Wheat Cultivation

Wheat is the second most important grain crop after rice in Bangladesh. It is used as
principal food in most of the area of the world. It is grown in a wide climatic condition between
60o S to 60o N latitudes. Hence it is sown or harvested in one country or the other.

Origin and history

Records from ancient China show that wheat was cultivated there by 2700 BC. It was
also known to Egyptians and Swiss as early as the Stone Age.
De Condolle believed that wheat originated in the valley of Euphrates and Tigris and
spread from there to China, Egypt and other parts of the world. Some scientists, especially US
scientists believe that wheat was originated in Palestine and Syria.
According to N. I. Vavilov the origin of durum wheat is probably in the vicinity of
Abyssinia and the whole group of soft wheat, which includes the bread wheat, probably
originated in the region of Pakistan, Southwestern Afghanistan and Southern parts of
mountainous Bokhara.

Classification of wheat
Wheat belongs to the grass family Gramineae (Poaceae) and the genus Triticum. The
species of Triticum can be classified into three distinct groups; diploid, tetraploid and hexaploid
with 7, 14 and 21 pairs of chromosomes in their cells. Although as many as 18 species of wheat
have been recognized by Perceival (1921), 12 species of triticum are cultivating in different parts
of the world.

Diploid (7 chromosome) group:

Commonly known as einkarn and believed to the ancestor of all the other cultivated
wheat species. This cultivated einkarn was domesticated from wild einkarn (Triticum
aegilopoidis) by selection of plants with larger kernels, a slightly tougher stem, and heads that
shatter less readily.

1
 Einkarn may have originated somewhere in the near east, since wild einkarn and as well
as a large number of Aegilops species are found there. Cultivated einkarn possibly originated in
the mountains of northeastern Turkey or Southwestern Caucasus, or slightly farther south in the
uplands of eastern Iraq and then spread to Asia Minor and Europe.

Tetraploid (14 chromosome) group

The tetraploid wheat, commonly known as emmer, was probably developed through
hybridization between 7-chromosome wheat, einkarn or its wild relative, and a 7- chromosome
related grass, probably Aegilops speltoides.
Wild emmer (T. dicoccoidis) is indigenous to southern Armenia, northeastern Turkey,
western Iran, Syria, northern Israel and eastern Iraq. Cultivated emmer appeared to have
originated somewhere in Asia Minor, and domesticated most probably in Iraq. By 4000 BC
emmer, the earliest of the 14-chromosomes wheat, was widely cultivated from the lower plain of
Iraq to Asia Minor to the Rhine River in Europe.

Hexaploid (21- chromosome) group

Hexaploid wheat is evolved most recently. There is no wild form of hexaploid wheat.
This wheat seems to have originated by hybridization of a 14-chromosome wheat with a wild 7-
chromosome relative of wheat, probably from the genus Aegilop.

Table: Cultivated species of genus Triticum

Group Chromosomes Species Common name

No. (2n)

