An easily grown plant, it succeeds in most soils but prefers a well-drained light soil in a sunny position.

It thrives on infertile, submarginal areas and is renouned for its ability to grow on sandy soils.

Established plants are drought tolerant. The plant is reported to tolerate an annual precipitation in the range of of 22 to 176cm, an annual temperature in the range of of 4.3 to 21.3°C and a pH of 4.5 to 8.2.

Rye is a widely cultivated temperate zone cereal crop. It is able to withstand severe climatic conditions and can be grown much further north and at higher altitudes than wheat.

Average yields vary widely from country to country, the world average is around 1.6 tonnes per hectare with yields of almost 7 tonnes per hectare achieved in Norway.

There are many named varieties. Rye is a rather variable species and botanists have divided it into a number of sub-species, all of which could be of value in breeding programmes. These sub-species are briefly listed below:

S. cereale afghanicum (Vavilov.) K.Hammer. Native to the Caucasus, western Asia and India.

S. cereale ancestrale Zhuk. Native to western Asia.

S. cereale dighoricum Vavilov. Native to the Caucasus and eastern europe.

S. cereale segetale Zhuk. Native to temperate Asia.

Malt, a sweet substance produced by germinating the seed, is extracted from the roasted germinated seed and used as a sweetening agent and in making beer etc. The roasted (ungerminated) seed is used as a coffee substitute.

The straw is used as a fuel or as a biomass in industry. It is quite strong and can also be used in thatching, for paper making, weaving mats and hats etc. Other uses for the straw include as a packing material for nursery stock, bricks and tiles, for bedding, archery targets, and mushroom compost.