Spring Crops

annual agricultural crops that are planted in the spring and produce a harvest in the planting year. For normal development, spring crops need a shorter (spring) period of lowered temperatures (3°–12 C) than winter crops.

Spring crops comprise most cultivated plants, including bread grains (spring wheat, rye, and barley), groat crops (millet, buckwheat, and rice), legumes (peas, beans, and lentils), oil plants (sunflower, soybean, and sesame), fiber crops (flax and cotton), vegetables (cucumbers, pumpkins, dill, and lettuce), and feed grasses (seradella, spring vetch, and Sudan grass). Biennials that produce a harvest in the planting year (cabbage and many root crops) and perennials raised as one-year crops (tomatoes, tobacco, and castor-oil plant) are also regarded as spring crops.

The most widely planted spring crops are rice, wheat, corn, beans, soybeans, and cotton. It is possible to raise spring crops in all farming regions, including the Far North, where winter crops are not raised because of harsh winter conditions. Spring crops occupy 165.3 million hectares (ha) in the USSR, about 80 percent of the total planted area (1977). The most widely planted crops are spring grains (103 million ha), silage corn (17.2 million ha), and industrial crops (14.7 million ha).