Wheat Production

Growth Stages
Crop Cycle
Weather

Virendra Singh Ayush Agarwal

Growth Stages

Importance:

➔ Fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides are most effective and profitable when
applied at specific times during wheat development.
➔ Understanding of important growth stages and characteristics would
improve crop yields ( kilograms/hectare) significantly.
➔ Chemicals applied at a wrong growth stage may be in effective or may even
damage crop.
Growth Stages

Scales

➔ Feekes
➔ Haun
➔ Zadoks
➔ BBCH Scale

Zadoks and BBCH are primarily used in Europe while Feekes is more widely used
in United States. Hence Feekes would be our scale of measurement for all the
growth stages in the wheat production process.
Growth Stages

FEEKES SCALE

➔ Is a numerical scale which, begins with Feekes 1.0 (Describing emergence)

and ends at 11.4 ( Describes mature plant that is ready for harvest)
➔ Stages in Feekes are:
● Feekes 1: Emergence
● Feekes 2-3: Tillering
● Feekes 4-5: Green UP
● Feekes 6: Jointing
● Feekes 7-8: Two Nodes and Flag Leaf
● Feekes 9-11: Boot stage, Flowering and Maturity
Growth Stages
Growth Stages

FEEKES 1.0: Emergence Until The Onset of Tillering

➔ One Shoot Formed

➔ Can be divided into 1.1, 1.2 depending on number of leaves unfolded from a
single shoot.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 2.0: Beginning of Tillering

➔ A tiller is a stem produced by grass plants

➔ Refers to all shoots that grow after the initial parent shoot grows from seed.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 3.0: Tillers Formed

➔ Leaves begin to twist spirally.

➔ Many winter wheats are prostrate or “creeping”(Slow) at stage 3. Winter
wheat can continue to tiller for several weeks.
➔ Most of the tillers that contribute to grain yield potential are completed
during this stage.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 4.0: Beginning of Erect Growth

➔ Leaf sheaths lengthened.

➔ Most tillers have been formed by this stage
➔ Secondary root system is developing
➔ The growing point is still below the soil.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 5.0: Leaf Sheaths Strongly Erect

➔ All meaningful tiller development has ceased.

➔ Many varieties of winter wheat grow vertically at this stage.
➔ Further development of winter wheat requires vernalization, it is a period of cool weather.
➔ During Feekes stage 5, and after vernalization, the growing point (while below the soil)
differentiates.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 6.0: First Node Visible

➔ The first node appears above the soil line.

➔ Earlier they were compressed together below the soil line.
➔ Vernalization is required prior to spikelet differentiation.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 7.0: Second Node and Next To Last Leaf Visible

➔ The rapid expansion of the spike

➔ the appearance of a second node above the soil surface.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 8.0: Flag Leaf Visible

➔ The flag leaf is the last upper youngest leaf on a stem.

➔ Now at least 3 nodes are visible above the soil surface.
➔ The flag leaf makes up about 75% of the effective leaf area
that contributes to grain fill.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 9.0: Ligule of Flag Leaf Visible

➔ Determined by the full emergence of the flag leaf.

➔ Ligule (a “fleshy” collar-like) at the base of the flag leaf
visible
➔ From this stage on, the leaves are referred to by their
relation to the flag leaf, i.e.; the first leaf below the flag
leaf is F-1, the second below is F-2, etc.
Growth Stages

FEEKES 10.0: Boot Stage

➔ The head is fully developed, but has not yet emerged from the leaf sheath
below the flag leaf.
➔ The leaf sheath containing the fully developed head is called the “boot”.
➔ Feekes stage 10 is divided into multiple sections as follows.
10.0 Boot stage 10.5 Heading complete

10.1 Awns visible, heads emerging through slit of flag leaf sheath 10.5.1 Beginning flowering

10.2 Heading ¼ complete 10.5.2 Flowering complete to top of spike

10.3 Heading ½ complete 10.5.3 Flowering complete to base of spike

10.4 Heading ¾ complete 10.5.4 Kernels watery ripe

Growth Stages

FEEKES 10.0: Boot Stage

Growth Stages

FEEKES 11.0: Ripening

➔ This stage refers only to the maturity or development of the grain.

➔ It is sub-divided as follows.

11.1 Milky ripe

11.2 Mealy ripe

11.3 Kernel hard

11.4 Harvest ready

➔ The grain fill period varies somewhat, depending on climate, requiring about 30 days in a high
stress environments to more than 50 days in high yield, low stress environments.
Growth Stages

Haun Scale

➔ The Haun system is concerned mainly with the leaf production stage of
development. However, tiller and grain development are not described.
➔ A number, called a growth unit, is assigned to each leaf as it develops, and
to flag leaf sheath elongation, booting, heading and peduncle elongation.
➔ The length of each emerging leaf is expressed as a fraction of the length of
the preceding fully emerged leaf.
➔ For example, a 3.2 indicates that three leaves are fully emerged, and a fourth
leaf has emerged two-tenths of the length of the third. ( basically number of
leaves = 3 + 2/10)
Growth Stages