Diploid 7 T. monococcum Einkarn

Tetraploid 14 T. dicoccum Emmer

T. durum Durum
T. persicum Persiun
T. turgidum Poulard or Rivet
T. polonicum Polish

Hexaploid 21 T. vulgare (aestivum) Common

T. compactum Club
T. spelta Splet
T. sphaecoccum Shot
T. macha Macha
T. vavilovi Vivilovii

2
 Climatic requirement of wheat

Wheat is grown over a wide range of latitude, ranging between 60 oN and 60oS and
altitude from the sea level to an elevation up to 3500 meters in the tropics and subtropics.
Wheat prefers cool and moist weather during vegetative growth period, and warm and
dry weather during grain formation. However, the growth and reproduction of wheat plant is
influenced by temperature, rainfall and light.
The optimum temperature for wheat seed germination lies between 20 – 22 oC, though
seeds of some varieties can germinate at 4oC. At a temperature considerably higher than the
optimum, the seeds will germinate irregularly, but the embryo frequently dies. At temperature as
high as 35oC, the endosperm may undergo decomposition due to activities of bacteria and fungi.
The optimum temperature for vegetative growth ranges between 16 – 22oC. Plant height,
root growth and tiller number decreased as temperature rises from 22 oC to 42oC. Leaves may
become lighter in color as temperature rises above 32oC.
Heading might be accelerated by 10 days when temperature increases from 22 oC to 34oC,
and the heading may be retarded or prevented at temperature above 34oC. The optimum average
temperature for grain development is about 25 oC for at least four to five weeks. Temperature
above 25oC will reduce test weight by hastening maturity.
Wheat crop requires much less rainfall than rice. It can survive well in areas with 25 –
180 cm rainfall. Heavy rainfall is detrimental to wheat and may cause delay in sowing,
waterlogging, leaching of nutrients, lodging, infestation of insects and diseases. However,
extended period of soil moisture stress is also detrimental for plant. Wheat grown under rainfed
condition requires a minimum evenly distributed winter rainfall of 15 – 20 cm for proper growth
and development.
Wheat is a long day plant and thus flowers in the long day of spring or early summer.
Short days increase vegetative growth, whereas longer days hasten the formation of
inflorescence. Spring wheat usually flowers at any day-length, from less than 8h to continuous
light. But the process is accelerated with an increase in day length. Winter wheat generally
complete their life cycle most rapidly when low temperature prevails during early vegetative
stages of growth and long day with high temperature during the later stages of growth.

Growth stages of wheat

The growth stages of wheat plant can broadly be classified as – (i) pre-establishment
stage, (ii) vegetative stage, (iii) reproductive stage, and (iv) post-anthesis stage.

i) Pre-establishment stage:
a) Pre-emergence – when sprouted seeds produces seminal roots and coleoptiles.

b) Emergence – Appearance of coleoptiles from germinating seeds above the soil surface.

ii) Vegetative stages:

a) Seedling stage – The young plant establishes larger root systems in this stage. The stage
may be further differentiated into one-leaf, two-leaf, three-leaf and four-leaf stages.

3
 b) Crown root stage – A second set of roots arises from the basal node of the plant (node of
the 1st foliage leaf) besides the seminal root system during three to four-leaf stage or 20-
25 days after sowing.

c) Tillering – A bud primordium lies in the leaf axil at each crown node and the bud
primordia develop into tillers. Tiller production in wheat often starts about 15 days after
sowing with a new tiller added every 4-5 days until about 45 days after sowing. Tillering
is a varietal character; however, environmental factors viz. temperature, light intensity,
day length, soil moisture, fertility status, depth of sowing, spacing between plants etc.
may affect tiller formation and their growth.

d) Jointing – This is the peak of plant growth, which is around 45 to 60 days after sowing.
At this stage plant starts elongating when the nodes start developing above the crown
node. The internodes become progressively longer from the base to the top. The
uppermost internode is the longest among all the others. The existing leaves are pushed
upwards and increased in size.

i) Reproductive stage:

a) Booting or flag leaf stage – It is characterized by the swelling of uppermost leaf sheath.
The spike is hold inside the last leaf, which is called flag leaf. The plant has the highest
leaf area at this stage. The plant reaches this stage 70-75 days after sowing the seeds.

b) Heading – The spike starts emerging out from the leaf sheath at this stage.

c) Flowering – Anthesis of florets and fertilization of ovaries take place at this stage.

iv) Post-anthesis stage:

a) Grain filling – The ovaries, after fertilization, start elongating into seeds or ovules passing
through milk, soft- and hard-dough stages.

b) Maturity – Color of glumes changes and kernel becomes fairly hard at this stage.

Wheat culture
Soil and land preparation:

Well drained sandy loam, loam or sandy clay loam with pH 6 – 7.5 is most suitable for
wheat cultivation. However, it can be grown on a variety of soils ranging from sandy to clayey
soils.

