Winter Wheat, at the Right Depth

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“Winter wheat,” a grain crop that is planted in the fall and harvested in the early summer, is quite common; but way back in the beginning of the nation most farmers planted “spring wheat” and harvested it in late summer. As agriculture moved west, some region climates were found to be harsh and better suited to winter wheat.

Winter wheat is usually planted in September or October. It sprouts, then becomes dormant in the winter cold (ideally under snow). Winter wheat must go through vernalization, or a period of exposure to cool temperatures to trigger its reproductive development. In the spring, the sprouts wake back up and begin growing again. This all points to the need for farmer’s to understand planting depths.

Illustration No.1 shows a young winter wheat plant drilled in too deep. No. 2 is a young wheat plant sown shallow. No. 3 shows the action of the frost on wheat drilled too deep, as in No 1.

The wheat plant has two sets of roots; the first starts out from the seed, penetrating the soil in all directions, providing nourishment for the new plant. The plant during germination, grows towards the surface of the ground, sending up a single stem or tube, and at about one half inch below the surface the stem swells out into a small bulb.

A peculiarity of the plant is, that no matter whether the seed be deep or shallow, this bulb is always found near the surface. From this bulb there starts out a second set of roots, drawing nourishment from the surface soil. The roots of this second set are not fully developed in the fall of the year, but the plant lives chiefly upon the lower set during the winter, and in the meantime the second set are pushing out and getting into condition for nourishing the plant in the spirng, and during the formation of the seed.

Note that the plant in No.1 has two sets of roots, connected by a long thin stem, which is likely to be broken by the heaving of the ground in freezing weather, thus causing the plant to lose more than half of its roots; while in No. 2, or the shallow plant, it has both sets of roots together, or so near together that the danger of their becoming separated by the frost is very slight.