Winter (Fall Planted) Wheats

These wheat cultivars are fall-planted on our southeast Michigan homestead. Winter grains require vernalization, an extended period of cold, during their lifecycle to flower and set grain.

In our experience, winter wheat planted in the fall consistently has a higher yield than spring planted wheat. For us, it's often, its a race against, rain, snow and mud to plant in the spring.  

For an excellent discussion of winter wheat's growth stages please see University of Wisconsin's Visual Guide - Winter Wheat Development and Growth Staging (pdf.)

For cultivation information, please see our presentations that explain how we grow grains on a small, homestead scale. Be sure to check our Grain Glossary for a review of the vocabulary used on our site.

Gain a sense of scale used in the photos.