MANGOLDS CROP HEAVILY ON HERETAUNGA PLAINS

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 78, Issue 5, 16 May 1949, Page 504

MANGOLDS CROP HEAVILY ON HERETAUNGA PLAINS

ON the fertile new soils of Hawke’s Bay’s Heretaunga Plains probably no more sure and prolific crop is grown than mangolds. If the necessary work is put into the land, a heavy crop is assured. R. P. Hill, Fields Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Hastings, describes methods of preparation and cultivation.

MANGOLDS are grown principally IVI as a cash crop, the roots being sold to hill-country sheep farmers for sheep and cattle feed and to dairy farmers who are unable to grow their own roots. Some sheep farmers on the plains grow their own mangolds in rotation with ryegrass seed, the crop being lifted in May, stored in clamps, and fed out to breeding ewes after the pumpkins are finished. Feed aSSUred UntU the end ° , s ‘ On the rich silt soils skim ploughing does not appear necessary. The crop is always grown out of pasture, which is disced heavily in August, deep ploughed in September, given several double cuts with the discs, then fallowed for two or three weeks, after which it is again disced several times, rolled, and the seed drilled in at the rate of 5 to 61b. an acre in rows from 24 to 28in. apart, depending on the width of the implement to be used for

cultivation. About lcwt. of superphosphate or a mixture of superphosphate with blood and bone is drilled with the seed. Finally the paddock is chain harrowed. As soon as the plants are through and the rows are defined the land is cultivated with a scarifier, and the cultivation is continued until the leaves are meeting in the rows. When the plants are about 4in. high they are thinned to a distance of 12 to 15in. The amount of work Put into the land to grow this crop is probably more than that required for potatoes, but the yields justify the work. An crop °L man g°ld s own ., on + n the manner described prTJrJJf c j°?> weighed m the Society s com Pul y +hrll d 19n° wp B 3 a iin e + and next three 120, 115, and 110 tons, The varieties most grown are Yellow Globe and Tankard, which invariably produce the highest yields.