Cereal · Poaceae (grass family)
Gehun · गेहूं · Triticum aestivum
The king of the rabi season — roti for the whole country.
Wheat is the main winter crop of North India and the base of our daily roti. Cool nights at sowing, mild days during growth and a slow, cool grain-filling period give the best harvest. Most wheat follows rice, so how you handle paddy straw and how early you sow decide much of the yield.
Grain filling (milk to dough) · roots shown through the soil
At a glance
Needs a cool winter. If day temperature crosses 30 °C during grain filling in March, grains shrivel and yield drops — the main reason late sowing hurts.
Sowing time
25 Oct – 20 Nov
Harvest
1 Apr – 30 Apr
140–155 days from sowing
Temperature
15–25 °C to grow
18–22 °C at sowing
Soil
Loam to clay loam; sandy loam also works with good irrigation and manure
pH 6–8
Seed rate
40–51 kg/acre
100–125 kg/ha
Spacing
20 cm rows
4–5 cm deep
Irrigations
4–6
6 critical stages
Yield
18–24 q/acre
45–60 q/ha
Season
Avoid waterlogged and strongly saline or sodic fields. Laser-levelled land saves water and gives even germination.
Seed to harvest
Scroll through the season. The plant in the glass tank grows to each stage — roots and all — and every card says what the crop is doing and what you should do in the field that week.
Stage 1 of 8
Sowing
Day 0–4
The seed absorbs water from moist soil and swells. Inside, it wakes up and starts using its stored food.
Your job · Sow on time in moist soil at 4–5 cm depth with treated seed and basal fertiliser in the rows.
Seminal roots push down, and a pointed sheath (coleoptile) pushes up through the soil. The first leaf opens above ground.
Your job · Check for even germination. Gaps of more than a foot can be filled by re-sowing quickly.
Three to four leaves form. Around day 20, crown roots begin at the base — these roots feed the plant for the rest of its life.
Your job · Give the first irrigation at 20–25 days with the second dose of nitrogen. This is the most important irrigation.
Side shoots (tillers) come out from the base. More healthy tillers mean more ears later.
Your job · Spray herbicide at 30–35 days if weeds are present. Give the second irrigation and last nitrogen dose around 40–45 days.
Nodes become visible and stems grow tall quickly. The young ear is developing hidden inside the stem.
Your job · Irrigate around 60–65 days. Watch for yellow rust stripes and aphids every week.
Ears come out of the flag-leaf sheath and tiny yellow anthers hang out as the florets flower and set grain.
Your job · Irrigate at flowering, but not on windy days. Pull out loose smut plants in bags. Protect the flag leaf from rust.
Grains fill with milky liquid, then turn doughy and firm. The flag leaf feeds most of the grain.
Your job · Give light irrigations at milk and dough stage, especially if it turns hot. Avoid irrigation in strong wind.
Leaves, stem and ears turn golden. Grains become hard and the stalk under the ear dries.
Your job · Harvest when grains are hard and can't be cut with a fingernail. Arrange combine or reaper and plan straw (bhusa) collection.
The seed
Use certified seed of a variety bred for your region, at the right rate, and treat it before sowing.
One grain
≈ 6.5 mm
Seed rate
40–51 kg/acre
100–125 kg/ha
1000-seed weight
40 g
Field & sowing
Line sowing with a seed drill, zero-till drill or Happy Seeder
Layout
Flat beds
Row to row
20 cm
Plant to plant
—
Depth
4–5 cm
Feeding the crop
These are the standard doses for a medium-fertility field. Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower them — test first, then feed.
Nutrient dose
Plus 10 t/ha (4 t/acre) of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost.
For 1 acre of Wheat
What to buy
Urea
2.5
bags · 111 kg
DAP
1
bag · 53 kg
MOP
0.5
bags · 27 kg
Nutrients in it: N 61 kg · P₂O₅ 24 kg · K₂O 16 kg
Also add farmyard manure or compost: 4 t
Not yet checked against a package of practices. Confirm the dose with your KVK before you buy.
Urea has 46 % N; DAP 18 % N and 46 % P₂O₅; MOP 60 % K₂O. Urea comes in 45 kg bags, DAP and MOP in 50 kg.
Water
A crop forgives a late irrigation at some stages and punishes it at others. These are the days that decide yield.
Protection
Walk the field every week. Most problems are cheap to stop early and expensive to fix late. For any spray, follow the label dose and check with your KVK.
Signs · Yellow powdery stripes on leaves in cool, humid January–February (yellow rust); scattered orange-brown powdery spots later in February–March (brown rust). Powder rubs off on your fingers.
Manage · Grow resistant varieties and avoid excess nitrogen. Check the crop weekly from mid-December, especially near tree lines. At first appearance spray propiconazole 25 EC (0.1 %) or another recommended fungicide, as per label / your KVK.
Signs · At heading, the whole ear turns into black powder instead of grain; only a bare stalk remains after the powder blows away.
Manage · Use treated certified seed. Pull out affected plants carefully in a cloth bag before the powder spreads and destroy them.
Signs · Some grains are partly black and give a rotten-fish smell when crushed. Seen after harvest.
Manage · Grow tolerant varieties, avoid heavy irrigation at ear emergence in humid weather and do not use infected grain as seed. A recommended fungicide at ear emergence helps in risky areas, as per label / your KVK.
Signs · Plants dry up in patches and pull out easily; roots and lower stem are eaten. Worse in light, dry soils.
Manage · Use only well-rotted manure, keep irrigation timely and treat seed in termite-prone fields. Standing-crop treatment only on KVK advice, as per label / your KVK.
Signs · Clusters of tiny green insects on leaves and ears from January to March; sticky honeydew and sooty black growth.
Manage · Ladybird beetles usually control them — don't spray early. Spray only if numbers cross about 5 aphids per ear, with a recommended insecticide such as imidacloprid or thiamethoxam, as per label / your KVK.
Signs · On sandy soils after rice, middle leaves show grey-pink to pale streaks between veins and plants look weak, usually before the first irrigation.
Manage · Spray manganese sulphate solution as advised by your KVK, repeating at weekly intervals on sunny days. Grow wheat on such fields with a pre-sowing irrigation and timely sowing.
Signs · Late-sown crops face heat above 30 °C in March: grains stay small and shrivelled. Heavy, over-fertilised crops fall flat (lodge) after wind and irrigation.
Manage · Sow on time, use the right variety, give a light irrigation if a heat wave comes during grain filling, avoid excess nitrogen and don't irrigate on windy days.
Common · Gulli danda / mandoosi (Phalaris minor), wild oat (jangli jai), bathua, senji, krishna neel, hirankhuri
Harvest
A good crop gives
18–24q/acre
45–60 quintal per hectare
Plus about the same weight of straw (bhusa) for cattle.