Steps Required to Grow Wheats
Wheat is one of cereal crop which has multiple uses. Wheat flour is used for making bread and biscuits, chapati, cookies, among others.
In industry, it can be used for preparing distilled spirit, starch and gluten. This is not all, as wheat bran is also of economic importance as it provides feeds to livestock. This article will provide in detail on how you can grow wheat in 11 steps.
How to Grow Wheat in 11 Steps
The following are the requirements for optimal production of Wheat.
1. Site selection
The first step to cultivate Wheat is to choose a location where you want to establish your Wheat farm.
For high yield to be obtained, make sure you cultivate wheat on a well-drained fertile loamy soil, which means the location where you want to do Wheat farming, should have good soil fertility, which is of loam type.
It should be noted that loam soil is a type of soil which is composed mostly of sand, silt, and a smaller amount of clay. Make sure you select good site which has the type of soil we have stated.
2. Soil Preparation
Having chosen the best site, the second step is to prepare the land to make it ready for Wheat planting. We need to plough the site, and we can use either with a disc or mouldboard plough to achieve this.
Similarly, we could also use human labour to cultivate the site, however, human labour tends to be slow, when doing their work unlike machines which do not get tired.
When using a plough, make sure the site is ploughed deeply. Once ploughing is completed, you could add manure to improve soil fertility and structure.
Similarly, you need also to add fertilizer to the ploughed land. For optimal production, you could add an average of 50 kg Nitrogen, 25 kg Phosphorus and 12 kg Potash per acre of land.
3. Weather requirements
When choosing the site, besides having good soil fertility and loamy type. The location needs also to have a type of weather which is favourable for Wheat cultivation.
In our case, the chosen location needs to have a temperature range of 3.5 °C and 35 °C, but the best temperature for wheat farming is between 21 °C and 26 °C, and this is commonly found in in the tropical, sub-tropical zones and temperate zone.
4. Choice of variety
For high yield to be obtained, it is advisable to select a good variety, which is disease resistant. The following are some of the Wheat varieties which you could choose from; DBW 17, HD 2851, HD 2932, Unnat PBW 343, PDW 233, among others.
It should be noted that a good yield is the beginning of obtaining high yield, hence make sure you choose a variety which is suitable for your local area in terms of weather conditions and other environmental factors.
5. Seeding
As we have earlier said, make sure the Wheat seed is of good quality and is resistant to disease attack. This is not all, as it needs to be disease free. The amount of seeds required per acre is around 40 to 50 kilograms and this is per acre, and per hectare you will need around 100 to 125 KGS since 2.47 acres make a hectare.
6. Planting
During panting, the wheat seed needs to be sown 4 to 5 cm inside the soil, and you could make some pit of that deep. The recommended plant spacing for Wheat is 20 to 22.5 cm between the rows.
The best time to grow Wheat is in winter, because in summer, there is high disease and weed pressure, which could suppress Wheat yield.
7. Caring and weeding
Make sure your Wheat field is free from weeds and this could encourage pest and diseases accumulation. Most of the weeds in your Wheat field is controlled while preparing the soil to cultivate Wheat.
8. Fertilizer application
Wheat does not need more fertilizer than maize and other cereal crops. The fertilizer we have added during land preparation, and the manure are probably enough. You could just add a little fertilizer.
9. Watering
As earlier said, Wheat gives best results when it is cultivated in winter. In most cases in winter we do not have much rainfall hence you should supplement the water in your Wheat field through irrigation. The first irrigation can be done after 20 to 25 days from the day of planting.
10. Pest and disease control
The pest and diseases, which attack other cereal crops are similar to those which attack Wheat. They are mostly attacked by aphids and termites. While some of the common diseases in wheat plants are, powdery mildew, Flag smut, brown rust etc.
In Wheat tillage and crop rotation, helps to reduce risk of diseases. However, when your Wheat has been attacked you should apply pesticides or insecticides. Consulting an expert is also recommended.
11. Harvesting
You should harvest your Wheat when the leaves and stem turn yellow in colour, and become fairly dry, thus the best time to remove your dry Wheat corn. You could use a combined harvester to remove your Wheat.
In conclusion, this article has taken a look at 11 steps, which you can follow to cultivate your Wheat.