Spring wheat · Basrah, Basra, Iraq
When to plant spring wheat in Basrah
Main outdoor window
2-23 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 January
In Basrah, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
12 Apr - 12 May
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Basrah
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow direct
2-23 Jan
Three weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
12 Apr - 12 May
Spring wheat through the year
Against the frost risk in Basrah
Why these dates
Sow as early as the ground can be worked, roughly three weeks before the last frost. The seedlings tolerate frost easily; what they cannot tolerate is heat during grain fill, so an early sowing is a hedge against a hot midsummer.
Seedlings survive to about -6C. The vulnerable stage is flowering, where a frost causes blank heads that look normal until threshing.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Spring wheat are timed for direct sowing 3 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Basrah.
The median frost-free season here is 333 days, against 100 to 130 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Growing spring wheat in Basrah
When should I plant spring wheat in Basrah?
Aim for 2-23 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 15 Jan - 5 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will spring wheat be ready to harvest in Basrah?
Expect to start picking around 12 Apr - 12 May, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will spring wheat tolerate?
Seedlings survive to about -6C. The vulnerable stage is flowering, where a frost causes blank heads that look normal until threshing.