the plant growing laboratory of the Arkhangelsk Research Institute of Agriculture located on the premises of the unitary enterprise “Kotlasskoe”. When selecting plants for testing within the Northern agricultural zone, the authors were guided by the goal to identify productive varieties of blue lupine, which could well develop under local natural conditions and the conventional system of farm production adopted in the Northern region. In the course of research, five varieties were studied: Fazan, Dikaf, Ladny (FRC “Nemchinovka”), Siderat, Nadezhda (All-Russian Lupine Research Institute). The main limiting factor in the conditions of the North is the early maturation of the variety. In the present research, the shortest growing season of 55 days for green mass and 89–110 days for grain was found with the Ladny variety. Among all the samples, the yield of green mass and dry matter was observed for late-ripening samples of Nadezhda-31.1 t/ha and 5.3 t/ha, Siderat – 46–36.7 t/ha and 36.7 t/ha, respectively. The yield of green mass in the early-ripening Ladny variety amounted to 30.0 t/ha, dry matter – 4.8 t/ha. According to the grain yield for all three years of testing, the early-ripening precocious Ladny variety ranked first with a yield of 2.00 t/ha. In 2019, the seed yield was obtained only from this variety, while the other varieties did not mature at all. The Ladny variety surpassed all the tested varieties in terms of the feed value of the green mass. In the present research, the economic efficiency of introducing the Ladny lupine variety into grain forage production was 143% as for protein yield per hectare and the profitability accounted for 326%. Thus, when selecting early-ripening varieties, the use of blue lupine for grain-forage purposes in the Subarctic zone is feasible and economically profitable.