Wheat

Land Preparation

Introduction Tillage

Introduction

     

  • Wheat can be grown on all kinds of soil, except the highly deteriorated alkaline and waterlogged soils.
  • Durum wheat should preferably be sown on medium to fine textured soils.
  • Wheat needs cool climate during the early part of its growth. Warm temperature at this stage is unfavourable to tillering and also promotes several diseases.
  • Too much of rain during the season results in a heavy incidence of rusts.

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Preparatory Tillage

    (a) Normal: The preparatory tillage for wheat after paddy would be different from that after other Kharif crops as given below :

    After paddy

  • If the field has enough soil moisture, undertake tillage straightway, otherwise apply rauni.
  • Use disc harrow (bullock or tractor drawn) once, followed by planking.
  • Give cultivation/ ploughing with a tractor drawn cultivator / bullock drawn soil stirring plough.
  • If the soil is heavy give one more cultivation before planking the soil.
  • Tractor drawn cultivator with pulverizing roller-cum-puddler or bullock drawn disc harrow-cum-puddler can also be used for preparing the dry seedbed When the paddy is harvested with combine, the left-over standing \ straw can be mixed into surface soil without any adverse effect on yield of wheat receiving recommended NPK fertilizers.
  • Mixing of straw, improves soil properties over a long period. For proper incorporation of straw the land should be disc-harrowed twice instead of once before the other tillage operations as given above are performed.
  • For stubble cutting in combine harvested fields use tractor- drawn stubble shaver.

    • ii) After other crops:

  • After rauni give two cultivations / ploughings with a tractor-drawn cultivator/bullock drawn stirring plough to be followed by planking.
  • Tractor drawn cultivator with the pulverizing roller-cum-puddler can also be used for preparing-the dry seedbed.

    • Zero / Minimum Tillage

  • Wheat can be grown without any preparatory tillage if there is no serious problem of weeds to interfere in sowing.
  • In weed-infested fields, weeds can be controlled by spraying half litre of Gramoxone (Paraquat) in 200 litres of water, before sowing.
  • Zero tillage / minimum tillage has many benefits such as saving in diesel and time, less environmental pollution, saving in water during first irrigation, lower weeds infestation particularly Phalaris minor no yellowing of leaves after first irrigation, improved , input use efficiency and less lodging.
  • These factors contribute, towards increased productivity with reduced cost of production.
  • Besides this time saved helps in timely planting of wheat over large areas. Use tractor drawn zero-till drill or strip-till-drill for sowing wheat in unprepared fields.

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Punjab

Wheat

Wheat Management