Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T04:57:00.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contributions of shoot categories to growth and yield of winter wheat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

G. N. Thorne  and
D. W. Wood
G. N. Thorne
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Arable Crops Research, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ
D. W. Wood
Affiliation:
AFRC Institute of Arable Crops Research, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts AL5 2JQ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Measurements were made at intervals during 1983–4 on the main stem and on tillers having defined morphological positions on plants of winter wheat cv. Avalon growing in a multifactorial experiment testing combinations of the following five factors: rotation, sowing date, amount of autumn N, amount of spring N, and timing of spring N. Some observations from similar experiments in the two previous seasons are also reported.

The tillers in the axils of the first three leaves (Tp, T2 and T3) appeared on most plants. An average of 1·8 other tillers were produced on each plant, including 0·14 at the coleoptile node. When number of shoots was maximal, main stems (M), T1 and T2 together accounted for 64% of the total number of shoots, 76% of the total green area and 87% of the total above-ground dry weight. More than half of the T1s died before maturity, two thirds of the T2s and almost all of the other tillers. The final population of 566 ears/m2 was made up as follows: M 56%, T1 26%, T2 16%. The differences between categories in dry weight per shoot at maturity were relatively less than earlier. Contributions to the mean grain yield of 9·9 t/ha were: M 60%, T1, 22%, T2 14%. M had more grains per ear than T1, or T2 which had similar numbers. Dry weight per grain was similar in all three categories.

Most of the effects of treatments on dry weight/m2, which have been described previously by Prew et al. (1986), were due to effects on all shoot categories. Several treatments increased the number of shoots/m2 by increasing the average number per plant of tiller categories that were produced later. This was always the result of an increase in the proportion of plants having many tillers. Neither the maximum number of tillers found on a plant, nor the duration of tiller production, was affected.

Both within and between tiller categories, shoots that were produced last died first. Plants which started tillering late produced fewer, smaller, tillers than average and relatively few of these survived. The standard hierarchical order of tiller production and survival was disrupted when plants were damaged by stem-boring insects and when the period shortly before a tiller category was due to emerge was unusually dull and warm.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 111 , Issue 2 , October 1988 , pp. 285 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, C. K., Gallagher, J. N. & Monteith, J. L. (1980). Daylength change and leaf appearance in winter wheat. Plant, Cell and Environment 3, 285–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biscoe, P. V. & Willington, V. B. A. (1985). Crop physiological studies in relation to mathematical models. In Wheat Growth and Modelling (ed. Day, W. and Atkin, R. K.), pp. 257–269. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bunting, A. H. & Drennan, D. S. H. (1966). Some aspects of the morphology and physiology of cereals in the vegetative state. In The Growth of Cereals and Grasses (ed. Milthorpe, F. L. and Ivins, J. D.), pp. 20–38. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Chalabi, Z. S. & Day, W. (1986). Application of dynamic jump process analysis to modelling tiller production in winter wheat. IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medicine and Biology 3, 23–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darwinkel, A. (1980). Ear development and formation of grain yield in winter wheat. Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science 28, 156–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donald, C. M. (1968). The breeding of crop ideotypes. Euphytica 17, 385–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, J. & Dougherty, C. T. (1978). An analysis of yield components of major tiller orders of Kopara wheat. Proceedings of the Agronomy Society of New Zealand 8, 59–62.Google Scholar
Gandar, P. W., Bertaud, D. S., Cleghorn, J. A., Withers, N. G. & Spriggs, T. W. (1984). Modelling tillering and yield formation in spring-sown Karamu wheat. Proceedings of the Agronomy Society of New Zealand 14, 83–88.Google Scholar
Kirby, E. J. M. & Appleyard, M. (1984). Cereal Development Guide, 2nd edn.Stoneleigh: Arable Unit, National Agricultural Centre.Google Scholar
Kirby, E. J. M., Appleyard, M. & Fellowes, G. (1985). Effect of sowing date and variety on main shoot leaf emergence and number of leaves of barley and wheat. Agronomie 5, 117–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klepper, B., Rickman, R. W. & Peterson, C. M. (1982). Quantitative characterization of vegetative development in small cereal grains. Agronomy Journal 74, 789–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, C. & Boyd, W. J. R. (1985). A comparison of the growth and development of biculm wheat lines with freely tillering cultivars. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 104, 163–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masle-Maynard, J. (1982). Elaboration du nombre d'épis d'un peuplement de blé d'hiver en situation de compétition pour l'azote. II. Modération du nombre d'épis. Agronomie 1, 365–374.Google Scholar
Masle-Maynard, J. & Sebillotte, M. (1981 a). Etude de l'hétérogénéité d'un peuplement de blé d'hiver, I. Notion de structure du peuplement. Agronomie 1, 207–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masle-Maynard, J. & Sebillotte, M. (1981 b). Etude de 1'hétérogénéité d'un peuplement de blé d'hiver. II. Origine des différentes catégories d'indivus du peuplement; éléments de description de sa structure. Agronomie 1, 217–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nix, H. A. (1976). Climate and crop productivity in Australia. In Climate and Rice (ed. Yoshida, S.), pp. 495–507. Los Bãnos, The Philippines: International Rice Research Institute.Google Scholar
Porter, J. R. (1984). A model of canopy development in winter wheat. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 102, 386–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power, J. F. & Alessi, J. (1978). Tiller development and yield of standard and semidwarf spring wheat varieties as affected by nitrogen fertilizer. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 90, 97–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prew, R. D., Church, B. M., Dewar, A. M., Lacey, J., Penny, A., Plumb, R. T., Thorne, G. N., Todd, A. D. & Williams, T. D. (1983). Effects of eight factors on the growth and nutrient uptake of winter wheat and on the incidence of pests and diseases. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 100, 363–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prew, R. D., Church, B. M., Dewar, A. M., Lacey, J., Magan, N., Penny, A., Plumb, R. T., Thorne, G. N., Todd, A. D. & Williams, T. D. (1985). Some factors limiting the growth and yield of winter wheat and their variation in two seasons. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 104, 135–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prew, R. D., Beane, J., Carter, N., Church, B. M., Dewar, A. M., Lacey, J., Penny, A., Plumb, R. T., Thorne, G. N. & Todd, A. D. (1986). Some factors affecting the growth and yield of winter wheat grown as a third cereal with much or negligible take-all. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 107, 639–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simons, R. G. (1982). Tiller and ear production of winter wheat. Field Crop Abstracts 35, 857–870.Google Scholar
Thorne, G. N. & Wood, D. W. (1987 a). The fate of carbon in dying tillers of winter wheat. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 108, 515–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorne, G. N. & Wood, D. W. (1987 b). Effects of radiation and temperature on tiller survival, grain number and grain yield in winter wheat. Annals of Botany 59, 413–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willington, V. B. A. & Biscoe, P. V. (1982–1985). Growth and development of winter wheat. Broom's Barn Experimental Station, ICI Agricultural Division Research Programme Annual Reports, Nos 1–4.Google Scholar