ISSN:
1573-5060
Keywords:
Triticum aestivum
;
bread wheat
;
spring wheat
;
uniculm effect
;
ideotype
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
Notes:
Summary The concept of the uniculm habit as an important feature of a wheat ideotype for a mediterranean environment was evaluated under field conditions. A uniculm plant produces a single shoot and when sown in a stand exemplifies a non-tillering crop with a fixed density of shoots throughout the growing season. Yield and harvest index of normal tillering spring wheat was compared with that of the same crop surgically detillered throughout the growing season to a constant density of 2 shoots per plant. The use of a biculm, whilst retaining the uniculm principle of a fixed density of shoots throughout the growing season, permitted comparison on a single crop sowing at normal field density. The control plots followed the usual pattern of tillering for the region attaining a maximum of about 4.0 shoots per plant by early spring. Shoot number declined to 2.3 and 2.6 per plant by maturity in 1978 and 1979, respectively. Detillered plots outyielded the controls by 14 per cent in 1978 (2.05 v. 1.80 tonnes ha-1) and 22 per cent in 1979 (1.84 v. 1.51 tonnes ha-1). Harvest indices were 0.39 v. 0.35 in 1978 and 0.30 v. 0.24 in 1979 for detillered and control plots, respectively. Higher leaf area indices and better water relations after anthesis in biculm stands indicated more efficient water use when shoot population was controlled at near optimum level. Irrigation at anthesis reduced the difference in yield between detillered and control plots. Although the uniculm principle was demonstrated with biculms in practice control of shoot number will require the use of genetic uniculms.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00033988