Zadoks Scale

➔ The scale is based on ten principal plant development stages, which are divided into secondary
stages.
➔ A new leaf is counted as fully emerged when 50 percent of the leaf blade has unfolded.
➔ Two or more codes may be used to describe a plant using the Zadoks scale.
➔ For example, wheat that has six leaves unfolded (16), three tillers (23) and one node on the main
stem (31) would be staged as 16, 23, 31.
➔ The first digit of this two-digit code refers to the principal stage of development beginning with
germination (stage 0) and ending with kernel ripening (stage 9).
➔ Use of the second digit between 0 and 9 subdivides each principal growth stage.
Growth Stages

BBCH Scale

➔ BBCH = Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt and CHemische Industrie, Germany

➔ The BBCH-scale is a scale used to identify the phenological development stages of a plant.
➔ Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced
by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation).
➔ The BBCH-scale uses a decimal code system, which is divided into principal and secondary
growth stages, and is based on the cereal code system developed by Zadoks.
Crop Cycles

Throughout the growing season, the plant both changes in form (development)
and accumulates dry matter (growth).

Key facts: –

Development is governed by temperature and day length

The rate at which wheat passes through its life cycle may only be managed
through variety choice and sowing date
The key phases

At successive growth stages, crop processes ‘switch’ on or off. Key stages are
crop emergence (GS10), the start of stem extension (GS31), flowering (GS61)
and the end of grain filling (GS87). These key stages separate the important
phases.

Crop development can be divided into three phases:

Foundation, Construction and Production

Development phases

The duration of each phase is governed by:

1) Vernalisation: A period of cool temperatures (0–12ºC) advances floral

development. Vernalisation reduces the duration of the Foundation Phase.
Winter wheat varieties respond strongly to vernalisation; spring wheats may
have a slight response.
2) Temperature: Affects the duration of all crop development phases. Warmth
shortens phase length. More growth occurs in any phase during cool, rather
than warm, temperatures as phase duration is prolonged.
3) Day length: Long days advance floral development in most varieties. Day
length affects the duration of both Foundation and Construction Phases. Almost
all commercial UK wheat varieties respond to day length. Varieties vary in their
response to vernalisation and daylength.
Stress-sensitive stages

1. The apex is frost tolerant until reproductive development starts.

2. Susceptibility to frost damage is highest when the ear is developing.
3. Frost risk falls significantly from April.
4. Overall risk of damage is lowest in late May and early June; from July
onwards, drought risk increases.
5. Radiation frosts can damage the ear, especially at flowering, which can
significantly reduce yield. By comparison, damage to leaves results in less
yield loss.
Establishment

Establishment includes germination, emergence and overwinter survival.

Sowing to emergence

1) Germination and emergence require moisture and warmth.

2) Initially, seeds imbibe water; roots start to grow; coleoptiles emerge and
extend to the soil surface. Then first leaves emerge and seedlings establish.
3) A proportion of viable seeds fail to emerge due to pests, diseases and soil
conditions.
4) Establishment declines if sowing is delayed after mid-October.

5) Establishment will be around 50% of seeds sown in mid-November.

6) While sowing to emergence takes longer in cold than in warm weather, the
thermal time in each case is very similar. Delayed drilling, deep drilling, cool and
dry conditions extend the interval between sowing and emergence.
Overwinter survival

By the end of February, the benchmark for establishment is 70%.

Plant damage, or loss over winter, may occur due to: –

1) frost damage,
2) pest or disease damage –
3) poor or impeded drainage leading to poor rooting and waterlogging. Very
few plants die after winter.
1) Roots and leaves that develop in the fall are often killed off during the
overwintering period.
2) However, as long as the crown remains alive, new roots and leaves can be
regenerated therefore, plants that enter the winter with well developed
crowns have the best chance of winter survival.
Thermal unit requirements

1) The heat unit requirements to produce a mature crop are approximately

1550 for spring and 2200 for winter wheat.
2) It takes approximately 105 heat units for a wheat plant to germinate and
emerge from a seeding depth of less than one inch(2.54cm).
3) Most wheat cultivars require between 80 to 100 heat units to produce each
leaf on the main shoot . After the requirements for leaf development have
been met, another 650 units are normally required to complete the heading
and maturation stages.
Weather and grain yield

Grain yield = (number of heads) * (kernels per head) * (kernel weight)

The number of viable seeds planted and the number of tillers produced per plant
sets the upper limit on the number of heads that can be produced by a wheat
crop.

Tiller production is favored by moist, warm weather and good soil fertility prior to
the stem elongation stage.
Tillers produced during the tillering stage must survive to maturity to contribute
to grain yield.

The developing head and elongating stem start making huge demands on the
plants’ resources once stem elongation starts and younger , poorly developed
tillers that are unable to compete are quickly lost.

Tiller mortality is especially dependent on environment conditions immediately

after terminal spikelet formation.
Drought and heat stress during the stem elongation and booting stages increase
the rate of tiller mortality by placing added restrictions on resource availability.

Environmental stress prior to flag leaf appearance can result can result in a loss
of spikelets on the developing head.

Under extreme stress, all of the florets in the spikelets at the top and bottom of
head may abort prior to flowering.