Summary

The ancestor of all the wheat forms is small spelt (Triticum monococcum). The most important varieties are: common wheat (Triticum vulgare) and hard wheat (Triticum durum). The technological usefulness of wheat varieties is divided into five groups: E – rarefied, A – qualitative, B – bread-kind, K – baking and C – other. Wheat from groups E, A and B is usually used mainly for bread baking purposes, but group E is rather used as an adjuvant. Concerning the agricultural properties, wheat is divided into winter and summer varieties. Wheat requires about 200-240 mm of rainfall during the whole vegetation period. It is not susceptible to low temperatures as the plant can easily bare temperatures to -20°C. However, wheat is characterized with the highest soil quality requirements among all the cereals, therefore is usually grown on soils from complexes 1 and 2. Winter variety is known to have higher needs than the summer variety, but high yield may be collected only on good and very good quality soils. On the other hand, summer variety – due to its poorly developed root system – requires good fertility conditions in the soil and properly chosen time of sowing. The best forecrops for summer wheat are root crops planted on manure and leguminous plants, while winter variety grows best in beds after winter rapeseed, sugar beet, potatoes, root plants and leguminous plants. The density of sowing should be determined by the time of sowing, light requirements as well as the type and the variety of the wheat. The sowing material should be treated by seed dressings in order to avoid the wide spreading of the different diseases. Such procedures also allow to apply lower amounts of fungicides in the later stages of plants' development. The control of weeds should be ensured by planning proper crop rotation, full postharvest cultivation, clean sowing material, the proper density of seedlings and different methods for plant protection, adjusted to the type and variety of the crops. Grain is collected during the dough stage of maturity, usually in one-phase harvest.

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