Wheat Planting

The wheat window is open in the Piedmont, and the two biggest decisions you make this month are when to plant and how much seed to drop. This episode walks through how a wheat plant builds tillers, why the ones formed in the fall carry the crop, and what you are trading away when you plant too early or too late. The focus is the North Carolina Piedmont, with a look at how the guidance changes from Virginia to the Gulf. Fall tillers make the crop — NC State research found tillers formed before January 1 produced about 87% of grain yield. It takes 300 to 400 heat units after planting just to get the first tiller started. When to plant — NC State’s window opens about a week before your average first freeze and runs roughly three weeks. For most of the central and southern Piedmont, that means starting around mid-October and finishing before Thanksgiving. What late planting costs — Virginia Tech on-farm trials from 2023 to 2025 made about 75 bushels for October plantings, 66 for mid-November, and 52 for late November. Seeding rate in seeds per foot of row — On 7.5-inch rows, NC State’s range is roughly 21 to 28 seeds per foot of row: low end early in the window, high end as you slide into November. The episode also covers why setting the drill by the bushel can leave you well off target. More seed won’t buy back a late date — In a Union County on-farm trial, seeding rate didn’t change yield at any planting date, but planting date did. That’s one season at one site, and the episode says so. Hessian fly and aphids — Planting early raises the risk from both, including the aphids that carry barley yellow dwarf. North Carolina has no dependable fly-free date, so the episode covers rotation away from old wheat stubble, resistant varieties, and when a seed treatment pays and when it doesn’t.