Durum Wheat

Durum wheat is direct-sown in spring, typically from mid-April through June, and is well suited to regions with low or irregular rainfall and repeated heat stress, such as the Mediterranean Basin. It is best grown in rotation after a broadleaf crop such as peas or lentils rather than another cereal or corn, a sequence that increases yield, reduces disease pressure and herbicide-resistant weed buildup, and leaves more soil moisture for the crop.

A nitrogen credit is available when durum follows a legume in the rotation, helping to reduce fertilizer costs, and foliar nitrogen can be applied to boost grain protein and kernel vitreousness, both of which affect end-use quality.

Durum wheat does not carry strong genetic resistance to Fusarium head blight (scab), a disease favored by humid, wet weather during flowering and early grain fill; growing the crop after corn is discouraged because corn residue harbors the causal fungus. Other diseases affecting the crop include rust, a fungal leaf spot complex such as tan spot, and bacterial leaf streak, while wheat stem sawfly and wheat midge are significant insect pests.

Rainfall after the grain has matured but before harvest can also cause the kernels to bleach and lose their characteristic amber color, a quality defect distinct from the biotic diseases above.

Because rain falling after maturity and before harvest can bleach durum grain and cause it to lose its amber color, timing the harvest to avoid such exposure is important for preserving grain quality.

After harvest, stored grain needs bins cleaned beforehand, fines managed, moisture controlled, and periodic aeration to regulate grain temperature; grain that has been infected with scab requires particular attention during storage.

Culinary: Durum grain is milled into semolina, a coarse, pale-yellow flour that forms the structural backbone of pasta and couscous, and it is also used for bulgur, breakfast cereals, puddings, and, when ground more finely, unleavened bread or pizza dough. In the Italian town of Altamura, bakers have made bread from 100% durum flour for more than 2,000 years.

Economic: Because it tolerates drought better than bread wheat and its specialty products command a price premium, durum wheat often serves as a valuable cash crop for small-scale farmers working marginal land.

Durum's ancestry traces to a natural hybridization between the wild wheat Triticum urartu and a goatgrass related to Aegilops speltoides, which produced a fertile hybrid known as wild emmer. Mutations that kept ripe seeds attached to the ear and made them easier to thresh made this emmer easier to harvest and grow deliberately, and durum wheat was developed through artificial selection of such domesticated emmer strains grown in the Near East and Central Europe, a process placed at roughly 9,000 years ago, around 7000 BC, in the region of southern Turkey.