LAISHA
Open Laisha

The #1 wheat sowing mistake (it is not the seed)

Short · · 51 s

Semi-dwarf wheat has a short coleoptile: sow 3–5 cm deep into moist soil, deeper only for long-coleoptile varieties, and count plants at 3 weeks. The full video walks through every step of sowing.

How to Grow Wheat →

Subscribe on YouTube

Transcript

The most common wheat sowing mistake is not the variety, and it is not the fertiliser. It is depth.

Most modern wheat varieties are semi-dwarfs. The same genes that keep the plant short also shorten the coleoptile, the sheath that pushes the first leaf up through the soil.

Sow too deep, and it runs out of length before it reaches the light.

The seedling comes up late and weak, or not at all.

So place the seed three to five centimetres deep, into moist soil. Only go deeper if your variety is known to have a long coleoptile. Then count your plants three weeks later, to check.

The full sowing guide, with the seed rate formula, is in our long video and at laisha.ai.

More videos

Potato Late Blight: How to Recognise It, Prevent It and Control It by FRAC Group

Video ·

Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) caused the Irish potato famine and is still one of the most damaging diseases of potato and tomato worldwide. How to recognise it on leaves, stems, tubers and fruit, tell it from early blight, read blight weather, find where infection comes from, prevent it, choose fungicides by FRAC group with resistance management, and protect tubers at harvest and in store.

Late blight of potato and tomato →

Aphids: How to Identify Them and Control Them by IRAC Group (Without Making It Worse)

Video ·

Aphids are on almost every crop in the world. How to recognise an aphid in seconds, tell it from whiteflies, mealybugs and thrips, why colonies double in days, the three kinds of damage including virus transmission, scouting and action thresholds, the natural enemies that control aphids for free, cultural control before spraying, and choosing insecticides by IRAC group to slow resistance.

Aphids: biology, virus spread and control →

How to Sow Wheat: Sowing Date, Seed Rate Formula, Depth & the First 3 Weeks

Video ·

Most of a wheat crop's yield is decided in its first few weeks. This step-by-step guide covers the sowing window for winter and spring wheat, seedbed or zero-till drilling, seed testing and treatment, the seed rate formula with a worked example, sowing depth and spacing, phosphorus and split nitrogen, the first irrigation, weed control from sowing day, and how to count plants three weeks later.

How to Grow Wheat →

Ask Laisha about this

Opens Laisha's chat with your question ready to send. Sign in or start free.