People have been cultivating wheat for a long time. Cereal grains can be consumed whole, ground into flour, the waste is high-quality feed for livestock. Tillering of wheat is the natural biological process of the appearance of nodal roots and lateral shoots in cereals. Regulating this stage of plant development allows you to increase yield while reducing growing costs.
What is wheat tillering
Tillering is the type of branching of shoots characteristic of cereal crops. In the axils of the basal leaves of the main shoot, a thickening (bud) appears, from which new shoots appear.Such buds are usually called nodes; several closely spaced buds form a tillering node. It is located at a depth of 1-3 centimeters from the soil surface and occurs in the development phase of 3-4 leaves of the sprout.
New shoots that appear have their own nodes. Under natural conditions, wheat, with proper care, can form more than 100 productive ears; experiments were conducted at experimental stations on growing 300 shoots.
The reasons why so many shoots are not left during the industrial cultivation of cereals is that the plant does not have the resources to grow and develop such a number of full ears with high-quality grain. The meristem (a set of cells capable of rapid division) of the wheat tillering node contains a supply of active substances and provides the plant with the energy necessary for growth, the formation of new parts and the expansion of green mass.
Important: the plant cannot survive after the tillering node dies. This is a critically important area of the wheat sprout; under unfavorable conditions, even if some of the roots and leaves of the wheat sprout die, but the node remains intact, the plant is restored.
Advantages and disadvantages
Tillering is an evolutionary protection of wheat from death under unfavorable conditions for development. The degree of tillering is affected by soil fertility, humidity, climate, and day length. The advantages of this phenomenon are:
- plant vitality;
- the possibility of increasing the yield due to the formation of more than 3 stems with ears;
- reduction in the amount of seeded grain.
The disadvantages of tillering include:
- uneven ripening of sprouts;
- shoots that do not produce grain waste the plant's resources;
- lateral sprouts produce less grain.
Why do they do it?
Accepted seed sowing rates reduce wheat tillering; 1 ear may die due to weather problems, high humidity, or lack of nutrients in the soil.
Increasing the size of row spacing and the distance between sprouts stimulates the tillering process. An additional advantage is the reduction in the amount of seed grain. The number of shoots also depends on the quality of the seeds, pre-sowing soil preparation, and humidity. The indicator increases when applying foliar stimulating fertilizing. The presence of 2-4 stalks of wheat in a sprout makes the plant strong, promotes the development of the root system, the ears ripen together, the grains in them are large, and there are no problems during harvesting.
Rules
Winter wheat is more productive than spring wheat, the sprouts are stronger and more resistant to temperature changes. The tillering period of winter wheat can occur in both autumn and spring. The optimal temperature for the process is from +10 to + 14 °C, with soil moisture 60-75%; the depth of seed placement also affects it. The timing of sowing winter wheat varies depending on the region, approximately September 15-20. Before frost, the seeds will have time to germinate and get stronger. Before sowing, a complex of mineral fertilizers is applied to a depth of 8-10 centimeters. Potassium, phosphates, and nitrogen are added, the field is leveled, and wheat is sown.
For optimal development of the cereal, it is necessary to plant the seeds to a depth of 3-5 centimeters, and roll the soil to compact it with rollers.Before frost, 2-4 leaves have time to grow and the tillering process begins; it continues at a temperature of +2-3 °C, then stops, and resumes in the spring, after the soil has warmed up. If sowing is done late, the process begins in the spring.
Spring wheat is sown when the soil warms up to +5-6 °C. The seeds are planted to a depth of 4-5 centimeters and rolled. Rolling, fertilizing, and moist, fertile soil enhance the tillering process.
Evolution has allowed cereals to survive for thousands of years; many new varieties have been developed; with proper care, they give a high yield, because several ears of grain grow from one seed.
