How to grow wheat

In the two months before you sow, pick a field where wheat or barley did not grow last season — better still, not for two seasons. A break crop like beans, peas or an oilseed, or a clean, well-weeded fallow, starves the rust and the root diseases.

Clear out any volunteer wheat — self-sown plants that sprang up from grain spilled at last harvest — in and around the field. These keep rust and aphids alive between crops.

Follow wheat with a legume (beans, peas, lentils) where you can — it breaks the disease cycle and leaves some nitrogen in the soil, so you feed a little less.

If you have no choice but to grow wheat on the same land again, at least switch to a different, resistant variety and be ready to spray — repeat wheat is where rust builds up worst.

Ask your extension officer or dealer for the variety that resists the rusts in your area right now — rusts keep changing, so this season's best variety may differ from last year's. This one choice matters more than any spray.

Buy certified seed in a sealed, labelled bag showing the variety name and this season's packing date — not grain scooped loose from a sack, which is often old, mixed or untreated.

Choose fungicide-treated seed (the grains are usually dyed a bright colour). The dressing stops loose smut — the fungus that would turn whole heads into black powder instead of grain at heading — and gives the seedlings a clean start.

Buy your basal fertiliser at the same time. Wheat is a hungry crop that responds to phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S) as well as nitrogen (N), so pick a compound that supplies P (and some S), plus a nitrogen fertiliser for the top-dressings. Your recommendation gives the amounts for your field.

Store seed and fertiliser dry, off the floor, away from food, water and children. Keep the label and receipt in case the seed turns out poor.

In the month before sowing, plough or dig to loosen the soil about 10–15 cm deep — roughly a spade-blade — so roots go down and water soaks in. Wheat does not need a deep-dug bed like a root crop; it needs a fine, even one.

Break the clods to a fine, crumbly tilth (soil broken down into small, even crumbs) — lumps the size of your fist leave air pockets where small wheat seed dries out and fails.

Level the surface with a rake, board or branch drag so water spreads evenly and the seed all goes in at one depth — even depth gives even emergence and even ripening.

Firm the bed (a light roll, or tread it down) so it is settled, not fluffy. Seed drilled into loose, fluffy soil sits in air pockets and comes up in patches. On a slope, work across the slope to hold the soil and the rain.

Only lime if a soil test — or past crops that stayed yellow and stunted even with fertiliser — says your soil is sour. Wheat likes soil that is neither sour nor chalky. Your recommendation gives the amount for your field.

Spread the lime evenly over the whole field, like sprinkling flour by hand as you walk — patches give patchy results — then work it into the topsoil with a hoe or plough. Lime only helps the soil it is mixed into; left on top it does almost nothing.

Do the liming 2–3 months before you sow (about 2 weeks before at the very latest). Lime is slow, so late liming will not help this season's crop.

Work the basal phosphorus (and any sulphur) into the root zone as you prepare the bed, so it is down where the young roots will find it before the seed goes in. Keep lime and fertiliser a few weeks apart, not on the same day.

Sow on your planting date into a firm, moist bed. Wheat's whole season is timed so the grain fills before the heat comes, so do not sow late. If rain-fed, sow into good moisture; if irrigating, water the bed first.

Drill or place the seed 3–5 cm deep — about one finger-joint — in rows 15–25 cm apart (about a hand-span, ≈20 cm). Even depth and spacing give even emergence and ripening.

Sow thick: about 100–125 kg of seed per hectare, aiming for a dense stand of roughly 200–300 plants per square metre — a closed green carpet, not spaced plants. Along the row the seed should fall roughly a finger-width (≈2 cm) apart.

Place the basal phosphorus and a little starter nitrogen with the seed as you drill, to feed the young roots. Keep back most of the nitrogen for the top-dressings — a quarter now at sowing, half at tillering, a quarter at booting — so rain does not wash it away.

Cover and firm the soil over the seed so it sits snugly in moist earth. A firm bed and good seed-to-soil contact give strong, even emergence in about 7–10 days.

Starting about a week after you sow (as the shoots break ground), walk the field every 3–4 days in a large 'W' so you cover the corners and the middle, not just the edge by the path.

Check that the seedlings are coming up evenly along the rows in a thickening green haze, and note any long bare runs where the drill blocked or the seed failed.

Aphids: look for small, soft green or black insects clustered on the young leaves and stems, with sticky, shiny 'honeydew' (their sugary droppings) where they feed. A few are normal; dense colonies on a small crop need watching.

Cutworms: look for young shoots cut clean off at ground level (worst in the morning). Scratch the soil nearby to find the fat, grey, curled caterpillar.

Note what you see and where, so you know whether the stand is thickening well and whether any pest is spreading.