On light soils the crop suffers from excessive drainage and low water holding
capacity, and requires frequent irrigations. On the other hand, on heavy soil the crop may suffer
from poor drainage.

4
 Traditional system of land preparation for wheat includes one deep plowing
followed by 2-3 harrowing and leveling. After the harvest of kharif crop the field should be
irrigated, and at optimum workable moisture content the field should be plowed and harrowed
for seed sowing.

Wheat can be grown in a zero-tillage system. The seeds can be sown directly without
plowing using zero-tillage seed drills. Zero-tillage system improves soil fertility. Moreover, it
saves time by avoiding land preparation in intense cropping systems or under high soil moisture
situations. However, weed infestation becomes a serious problem in a zero tillage wheat
cultivation system.

In rainfed area, conservation of soil moisture and timely cultivation are the key
practices for the success of wheat crop. Two to three plowing during summer have been found
useful for soaking the rainwater in deeper soil layer. After cessation of monsoon all possible
efforts should be made to conserve soil moisture. Three to four plowings should be done in the
evening time, furrows should be kept open whole night and planting should be done after each
plowing early in the morning.
Fertilizers
Wheat plant mostly requires N,P,K,S,Ca,Si,Cl and small amounts of other essential
elements.

Nitrogen:
Wheat absorbs much of the nitrogen by the time of flowering, but the absorption
continues till maturity. The critical concentration of N in leaf is 2.5%, below which the plat
shows N deficiency symptom.

If the supply of N is not adequate the leaf turns into yellow, growth is stunted; tillering is
poor, few tillers bear small ears and the grains are not fully developed that results in low yield.
Generally wheat responds to 120 – 150 kg N/ ha under irrigated and 40 – 60 kg N/ha under
rainfed conditions.

In medium to heavy textured soils application of nitrogen should be in two splits, i.e.
half at the time of sowing and the rest half after first irrigation. In the light textured soils it is
better to apply N into three splits, i.e. one-third at sowing, one-third after first irrigation and
the remaining one-third after second irrigation.

Under rainfed condition full dose of N should be applied before sowing. If there is
good rain during crop growth, an additional nitrogen dose may be top dressed for good yield.

Phosphorus:
Phosphorus absorption takes place throughout the growth period. The accumulation
of P in the plant reaches maximum about two weeks before the maturity. The critical P
concentration is less than 0.1% in dry leaf tissue, below which the plant will show deficiency
symptom.

5
 Phosphorus deficient wheat plants bear less as well as smaller ears. P deficiency also
reduces the number and size of grains. Soil P concentration up to 8 ppm is often considered low.
The crop yield response has been observed up to 60 kg P 2O5/ ha. However, response to P
depends on the source and concentration of soluble P in the fertilizers in addition to many other
relevant soil factors, such as soil pH. Phosphatic fertilizer should be applied at the time of
sowing.

Potassium:
Most of the potassium in wheat is absorbed by the seven weeks of plant age.
Potassium is essential for carbohydrate synthesis. It also plays an important role in stomatal
opening under water stress conditions. Potassium deficiency adversely affects the grain
productivity as well as quality.
Wheat crop has been found to respond up to 40 – 60 kg K 2O/ ha in the soils having low in
K. Potassic fertilizer should be applied at the time of sowing. K also gives good results when top
dressed at first irrigation.

Micronutrients:
Zinc deficiency leads to retardation of stem elongation, necrosis and chlorosis of
leaves. There is an interaction between Zn and P in the soils. Higher level of P in soil often
interferes with Zn availability. Zn is commonly applied in the form of commercial grade of
ZnSO4 @ 25 kg/ha. ZnSO4 should preferably be placed in soil at the time of sowing.

Manganese deficiency symptoms are seen as necrotic streaks on the leaf lamina.
Such streaks are highly conspicuous on the flag leaf. Foliar spray of 0.5% MnSO 4 is
recommended to correct Mn deficiency.

