Due to the fact that the word "cultivate" is used in various areas of life, some may be overcome by doubts about whether we use it correctly. This concept has Latin roots and comes from the word cultus - literally "cultivate, create specially." Therefore, the meaning of the word "cultivate" is "provide conditions for development." When ancient man moved from gathering to farming, he tried to grow edible plants, taking care of ideal conditions, close to natural.
As a result of persistent efforts, the plant world was divided into wild and cultivated species, that is, cultivated. For example, wild raspberries - they tried to cultivate this berry not only for its pleasant taste, but also because of its medicinal properties. As a result, we can now enjoy many varieties of raspberries with different fruiting periods. The growing season of this berry has increased and lasts for almost the entire summer and autumn. The same can be said aboutessential crops such as wheat, potatoes and rice.
Cultivating is a labor intensive process
In order for wild plants to give a good harvest, you need to try to replace them with not always favorable natural conditions for comfortable, but artificially created ones. This is what primitive cultivation is all about: planting the seeds of desired plants in soil freed from competing species, replacing the missing rains with artificial irrigation, fighting pests to the best of your ability - then the harvest will always please. Now “cultivating” also means selecting the most suitable plant varieties for a given climatic zone in order to reduce, if possible, the amount of physical effort and money spent on their survival.
What is land cultivation?
You can cultivate potatoes or rice, but what is land cultivation? By and large, this is a set of measures aimed at improving the composition of the soil in order to prepare it for planting agricultural plants. In a narrow sense, "cultivate" is "to loosen and remove weeds." These manipulations can be done manually, using a shovel, hoe, chopper, rake, or involve mechanization. For example, a tractor with a cultivator is able to quickly process a fairly large area of land. But are such efforts justified?
New cultivation methods
For more than ten years, a new way of cultivating the soil has been popularized, which does notinvolves seasonal digging and careful destruction of weeds. Numerous summer residents and amateur enthusiasts try to do without exhausting loosening and regular weeding, growing vegetables and berries on a thick layer of mulch, and weeds are simply cut at the root and sent to compost.
According to observations, this can significantly reduce labor costs, but can this approach be considered cultivation? Of course, since its main goal is to improve the quality and structure of the soil to increase productivity. It is not necessary to loosen and dig up the earth to make it better, so new cultivation methods have already received an army of fans. There is no longer a huge amount of work that was previously considered necessary and required a lot of effort. Fertile soil resources are not wasted, even weeds become useful, and under a thick layer of mulch their rapid growth is inhibited. The new method allows significant savings in irrigation water, and yields increase.
Cultivation of plants
Growing crops requires a smart approach. An unsuccessful selection of a variety, such as tomatoes, will seriously affect the yield, which is why cultivated plants are selected individually for each region. The composition of the soil, climatic conditions, and the presence of pests are taken into account.
Agronomy is the scientific approach to farming. After the triumphant march of pesticides and herbicides across the fields, agriculture is gradually moving to less aggressive methods of growing plants. Modern agronomic methods allow you to get a large amount of production from smaller plots of land and at reduced labor costs.