About 10–16 days after sowing, when the seedlings are up, walk the rows and look along them: a good stand is an even, thickening carpet of green with few bare stretches.

Judge roughly what share of the row has filled in. A rule of thumb: if about 8 in 10 (80%) or more of the row is well covered, that is a good stand — carry on.

Look for the cause of any thin patches — seed too deep, a dry or cloddy bed, a blocked drill, cutworms — so you can put it right if you re-sow.

If it fails — the stand is below about 80%, with long bare runs → re-sow the bare patches (or the whole field) now, while there is still time in your sowing window. A thin wheat stand cannot be gap-filled plant by plant later.

Keep the seedbed moist (not waterlogged) from sowing until the crop is fully up — water every 5–7 days, more often on sandy soils and in dry heat.

Water gently so you do not wash the shallow seed out or cake the surface into a crust the young shoots cannot push through.

Check by pushing a finger in: water when the top few centimetres are dry. Wheat hates sitting in water, so drain any low spots.

Top-dress when the crop is tillering — about 4–5 weeks after sowing — when you can see side-shoots coming from the base of the plants.

Scatter (broadcast) the nitrogen evenly over the whole crop, walking at a steady pace and sweeping it out by the handful like feeding chickens. Wheat is a dense carpet, so you feed the field, not each plant. Your recommendation gives the amount.

Feed onto a moist crop, just before rain or irrigation, so the fertiliser washes in instead of gassing off into the air and going to waste. Using sulphate of ammonia for some of the nitrogen also supplies the sulphur (S) wheat needs.

Spread it when the leaves are dry, and do not heap it — fertiliser grains sitting on wet leaves scorch them. Wash your hands afterwards, and keep it off food and water.

Weed by about 3–5 weeks after sowing, before the weeds grow taller than the wheat, and just before you top-dress so the nitrogen feeds the crop and not the weeds.

In a thick, drilled crop you usually hand-pull, or hoe very shallowly between the rows — deep hoeing tears the wheat's own shallow roots.

Get out the strong-growing weeds first — wild oats, ryegrass and broadleaf weeds — because these rob the most and can shelter rust and aphids.

In dry areas, leave the pulled weeds lying between the rows as a light mulch (a soil cover that holds in moisture).

From about 3 weeks after sowing, walk the field every 3–4 days in a 'W', and look closely at the leaves of about 10 plants at several stops — turn leaves over and check the lower, older ones.

Rust shows as small powdery blisters (pustules) that rub off as coloured dust on your finger. Learn the three: stem rust — reddish-brown, brick-red blisters on stems and leaves; yellow (stripe) rust — yellow-orange dust in stripes along the veins, in cool weather; leaf (brown) rust — orange-brown round spots scattered on the upper leaf.

Rub a leaf with your thumb: if it comes away orange, yellow or rusty-brown, rust is starting — note where and how much.

Aphids: look again for clusters of small green or black insects on leaves and stems with sticky honeydew; heavy numbers can spread a yellowing virus.

If rust is starting on a non-resistant variety, act — this is the very moment the flag-leaf fungicide is aimed at. Note anything over threshold and open the matching guide.

Water every 7–10 days through tillering, depending on heat and soil — enough to keep the crop growing without wilting.

A good watering at early tillering in a dry spell helps the crop set plenty of head-bearing tillers.

Check the soil with a finger before watering; wheat still dislikes waterlogging, so do not over-water — save the heaviest watering for booting and flowering.

Time the spray to flag-leaf emergence through heading — about 8–10 weeks after sowing — when the top leaf is fully out and the head is pushing up. This one timing protects the leaf that matters most.

Spray at the first rust pustules (blisters) on a non-resistant variety (or as soon as stripe rust reaches a few spots per plant) — do not wait for it to spread. A fully resistant variety may need no spray at all; your scouting tells you.

Choose a fungicide that both kills the rust already there and protects the new growth (a systemic — one that moves inside the plant — mixed with a protectant that shields the leaf surface), and mix and measure it strictly to the label — more is not better.

Spray to wet the leaves all over without dripping, aiming at the flag leaf and the head. Spray in the cool of morning or evening, with the wind behind you so the mist blows away from your face.

Cover your skin, eyes, nose and mouth, keep other people, food and animals out of the field, and respect the pre-harvest interval — the number of days the label says you must wait between spraying and harvest so the chemical breaks down. Wash yourself and your clothes afterwards.

Apply at booting — about 8–9 weeks after sowing — as the head swells inside the top leaf sheath, just before it pushes out.

Broadcast it evenly over the whole crop onto moist soil, just before rain or irrigation so it washes in. This is the final nitrogen of the season — none after flowering.

Keep the dose modest — this feed is for grain filling and protein, not more growth. Too much late nitrogen makes the crop soft and prone to lodging (falling flat).

