In biology, the BBCH-scale for cereals describes the phenological

Phenology

Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate...

 development of cereal

Cereal

Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...

s using the BBCH-scale

BBCH-scale

The BBCH-scale is a scale used to identify the phenological development stages of a plant. A series of BBCH-scales have been developed for a range of crop species...

.

The phenological growth stages and BBCH-identification keys of cereals are:

Growth stage	Code	Description
0: Germination	00	Dry seed (caryopsis)
	01	Beginning of seed imbibition
	03	Seed imbibition complete
	05	Radicle emerged from caryopsis
	06	Radicle elongated, root hairs and/or side roots visible
	07	Coleoptile emerged from caryopsis
	09	Emergence: coleoptile penetrates soil surface (cracking stage)
1: Leaf development1, 2	10	First leaf through coleoptile
	11	First leaf unfolded
	12	2 leaves unfolded
	13	3 leaves unfolded
	1 .	Stages continuous till . . .
	19	9 or more leaves unfolded
2: Tillering3	20	No tillers
	21	Beginning of tillering: first tiller detectable
	22	2 tillers detectable
	23	3 tillers detectable
	2 .	Stages continuous till . . .
	29	End of tillering. Maximum no. of tillers detectable
3: Stem elongation	30	Beginning of stem elongation: pseudostem and tillers erect, first internode begins to elongate, top of inflorescence at least 1 cm above tillering node
	31	First node at least 1 cm above tillering node
	32	Node 2 at least 2 cm above node 1
	33	Node 3 at least 2 cm above node 2
	3 .	Stages continuous till . . .
	37	Flag leaf just visible, still rolled
	39	Flag leaf stage: flag leaf fully unrolled, ligule just visible
4: Booting	41	Early boot stage: flag leaf sheath extending
	43	Mid boot stage: flag leaf sheath just visibly swollen
	45	Late boot stage: flag leaf sheath swollen
	47	Flag leaf sheath opening
	49	First awns visible (in awned forms only)
5: Inflorescence emergence, heading	51	Beginning of heading: tip of inflorescence emerged from sheath, first spikelet just visible
	52	20% of inflorescence emerged
	53	30% of inflorescence emerged
	54	40% of inflorescence emerged
	55	Middle of heading: half of inflorescence emerged
	56	60% of inflorescence emerged
	57	70% of inflorescence emerged
	58	80% of inflorescence emerged
	59	End of heading: inflorescence fully emerged
6: Flowering, anthesis	61	Beginning of flowering: first anthers visible
	65	Full flowering: 50% of anthers mature
	69	End of flowering: all spikelets have completed flowering but some dehydrated anthers may remain
7: Development of fruit	71	Watery ripe: first grains have reached half their final size
	73	Early milk
	75	Medium milk: grain content milky, grains reached final size, still green
	77	Late milk
8: Ripening	83	Early dough
	85	Soft dough: grain content soft but dry. Fingernail impression not held
	87	Hard dough: grain content solid. Fingernail impression held
	89	Fully ripe: grain hard, difficult to divide with thumbnail
9: Senescence	92	Over-ripe: grain very hard, cannot be dented by thumbnail
	93	Grains loosening in day-time
	97	Plant dead and collapsing
	99	Harvested product

1 A leaf is unfolded when its ligule is visible or the tip of the next leaf is visible

2 Tillering or stem elongation may occur earlier than stage 13; in this case continue

with stages 21
3 If stem elongation begins before the end of tillering continue with stage 30