A Detailed Guide to the Whole Wheat Growing Process, from Sowing to Harvest

Wheat is a common food crop with many uses: once milled into flour it can be made into bread, steamed buns, biscuits, noodles and more, and after fermentation it can be turned into beer, alcohol, baijiu, or biomass fuel. The method of growing wheat is very simple, so below we introduce the wheat growing process.

1. Planting Time

Wheat is divided into spring wheat and winter wheat. In North China it is generally sown around November in winter, while in Northeast China it is sown in March or April in spring.

2. Seed Selection and Land Preparation

Choose seeds suited to the local climate conditions and soil conditions for planting. For example, if the local climate is colder, it is recommended to choose varieties with strong cold resistance. When preparing the land, deep-plough the soil layer by at least about 30 cm, break up the clods of soil finely, level the field, then spread farmyard manure and plough the land once more. After the fertiliser is mixed evenly, make a small furrow every 1 m to 1.5 m to prepare for drainage and irrigation.

3. Sowing at a Reasonable Rate

In the prepared land, make a small furrow with a spacing of 30 cm between each row, scatter the seeds evenly in the furrow, and cover them with soil. Broadcasting can also be used: scatter the seeds evenly over the whole field and then cover them with soil.

4. Field Management

When a fine layer of tender green has grown throughout the wheat field, the first fertilising and watering can begin. Use irrigation; for fertilising, mainly urea is used to promote seedling growth, and it can be spread directly or dissolved in water for irrigation. For later fertilising, sprinkler irrigation can be used.

5. Disease Prevention

The most common problem before wheat planting is wheat lodging, which generally appears after heading and close to maturity. In normal times, water must be drained away promptly, and fertiliser must be used correctly with the amount and the planting density properly controlled.

Wheat is one of the three major grains, and almost all of it is used for food, with only about one sixth used as feed. Mesopotamia is the region where wheat was first cultivated in the world, and China is one of the countries that cultivated wheat earlier in the world.