Grain has long been the main source of food not only for humans, but also for farm animals. Therefore, the cultivation of cereals is relevant throughout the globe. In Russia, spring wheat is especially popular, and it can be found almost everywhere: in Eastern and Western Siberia, central Russia, southern and western regions.
Spring crops are sown in the spring, and harvested in late summer. Winter crops are sown in autumn, since this type is able to tolerate a mild winter, and the grain ripens in spring or early summer. But if the winters are harsh, then the winter variety will not survive, therefore, Siberian spring wheat is used, and it is planted in spring.
General concepts
Spring wheat has become widespread due to the extensive list of significant advantages and a small list of not so important disadvantages. This annual or biennial plant is widely used as an insurance crop for replanting and replanting winter wheat in cases when seedlings die in significant quantities in the autumn-winter period.
Characteristic
Spring wheat is a herbaceous plant belonging to the family of cereals (bluegrass). The root of this plant tirelessly develops over almost the entire growing season, - by the time of flowering, it can reach up to a meter and a half and a half in length. It is a system of several germinal roots and nodules that securely hold the stems, growing in height from 30 centimeters to one and a half meters. From one plant, on average, about 10 stems can grow.
The leaves of spring wheat are quite narrow, and rarely exceed a width of more than 2 centimeters. They are flat in shape, often linear, with parallel veins, with an abundance of fibers and rough to the touch.
The inflorescence of the plant is a complex straight spike, reaching a length of 4 to 15 centimeters, which, depending on the variety and variety, can be either ovoid or oblong. On the axis of each ear are flakes up to 1.5 centimeters long. The ears of spring wheat are solitary and adjoin the axis by means of two identical rows up to 2 centimeters long, with several closely related flowers (about 4-5). There are several colors in the whole spectrum of warm colors: light yellow, golden, pale burgundy.
The flower consists of 2 scales, 2 films, 3 stamens and pistils, as well as 2 stigmas. As soon as the plants fully ripen, fruits develop, which are grains of various weights, coated. The color of the grains also varies depending on the type of spring wheat, and is milky yellow, saturated beige, reddish.
Pros and cons
The popularity and indispensability of spring wheat is due to the following the benefits cereal:
- Tolerance to temperature conditions. The plant tolerates both short-term sudden frosts, and prolonged heat and constant dry winds. Moderate temperature shifts in both directions do not significantly damage cereal development.
- Resistance. Spring wheat, especially in comparison with its winter tribesman, has increased resistance to pests and diseases. A particular advantage is its innate immunity to fusarium.
- Not prone to shedding. The plant retains almost the entire crop at the time of collection, even with strong winds.
- Performance. Spring wheat boasts a good yield of high-quality grain.
Cons cereals also include:
- Weak initial stage. In the first two weeks of vegetation, spring wheat is more vulnerable than other cereals. This is especially acute for the root system and productive bushiness.
- Vulnerability to weeds. Despite good resistance to diseases and parasites, a plant cannot cope with weeds without the help of a farmer.
- Finicky. To feel all the benefits of growing spring wheat, you will need to make a lot of effort, especially in relation to moisture level and fertilizer.
Varieties and types
Spring wheat is divided into 2 capacious varieties: soft and hard, each of which needs different conditions for comfortable development. Thanks to advances in breeding, today there are many varieties of this vegetation, and every year this number is constantly growing.
Soft
Soft spring wheat is characterized by thin and hollow stems, as well as mealy, glassy or semi-glassy grains. This plant variety prefers regions with stable high humidity, as it tolerates drought worse. At the same time, soft spring wheat has lower requirements for soil fertility and is less harmful than weeds in comparison with hard varieties.
Soft spring wheat is the most common in the CIS, in connection with which today there are many varieties of this plant. The most popular and popular are the following, adapted to various soils and growing conditions:
- Darya. It boasts a short growing season, high productivity, good resistance to powdery mildew and resistance to lodging. At the same time, it often suffers from brown rust.
- Dobrynya. This variety, on the contrary, practically does not die, it resists drought well, and the flour obtained from grains is characterized by excellent quality. As the shortcomings of Dobrynya, one can single out an increased susceptibility to hard and dusty smut, brown rust.
- Irgina. A variety quite popular in the south of Russia, characterized by early ripeness and high yields. Resistance to lodging allows you to successfully cultivate this type of spring wheat on especially windy lands.
- Lada. Belongs to the category of early ripe and high-yielding varieties, has a high resistance to powdery mildew. However, unlike its predecessors, Lada is prone to lodging and feels extremely uncomfortable in regions with prolonged rainfall.
- Prioksky. Early ripe and high-yielding variety, contraindicated for cultivation in areas with long droughts. Quite often it is affected by bacterial diseases of cereals, and therefore requires increased attention.
Solid
Hard varieties of spring wheat are distinguished by a thick-walled stalk and hard grains of small sizes. The continental climate with a short hot and dry summer season is perfect for this type of plant. That is why in Altai, the Orenburg region and Northern Kazakhstan, it is most often hard varieties that are found.
