Sainfoin (Esparcet, Pipirigallo)

Common saifon (Esparcet, Pipirigallo) - Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.
Ornamental, honey-bearing and medicinal green manure.
100 g = 15 m2.
A small perennial shrub from the legume family with lilac (white, yellow, purple or pink) flowers, the trunk of which is abundantly covered with thorns.
In addition to its medicinal properties, sainfoin is used not only as a forage crop and honey plant, but also as a plant that restores soil fertility well.
The taproot is highly branched, penetrates the soil to a depth of 1-2 m. The stem is erect, bushy, up to 90 cm high. The leaves are complex, pinnate, dark green. Flowers are collected in short, dense brushes. Blooms in July.
Highly attractive and decorative, green manure and highly valuable forage crop, an excellent honey plant. Recommended for cultivation as an ornamental crop, for improving and draining the soil to a greater depth, as a forage and medicinal crop.
As an intermediate crop, it enriches the soil with nitrogen. It produces a large green mass and suppresses weeds. It improves the properties of the soil due to its powerful and well-developed root system. It is drought-resistant and disease-resistant. It is not suitable for acidic and peaty soils. It is a very good honey plant. Due to its bright pink flowers, it is often included in perennial meadow flower mixtures.
Sowing from May. Sowing depth is 1-1.5 cm. Seeding rate: 6-8 g/m² (pure sowing), 1-2 g/m² (mixed sowing).
The yield of green mass is 5-6 kg/m². 

Sainfoin, Esparcet, Pipirigallo. Bot. syn.: Onobrychis sativa L., Hedysarum onobrychis L.

In the first year, sainfoin produces a single stem, and then begins to bush out. It blooms after the gardens have finished blooming: at the end of May-June, for a long time (from 2 to 3.5 weeks), in the interval between the end of the flowering of spring and the beginning of the flowering of summer honey plants.
Due to the exceptionally abundant secretion of nectar and a large amount of pollen, almost all flying bees brought in for honey collection and pollination of apiaries are concentrated on the flowering sainfoin crops.
For complete pollination of crops, it is necessary to have apiaries at the rate of: 4 bee colonies for each hectare of crops. The placement of apiaries should ensure the most even distribution of bees across the crops. On very large crops, apiaries should be located no further than 1.5 km from each other. On a small crop, an apiary should be placed in the center of the crop or in close proximity to it. The average honey productivity of 1 ha of sainfoin sowing is about 100 kg.
Sainfoin agricultural technology.
Sainfoin, unlike alfalfa, is less demanding of soils and is distinguished by its ability to absorb poorly soluble nutrients. It does not tolerate acidic soils, but grows well on sandy and sandy loam soils, as well as on all types of carbonate soils. Various crops can be predecessors for sainfoin.
It can be sown in pure form, under cover or in a mixture with other cereal and legume grasses. Soil cultivation for sainfoin consists of peeling to a depth of 5 - 7 cm. In case of severe contamination with root-suckering weeds, after 2 - 3 weeks, repeat peeling is carried out, and then plowing. In spring, the field is harrowed in two tracks and inter-row sowing is carried out simultaneously with the cover crop using grain-grass seeders. When sowing under winter crops, sowing is carried out using disk seeders across the rows of the cover crop. Sainfoin seeds begin to germinate at a temperature of +1+2°C, the optimum temperature is +18+25°C.
Sainfoin has high winter hardiness and drought resistance. Sainfoin does not tolerate shading well.
Approximate seeding rate (per 1 ha): in the steppe zone 70-80 kg, and in the forest-steppe 80-100 kg. The depth of seed placement on heavy soils is 3-4 cm, on light soils 4-5 cm.