Spread it when the leaves are dry, keep it off food and water, and wash your hands afterwards.

Keep the soil moist right through booting, heading and flowering — about 8–12 weeks after sowing. Never let the crop wilt at this stage, even for a day.

Water every 7–10 days, and more often in a hot, dry spell — heat plus dry soil at flowering is the single worst thing for wheat.

Water in the cool of morning or evening to lose less to evaporation, and wet the full root depth, not just the surface.

Keep walking the 'W' every 3–4 days from about 8 to 12 weeks after sowing, checking the flag leaf and the head on about 10 plants at several stops.

Rust: keep rubbing leaves for orange, yellow or brown dust — rust on the flag leaf now hits yield hardest. This is exactly what the flag-leaf fungicide defends.

Fusarium head blight (head scab): in warm, damp weather at flowering, look for bleached, straw-white spikelets (the little grain-bearing pods on the head) on an otherwise green head, sometimes with a pink or salmon tinge at the base. It leaves a mycotoxin — a hidden natural poison in the grain — so mark badly affected patches to keep them separate at harvest.

Check that the heads are filling evenly, and after wind or storms look for lodged (fallen or leaning) plants.

If rust or head blight is spreading, act on the matching guide — for head blight, a spray timed at early flowering is the only real window.

From about 12 weeks after sowing until harvest, walk the crop once a week and look over the standing heads and leaves.

Late rust: keep checking the flag leaf for fresh orange-brown pustules (blisters) — late rust still robs grain weight while the leaves are green.

Armyworm: look for green-to-dark striped caterpillars chewing the leaves, often arriving in numbers overnight and leaving ragged, stripped foliage. Search low in the crop by day, when they hide.

Birds (quelea — small birds that come in huge flocks): watch the field edges for flocks stripping grain from the heads — they can clear patches fast as the grain hardens. Emptied, torn spikelets and droppings are the signs.

If armyworm is stripping leaves or birds are hitting hard, act — scare or protect the crop, and if the grain is nearly hard, bring the harvest forward rather than feed the birds.

Keep watering every 7–10 days through early grain fill (about 12–18 weeks after sowing), while the leaves and heads are still green and the grain is soft and milky.

As the lower leaves and heads turn from green to gold and the grain firms up, reduce the watering.

Stop watering once the crop is turning golden all over and the grain is going hard, so it can dry down in the field for harvest.

From about 130–150 days after sowing, check the crop: it is ripe when the whole plant is golden or straw-coloured — no green left in the heads or stems.

Pick a few grains and press with a thumbnail: ripe grain is hard — your nail cannot dent it, and it cracks rather than squashes. Soft, doughy grain that dents is not ready.

When the whole field is golden and the grain is hard, it has reached full ripeness (physiological maturity — the grain has stopped filling and needs no more water) and is ready to cut and thresh.

If it fails — you still see green in the heads or stems, or the grain still dents under your nail → it is not ready; wait a few days and check again. But if storms, birds or shattering threaten, cut now rather than lose it.

Harvest when the crop is hard-ripe — golden all over and the grain cracks (not dents) under a bite or thumbnail — about 130–150 days after sowing. Do not leave a ripe crop standing.

Cut the crop (by hand with a sickle, or by combine if you have one), ideally in the cool of morning when the heads are less brittle, so fewer heads shatter and drop grain.

If cutting by hand, stook or stack the cut wheat (stand the tied bundles up in the field) to finish drying for a few days if needed, then thresh — beat, tread or machine the grain free of the heads over a tarpaulin or clean floor, not bare earth.

Winnow the grain — pour it slowly in a breeze so the light chaff and straw blow away and the heavy clean grain drops into your container — aiming to bag it at about 13–14% moisture (hard, cracking grain). Get the harvest under cover before any rain.

After harvest (from about 145 days after sowing), dry the grain further on a tarpaulin, mat, rack or clean floor — never on bare ground, which pushes damp back in and adds mould, stones and animal dirt. Turn it so it dries evenly, and cover it if rain threatens.

Bite test: the grain is dry enough (about 12–13% moisture) when it is hard and cracks — not bends or squashes — between your teeth.

Salt-bottle check (optional): seal a handful of grain with a spoon of dry salt in a clean, dry bottle for 15 minutes. If the salt sticks to the glass, the grain is still too wet → dry it more before you seal it.

Store the dry, clean grain in hermetic (airtight) bags or a clean, sealed metal silo — airtight storage suffocates weevils with no chemicals. If you use ordinary bags, mix in an approved grain protectant and keep the bags off the floor and away from the walls, cool and dry.

Check the store once a month for heating, moths, or grain with small round holes and flour-like dust (weevils) — act early if you see them. If a grain bends or squashes rather than cracks when you bite it → it is still too wet; dry it more before sealing.