Durum spring wheat, compared to soft wheat, tolerates atmospheric drought and dry wind much better. At the same time, the plant makes high demands on the level of soil moisture.
There are quite a lot of spring durum wheat varieties today. The choice of a particular species rests on the climatic features of the cultivation region, the available means and methods of agricultural technology, and previously grown on the crop site. In this regard, the following varieties are most often cultivated:
- Bezenchukskaya steppe. Spring wheat of this species is characterized by an average ripening period and resistance to lodging. At the same time, it is highly resistant to drought and the outstanding quality of flour produced from grains.
- Bezenchuksky amber. It features excellent yield and increased resistance to lodging. The growing season of the variety is medium.
- The plots. This variety is an achievement in the field of breeding intended for cultivation on an industrial scale. Its distinctive characteristics include the possibility of absorption of top dressing in increased volumes without loss of vitreous grains. At the same time, Naschadok is one of the most demanding varieties for watering and irrigation, giving as a reward a high yield of no less high quality.
- Orenburg 10. The optimal grade for beginners, "average." It has average indicators: the growing season, resistance to drought, shedding and lodging.
- Kharkiv 39. A find for farmers seeking the highest quality flour. Notable for amber grains of increased vitreous. It has medium resistance to lodging, powdery mildew, hard smut and swedish fly. At the same time, it very well resists defeat by a dusty smut and brown rust. It is characterized by high drought tolerance.
Growing
Spring wheat is hardly an unpretentious plant. Therefore, in order to get a good crop of high quality, it is necessary to carry out preliminary preparation of seeds and soil for sowing, as well as provide post-sowing care.
Predecessors
Particular attention should be paid to crops that had previously grown at a potential spring wheat planting site:
- Rapeseed, winter wheat, legumes and perennial herbs are the best choice as plant precursors.
- If barley used to grow in the selected areas, it is better to choose another place, because otherwise you may encounter poor productivity and low gluten content in grains.
- Repeated planting of spring wheat should also be avoided: the incidence of root rot in plants increases by 50 percent or more.
When placing spring wheat after suitable predecessors, it is possible to confine oneself only to cultivated autumn plowing (without peeling), and on weed-free fields (for example, if sugar beets or potatoes were previously cultivated on them and harvested with a simple implement), one peeling without deep plowing will be enough.
Soil preparation
Soil preparation for planting spring wheat begins with a choice of soil composition. Cereals grow best on chernozems, but with strict observance of all agrotechnical measures, a high yield can be obtained from gray forest and sod-podzolic soil. At this stage, fertilizer is also applied.
Soil treatment work:
- For virgin and fallow lands, the basis of preparatory measures consists in dump plowing with a plow with skimmers, reaching a depth of about 20-25 centimeters.
- On light chestnut and solonetzic soil, plowing with a soil deepening of 10-15 centimeters will be more effective.
- Areas with a massive surface layer of turf require prior disking before plowing.
- A great influence on the crop is also exerted by the ripening period of the chill. Early August and September plowing of winter fallow in most cases give an increase in wheat yields by 10-15% or more, with the exception of light soils, where later plowing is better.
Soil preparation also depends on the spring wheat growing region:
- In the northern regions, characterized by a cold fall season, it is recommended to resort to an early rise in virgin lands. The early (July-August) uplift of the seeded perennial grass layer provides a tangible advantage in the quantity and quality of the future crop.
- In areas with severe and snowy winters, it is advisable to carry out summer-autumn harrowing of winter chill, contributing to a greater (10-20%) conservation of moisture in the soil in spring.
- For areas with moderate but prolonged autumn (southern and southeastern regions), the autumn plowing of the grass layer will have the best effect, which will provide additional grass cutting.
- In arid steppe places, snow retention is especially important for increasing the yield of spring wheat, which can easily be achieved with field-protective afforestation.
Autumn autumn plowing contributes to the accumulation of a sufficient amount of moisture in the soil, creates optimal conditions for sowing spring wheat at an earlier date. Deeper autumnal plowing provides a significant increase in yield.
Seed preparation
Properly prepared seeds are an important step towards the successful cultivation of spring wheat. The procedure for preparing seed consists of 2 steps:
- Disinfection. This step is required. It is necessary to destroy pathogens located on the surface and inside the seeds, and to protect seeds from parasites and diseases in the soil. It can be carried out as a dry, semi-dry, wet method, hydrophobization is especially effective. The most effective etchants are Flutriafol, Carbendazim, Tebuconazole, Mancozeb, Triticonazole, Ipconazole, Fludioxonil, Diniconazole-M, Benomil, Imidacloprid, Vitavax and Fundazole.
- Warming up. Recommended, but not required, preparatory measure. To implement it, it is necessary to leave the seeds in the fresh air under the influence of direct sunlight for 3-4 days. At low temperatures or in the absence of a sufficient amount of light, it is possible to place the seed in the dryer for a couple of hours, providing good air access and a constant temperature of 50 ° C.
Fertilizers
This plant is in urgent need of high-quality fertilizer for steady growth and rapid development, so you can not do without feeding cereals. For this purpose, a complex of nitrogen, phosphorus-potassium and organic fertilizers is used:
- azofosk;
- ammonia water;
- calcium nitrate;
- nitroammophosk;
- nitrophosk;
- anhydrous ammonia;
- compost;
- manure;
- peat or others.