Earliest symptom of iron deficiency is chlorosis on wheat leaves, which appears within
two weeks after sowing. Fe deficiency can be corrected by foliar spray of Fe.

Boron deficiency causes improper development of inflorescence, very short awns, and
reduction in yield and grain quality.

Copper deficiency causes loss of turgor and plants show wilting symptom. Due to Cu
deficiency, the tip of leaf becomes pale yellow, stem elongation is reduced, heading is improper
and there is unfilled spikelets. Cu deficiency can be corrected by spraying CuSO4.

Seed sowing:
Depth of seeding is governed by soil moisture regime and soil type. However, a seeding
depth of 2.5 to 5.0 is desirable for modern wheat, which has relatively short coleoptile. Seeding
at high depth causes uneven emergence or low emergence. Contrary, seeding at shallow depth is
also undesirable.
Where possible, seed drill should be used for seed sowing to maintain proper depth of
seeding. Generally, 100 kg/ha of seed is sufficient for most of the modern varieties, which have
moderate tillering and medium sized grain. A higher seed rate of 125 kg/ha is desirable for late
sown wheat.

6
Irrigation:
Wheat requires 40 – 50 cm water, and irrigation should be applied when soil moisture
percentage fall below 50%.
High yielding wheat varieties should be given five to six irrigations at their critical
growth stages, viz. crown root initiation (CRI), tillering, jointing, flowering, milk and dough
stages, which correspond to 21 – 25 days after sowing (DAS), 45 – 60 DAS, 60 – 70 DAS, 90 –
95 DAS, 100 – 105 DAS and 120 – 125 DAS, respectively. Irrigation at CRI is the most
important among all the schedules, and each day delay in irrigation at this stage results in
reduction of 1.4 percent grain yield/ day.

According to the availability of irrigation water the irrigation may be scheduled as follows:

No. of irrigations
One Two Three Four Five
CRI CRI CRI CRI CRI
(21 DAS) (21 DAS) (21 DAS) (21 DAS) (21 DAS)
Booting Tillering Tillering Tillering
(60 DAS) (45 DAS) (45 DAS) (45 DAS)
Booting Booting Jointing
(60 DAS) (60 DAS) (65 DAS)
Milk Flowering
(100 DAS) (85 DAS)
Milk
(100 DAS)

Thus, if a farmer can afford only one irrigation, that has to do at CRI, if two then at CRI and
booting, and so on according to the schedule.

Plant protection measures:

The field should be kept weed infestation free up to tillering stage. Pest and diseases
should be controlled timely. Integrated pest management (IPM), control of weeds, insects and
diseases by using chemicals and mechanically side by side, is advocated as an environmental
friendly methods of plant protection measures.

7
Characteristics of high yielding compared to traditional wheat varieties:
HYV of wheat produces almost double grain yield than the traditional tall indigenous
varieties. The following are the comparative characters between HYV and the traditional ones.

Table: Characteristics of new plant type as compared to traditional varieties

New plant type (Dwarf) Tall indigenous

Plants are dwarf and stiff, do not Plants are tall and weak and usually
lodge even under high inputs, viz. lodge under higher doses of fertilizers
fertilizer and irrigation. and irrigation.

Their sink capacity (grain) is They are less-responsive to higher

higher; hence, responsive to doses of fertilizers.
higher doses of fertilizers.

They bear more productive tillers No. of non-productive tillers are more
per unit area due to synchronous because of a non-synchronous
tillering habits. tillering habits.

Leaves are broader, upright and The leaves are long, narrow, drooping
dark green which makes an effective and cause mutual shading; thus not
and better use of solar energy effective for efficient photosynthesis.
for making photosynthesis.

They have a shorter vegetative and They have a longer vegetative and
longer reproductive growth period, shorter reproductive growth, which
which results in more number of results in more un-filled shriveled
filled and bolder grains/ ear. grains/ ear.

The varieties are less thermo – and They are thermo- and photo-sensitive.
photo – sensitive.

They have high yield potential They have poor yield potential.