Tioga Wheat

Tioga wheat is a hard red spring wheat that is resistant to the wheat stem sawfly, a seirous pest that lays its eggs in the normally hollow center of wheat stems. Infested stems often break in the wind and fall to the ground (lodging) where the kernels of wheat spill out and are lost. Tioga's stems are solid, resisting stem damage caused by the sawfly. The strong stems hold up well in winds, and the wheat kernels are held firmly in their heads until harvest. This wheat yields well in droughty seasons when other varieties succumb. Tioga wheat is susceptible to stem and leaf rust, however.