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Fructan to nitrogen ratio as an indicator of nutrient stress in wheat crops

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 1997

V. B. McGRATH
Affiliation:
NSW Agriculture, Yanco Agricultural Institute, Yanco, NSW 2703, Australia
A. B. BLAKENEY
Affiliation:
NSW Agriculture, Yanco Agricultural Institute, Yanco, NSW 2703, Australia
G. D. BATTEN
Affiliation:
NSW Agriculture, Yanco Agricultural Institute, Yanco, NSW 2703, Australia
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Abstract

Wheat stems serve as a store for fructans to buffer the plant against nutritional and environmental influences. It has been suggested that fructan storage influences yield stability and tolerance of environmental factors. Near infra-red spectroscopy (NIR) analysis provides a rapid and accurate assessment of the fructan content of the wheat stem, as well as allowing detection of growth-limiting nutrient stresses, and so is proving to be a useful technique for making crop management decisions. Commercial laboratories using NIR analysis have been tissue-testing crops in the eastern Australian wheat belt since 1993. In healthy, normally developing crops not under stress there is a predictable relationship between nitrogen and fructan. Investigation of the nitrogen and fructan concentrations in commercial crops has confirmed an inverse relationship between these two constituents. The function: Fructan (%)=a+bN%+cN%2 accounted for up to 81% of variation in tissue fructan concentration. In commercial tissue-testing this relationship is used to detect crops under stresses other than nitrogen deficiency. If the fructan concentration deviates by more than 4%, cereal growers are advised that their crop might be subject to other stresses which might reduce its response to applied nitrogen.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Trustees of the New Phytologist 1997

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