What are the best timing and principles for fertilizing wheat?

Wheat is one of the main grain crops in China and has a certain economic value. It can be used as food, as feed, and can also be processed into foods such as pastries and alcoholic drinks. Wheat is grown in all parts of China, and the planting time varies from region to region. Let's take a look below at when is the best time to fertilize wheat? Which principles should be followed?

1. When is the best time to fertilize wheat?

After the beginning of spring, winter wheat enters the greening stage, followed by the tillering stage to the jointing stage. These two growth stages are both very critical for high-yielding winter wheat. The period from greening to flag-leaf emergence in winter wheat is the spring growth stage, generally lasting 50-60 days, and is a key period for yield formation. Applying jointing and booting fertilizer as a top dressing in spring is key to promoting the transformation of wheat seedling condition and vigorous growth, and is also an important measure to ensure high and stable yields.

2. Which principles should be followed in fertilizing wheat?

1. Apply sufficient base fertilizer

Generally, base fertilizer should account for 60%-70% of the total fertilization amount. Use about 3 tonnes of organic fertilizer per mu, plus 10 kg of urea, 40 kg of superphosphate and 7.5-10 kg of potassium chloride. You can also use organic fertilizer together with 20 kg of 45% compound fertilizer and apply them into the soil together as base fertilizer.

2. Seed fertilizer and seedling fertilizer

Applying an appropriate amount of chemical fertilizer as seed fertilizer when sowing wheat can promote wheat rooting and seedling development and advance tillering, especially for late-season wheat or wheat with insufficient base fertilizer, where the effect is even more obvious. The urea used as seed fertilizer should be less than 2.5 kg per mu. In addition to seed fertilizer, applying seedling fertilizer (tillering fertilizer) early is also a good measure to promote roots and increase tillering and to increase effective tillers. Gengzhongbang Planting Network suggests applying seedling fertilizer at the three-leaf stage, using about 5 kg of urea per mu. If the base fertilizer is sufficient and the population is large, apply less; if the base fertilizer is low and the seedlings are weak, apply more. In northern wheat regions, after winter wheat enters the greening stage, in order to consolidate tillering before winter and promote tillering after the year, apply a greening fertilizer early. The greening fertilizer should mainly be quick-acting fertilizer, generally using 10-15 kg of ammonium sulfate and 10 kg of superphosphate per mu. If fertilizer was sufficient earlier and the wheat seedlings are growing vigorously, the greening fertilizer may be omitted. Especially in the south, whether to apply this fertilizer should be decided according to the seedling condition.

3. Skillfully apply jointing and booting fertilizer

The jointing and booting stage of wheat is the period of most vigorous growth in its whole life, and nutrient demand is high. If fertilizer is lacking, wheat will prematurely senesce. But too much fertilizer will cause excessive vegetative growth and is not conducive to young ear differentiation and development. Therefore, jointing and booting fertilizer should be applied skillfully according to the seedlings: for weak seedlings, such as wheat fields with a relatively small population, fewer than 300,000 total stems and tillers per mu, and leaves that have faded and turned yellow, apply jointing fertilizer early to improve tiller ear formation and strive for more ears and large ears, using 3-5 kg of urea per mu dissolved in water and poured on; for robustly growing wheat seedlings, because the population is suitable and the number of ears is ensured, focus on large ears, appropriately control fertilizer and water at the jointing stage to make the basal internodes thick and strong and prevent lodging, and when the leaf color naturally fades, the first internode has fixed its length, and the second internode is rapidly elongating, apply about 3 kg of urea per mu as a top dressing; for excessively vigorous seedlings with too large a population and leaf area and dark green leaves, control fertilizer and water, carry out deep tillage to damage roots and suppress tillering, and there is no need to apply top dressing.