Harvesting fiber flax

Harvesting fiber flax is a rather labor-intensive and responsible job, on which not only the preservation of the grown crop, but also the quality of the flax product largely depends. Harvesting and primary processing of flax accounts for up to 75% of all costs in flax growing.

When cultivating fiber flax in commercial crops, fiber and seeds are obtained at the same time, so it must be harvested at a time when the largest amount of fiber with the best quality can be collected and seeds, suitable after ripening for sowing and processing into oil. This period is called technical ripeness of flax.

The optimal time for harvesting fiber flax crops in terms of fiber quality, its physical and mechanical properties and spinning ability is considered to be the early yellow ripeness phase. Cleaning is carried out in a short time - in 10... 12 days. For seed crops, the optimal harvest time is the yellow ripeness phase; seeds are harvested in 5...6 days.

If a farm begins harvesting commercial crops in the yellow ripeness phase, which lasts 5...7 days, then there is a danger of harvesting part of the crop in the full ripeness phase. When fiber flax is fully ripe, the fiber becomes brittle, coarsens, produces a lot of waste during processing, and the stems are more difficult to age.

Greenish flax trust, harvested in the flowering phase, is characterized by poor bast separation, gives a high percentage of waste, and fiber yield decreases by 25%. In addition, unripe (green) seeds are usually not viable.

With any harvesting method, it is important to correctly determine the stage of ripeness of flax on the root. In production conditions, the ripeness phase is determined by the length of the stem, freed from leaves, by the color of the boxes and the seeds they contain.