Foxtail millet seeds «Mogar»

Foxtail millet «Mogar» / Setaria italica subsp. mocharium - an annual cultivated plant, a food and fodder crop similar in its qualities to millet. It is cultivated for hay, green fodder, silage and grain, as a cereal crop. The height of the stems ranges from 60 to 150 cm. The stems are erect, well leafy, in rare cases branching a little.

Blooms from July to August. Mogar flowers are often used in bouquets and flower arrangements. To make dry bouquets, stems with unripened panicles and seeds are cut. In this state, they retain their decorative effect for a long time. Otherwise, the inflorescences will quickly crumble and lose their attractiveness.

In cooking, the use of mogar is quite rare, except in countries where a large number of the population is simply starving. There, porridge is mainly boiled from millet seeds. In vegetarian food, products made from mogar flour are increasingly common. Flour is used for baking bread, making pasta and other products for which flour can be used. Sprouted seeds are also added to salads and cold dishes.

Mogar grain is a valuable bird feed. In terms of yield, in most areas it is inferior to Sudanese grass, but it is more drought-resistant, less demanding on heat and soil, and more early.

Mogar can be placed after any crop, but the best predecessors for it are legumes and fertilized row crops. Mogar is harvested early, so it is a good forerunner for cereals and row crops.

The soil is treated in the same way as for sowing millet. Seed sowing rate (per 1 ha): in dry steppe regions 8-12 kg, in the forest-steppe zone 15 kg, in areas of sufficient moisture up to 20 kg. The method of sowing is continuous row and wide-row when grown for hay and wide-row when grown for seeds. The seeding depth is 2-4 cm. Mogars are sown when the soil at a depth of 10 cm warms up to 8-10 °C. Approximate doses of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash fertilizers are 30-45 kg of active ingredient per 1 ha.

Seeds begin to germinate at 10°C. The optimum temperature for seed germination is 20°C. Seedlings suffer greatly from the sun and do not withstand frost. Drought resistance is high, with a lack of moisture stops growth. It can stay in this state for a long time and then, after precipitation, it forms a completely satisfactory crop.

Mogar tillering occurs 17-25 days after germination. The most intensive increase in plant mass is observed in the period from the heading of the sultan to flowering. The length of the growing season, depending on the variety and growing conditions, is 90 - 130 days.

Harvest for hay at the beginning of the appearance of panicles. The cutting height is 7 - 8 cm. The seeds are harvested when the panicles turn brown, and the seeds become waxy.