The amount of fertilizer applied also depends on many factors: spring wheat varieties, soil composition, climatic conditions and crops preceding the cereal. On average, to get 1000 kilograms of grain and the same amount of straw, you need to add about 40 kilograms of nitrogen, 20 - potassium and 10 - phosphorus.
Sowing
The term for sowing spring wheat depends not so much on the calendar month as on weather factors, because the spring season differs in different regions of Russia. Germination of seed occurs when the soil is heated to 1-2 degrees of heat, and the active development and seedlings - at 4-5 degrees.
Rising sprouts are able to withstand small fluctuations in a smaller direction - frosts down to -10 ° C will not cause significant damage to seedlings.
Most varieties of spring wheat need to be sown during the first five days after reaching physical ripeness of the soil when it is heated to +2 ° C. But too late sowing of cereals is fraught with a drop in productivity by at least a quarter of potential indicators.
The best ways to plant spring wheat are narrow-row or cross-sectional. Sowing depth and the number of seeds used depend on the frequency of precipitation in the region:
- For areas with moderate and high humidity, seeds are placed in the soil at a depth of 3-5 centimeters. There are 500-650 seeds per 1 square meter of land.
- For arid and windy regions, this figure is 6-8 centimeters. To sow 1 square meter of land, you need to spend from 300 to 450 seeds.
The numbers given may vary depending on the area of the seeding site and weather conditions. Therefore, when determining the required number of grains, it should be remembered that from all seeds only 60-70% of seedlings will appear.
Thus, the sowing rate of spring wheat, on average, is from 12 to 23 grams of seed per 1 square meter.
Rolling and harrowing
Rolling the soil immediately after sowing spring wheat is especially important in arid areas.The procedure is carried out by means of rollers of various designs, allowing to smooth the surface of the field and grind the formed lumps.
In cases of soil crust formation after rains, it is necessary to harrow the ground.
Together, these agricultural practices will allow the cereal to easily break through the soil and at the same time will be reliably preserved from adverse weather conditions.
Weed control
Timely weed control is the key to healthy plants and, as a result, a plentiful harvest. The most effective is the directed use of herbicides, when the drug is selected in accordance with a specific variety of an uninvited guest and depending on the climate in the region:
- Roundup and Hurricane are means of general action, used as an alternative to narrowly targeted;
- Attribute - an effective drug to combat dioecious weeds and wheat grass;
- 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic and 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acids are indispensable for the emergence of annual dicotyledonous weeds.
When cultivating spring durum wheat, it is recommended to cultivate during irrigation. The mode is selected depending on climatic conditions and soil composition.
Harvesting
A suitable harvesting time is considered to be the next week after the biological maturity of crops. This moment comes in the summer, and harvesting should begin in clear and dry weather, since rains during threshing can harm the plant and provoke the development of diseases.
Grain harvesting should not be delayed: a delay is fraught with grain damage by putrefactive infections, shedding of grain and lodging of the stem, which not only complicates subsequent harvesting, but also significantly reduces the resulting crop.
Two methods are widely used to harvest spring wheat:
- Separate way. It is most effective and justified in fields with a large weed infestation, in areas of uneven ripening of cereals and in fields with previous perennial grasses.
Mowing cereals in the shafts is carried out at a moisture level of spring wheat, reaching about 30-35%. After 3-5 days after mowing into the shafts and reaching a moisture content of 17-18%, the assembly of the shafts by means of combines begins. Separate harvesting shows excellent results with a stem height of at least 65 centimeters and good planting density (at least 270 plants per square meter of land). - Direct combining method. It is reasonable to apply the technique in conditions of unstable weather conditions. With the help of combines, the crops are mowed and then threshed. The resulting straw is subsequently collected in shocks. The advantage of the method, compared with separate, is the minimum loss of grains, and the disadvantage is the high weed.
After the harvest, the grain is sent to elevators and grain dryers, and straw is collected in the area. At the end of harvesting, an arable processing of arable land to a depth of 10-15 centimeters is carried out.
Possible problems
Despite the innate good resistance to cereal diseases, spring wheat in exceptional cases can be affected by diseases such as:
- septoria;
- powdery mildew;
- brown and stem rust;
- snow mold;
- root rot.
In the fight against these troubles, drugs have proven themselves well:
- Albite;
- Alto Super;
- Bravo;
- Carbesim;
- Prozaro;
- Rex Duo
- Tilt;
- Phytolavin;
- Folicourt.
Of the parasites, spring wheat is affected by such insects as:
- harmful bug;
- bread beetle;
- grain scoop;
- thrips;
- Swedish and Hessian flies.
Insecticides are effective in controlling them:
- Decis;
- Decis extra;
- Sumi-alpha and others.
Spring wheat is a culture that for the active growth, health of shoots and grain quality will require a farmer a list of preparatory measures and care procedures. However, if all the requirements and rules are met, you can guaranteedly get an outstanding crop both in terms of quantity and quality.