Crazy tillering in spring wheat.

[DanniAgro]

Trying it this year after a twenty year gap, and I'm amazed at the shear number of tillers plants are putting out, whether it's emerged poorly or well there are at least ten tillers on every plant and one on its own had at least thirty before I stopped counting. It was planted in early April and is Chilham.
Is this normal for spring wheat? Will try and take a picture or two hopefully tomorrow.

 

[snarling bee]

I would say SW is usually shy to tiller, but that is probably a massive generalisation.

 

[DanniAgro]

I would say SW is usually shy to tiller, but that is probably a massive generalisation.

After trying and failing to grow spring barley, low tillering was what I was expecting. Presumably its the weather?

 

[tr250]

Trying it this year after a twenty year gap, and I'm amazed at the shear number of tillers plants are putting out, whether it's emerged poorly or well there are at least ten tillers on every plant and one on its own had at least thirty before I stopped counting. It was planted in early April and is Chilham.
Is this normal for spring wheat? Will try and take a picture or two hopefully tomorrow.

What seed rate did you plant? I would say sw is lazy tillering. I’ve not really paid a lot of attention to ours tillering but it looks thick enough but I drilled it at 300kgha it’s mulika

 

[DanniAgro]

Seed rate was about 1 3/4 cwt an acre, in old money, but the thing is that in some places where emergence was poor, it has thickened up so much I'm now worrying about it lodging rather than being too thin to give a decent yield.

 

[kc6475]

Starting to get a little concerned about our spring wheat it's also Chilham and its gone bonkers since it warmed up, it was drilled at 260 kg/ha so high seed rate because of poor tillering compared to winter wheat but I've never seen any crop so thick, it's tillered fantastic and now getting worried about keeping it standing! We grew Chilham last year and although it was a shocking spring and crops were poor it actually yielded pretty well, think the latest variety's are a step up from a few years back.

 

[AT Aloss]

Trying it this year after a twenty year gap, and I'm amazed at the shear number of tillers plants are putting out, whether it's emerged poorly or well there are at least ten tillers on every plant and one on its own had at least thirty before I stopped counting. It was planted in early April and is Chilham.
Is this normal for spring wheat? Will try and take a picture or two hopefully tomorrow.

Starting to get a little concerned about our spring wheat it's also Chilham and its gone bonkers since it warmed up, it was drilled at 260 kg/ha so high seed rate because of poor tillering compared to winter wheat but I've never seen any crop so thick, it's tillered fantastic and now getting worried about keeping it standing! We grew Chilham last year and although it was a shocking spring and crops were poor it actually yielded pretty well, think the latest variety's are a step up from a few years back.

Our KWS Cochise (seed rate: 220 kg/ha) had a bout of late tillering last year when the rains arrived which saved it from being a disaster. I think there are differences between our 1st wheat & 2nd wheat KWS Cochise. It has fewer tillers where it's being grown as a second wheat (seed rate: 250 kg/ha). However I agree these "dynamic wheats" (as they are marketed) are a step up from what I've grown before.

 

[MrNoo]

Mulika doesnt seem to tiller hence high seed rate but it always looks very well. I may try some of this Chilham then, be interesting to see how it does!! Is it a Group1 or just feed?

 

[DanniAgro]

Mulika doesnt seem to tiller hence high seed rate but it always looks very well. I may try some of this Chilham then, be interesting to see how it does!! Is it a Group1 or just feed?

At the present rate of growth, I'd call it grass if it gets any thicker! The flag leaves aren't just close, they're jammed together.

 

[Northern territory]

Seems a year for it. Never known our spring barley so thick. Had some growth reg but probably not enough. Thunderstorms will threaten it

 

[kc6475]

Mulika doesnt seem to tiller hence high seed rate but it always looks very well. I may try some of this Chilham then, be interesting to see how it does!! Is it a Group1 or just feed?

It's a group 2.

 

[Flintstone]

@PMD
@DanniAgro

How did that spring wheat do out of interest?

 

[tr250]

Our mulika did 7t/ha

 

[DanniAgro]

Ours did pretty well, and certainly better than spring barley planted at the same time (the first week of April), yielding in the region of 6.5 t/h.
On the matter of tillering mentioned earlier, the excessive tillers lasted until head emergence and melted away to nothing by harvest. Head count was mostly okay although they could have higher on a quarter of the area.
I will definitely be growing it again if wheat can't be planted in the autumn.

 

[AT Aloss]

@PMD
@DanniAgro

How did that spring wheat do out of interest?

Combined it yesterday & it was 78 kg/hl & it did 2.4 t/acre. It was a 4th wheat, no seed dressing, very little spend. Given the dry cold April it would have stood another 50 kg/ha seed. Not combined the first wheat after grass yet.

 

[Flintstone]

Thanks guys. Interesting. I see a place for it in my system, and some of the new KWS varieties look quite promising

 

[AT Aloss]

Ours did pretty well, and certainly better than spring barley planted at the same time (the first week of April), yielding in the region of 6.5 t/h.
On the matter of tillering mentioned earlier, the excessive tillers lasted until head emergence and melted away to nothing by harvest. Head count was mostly okay although they could have higher on a quarter of the area.
I will definitely be growing it again if wheat can't be planted in the autumn.

Thanks guys. Interesting. I see a place for it in my system, and some of the new KWS varieties look quite promising

@Flintstone further to what @DanniAgro said the extraordinary leafiness lasted until ear emergence. It was direct drilled, the population was better on the medium soil, lower on the heavier soil where it would have stood a slightly higher seed rate (which is expensive with certified seed). It cost me £202/ha to grow from farm saved cleaned seed (no seed treatment, but royalty paid), so I think it's worth growing a bit to always have some farm saved seed for a bit of business resilience in the case of extreme weather delaying autumn plantings. A seed dressing might be appropriate for earlier drilling (which might improve the yield), it all depends on the establishment system you use, but I've seen very little benefit from seed treatments in recent years from March drillings of spring wheat or barley.