A Detailed Guide to Selecting and Growing Wheatgrass Seeds

Wheatgrass is a perennial herbaceous plant of the grass family (Poaceae) and the genus Agropyron. It is mainly distributed in China's northeastern, northern, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces and regions, growing on dry grasslands, hillsides, hills and sandy land. Wheatgrass is characterized by having large numbers of big bulliform cells on its leaf surfaces and stems, filled with liquid that reflects light under the sun just like ice crystals, which is how it got the name wheatgrass. So how do you select wheatgrass seeds? What are the seedling-growing methods? Let's take a look together below.

1. How do you select wheatgrass seeds?

Wheatgrass seeds are very small; 10 wheatgrass seeds together are only comparable to one sesame seed. Before sowing, you should choose high-quality seeds, preferably seeds harvested in the current year, as they will be more vigorous and germinate better. Before sowing, you should also pre-sprout them by soaking them in water; after pre-sprouting, the seed germination rate will be higher.

2. Common varieties of wheatgrass

1. Wheatgrass (original variety)

This species varies greatly in the hairiness of its spikelets. Besides the glumes and lemmas both being densely covered with long soft hairs as described above, there are also forms in which the lemmas are covered with long soft hairs while the glumes are nearly smooth and hairless, or the lemmas are nearly smooth and hairless while the glumes are covered with long soft hairs. These are all now regarded as the range of variation within this species, and attention should be paid to this when identifying plants of this species.

2. Many-flowered wheatgrass (variety)

The inflorescence of this variety is obviously stout, long and broad, egg-shaped lanceolate, with the widest part being 2-2.5 cm; the spikelets contain 9-11 florets and are 8-18 mm long, clearly distinguishing it from the original variety. It is produced in Inner Mongolia (Xilin Gol League). It grows on grasslands and abandoned land. The type specimen was collected in Xilin Gol League, Inner Mongolia.

3. Smooth-spike wheatgrass (variety)

The main characteristic of this variety is that the glumes and lemmas are all smooth and hairless, or sparsely covered with short bristles 0.1-0.2 mm long. It is produced in western Northeast China, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Qinghai, Xinjiang and other provinces and regions. It grows on hillsides in arid regions. The type specimen was collected in the Transcaucasus.

3. What are the seedling-growing methods for wheatgrass?

1. Land preparation

Wheatgrass is a very vigorous grass species, but before planting you still need to choose a suitable location first. It has relatively high soil requirements. Before sowing, the land must be leveled, all weeds must be completely removed, and sufficient base fertilizer must be applied, so that more nutrients can be absorbed and the seeds will germinate better. Fine land preparation and thorough weed removal are needed.

2. Sowing and growing seedlings

Wheatgrass is generally sown from March to May, though of course the climate differs slightly from region to region, so the sowing time will also differ. Wheatgrass seeds are relatively small, and are mostly sown in drills or broadcast; sowing should be shallow, with 2-3 cm of soil covering. Usually no more than 22.5 kg per hectare.

3. Seedling-stage management

Wheatgrass grows relatively slowly, so management work must be done well during this period. The first thing is to do a good job of weeding, so that weeds do not affect the growth of wheatgrass. Beyond that, not much management is needed, because wheatgrass is an easy-to-manage plant that is cold-tolerant and drought-tolerant and does not need much watering; you just need to regularly observe its condition during the growing period, and it is fine as long as no major problems appear. Because the seedling stage grows slowly, timely cultivating and weeding are needed.

4. Harvesting

After the seeds mature, they fall off easily, so they should be harvested in time, at the late dough stage. Generally, the seed yield is 25-50 kg per 667 sq m. For cultivated grass, the yield is highest at the flowering stage, so it should be harvested in time.

The above is an introduction to wheatgrass. After maturing, wheatgrass can be used as a nutritional supplement for livestock in daily feeding. It has a very high yield and good taste and is easy to digest, making it one of the very high-quality forage grasses, and it can also be made into fattening feed. It is a plant with many uses, and is grown relatively widely in areas such as Inner Mongolia and Qinghai in China, being very economical and practical.

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