This paper presents the behavior of eighteen wheat cultivars at three seeding times (21.st to 31.st of March, 10.th to 20.th of April and 20.th to 30.th of May) in experiments carried out at Capão Bonito Experimental Station, Stare of São Paulo, Brazil, in the period 1981-1985. Grain yield, disease resistance, plant height, hectolitric weight, 1000 grain weight were evaluated for each experiment. Soil water availability was obtained by water balances taken at each ten days, considering 125 mm as the soil water retention capacity. The results showed that the seeding time from 21.st to 31.st of March was the best considering grain yield. The disease occurrence was influenced too much by climatic conditions, meanly caused by Helminthosporium sp. The cultivars CNT 7, BR 1, Paraguay 281, CNT 8, BH 1146, IAC 18 and IAC 5 presented high grain yield at the seeding time from 21.st to 31.st-of March, and it was not found significant differences among them. Tall varieties exhibited the best grain yield at he first and second seeding times. Grain yield was correlated positively with 1000 grain weight, showing this character to be a good paramether to express the yield potential of a wheat cultivars seeded at three different times.
wheat cultivars; water balance; leaf and stem rust; Helminthosporium sp.; plant height; 1000 grain weight