Modeling the Emergence of Three Arable Bedstraw (Galium) Species

Abstract

Multiyear field data from Spain were used to model seedling emergence for three bedstraw species (Galium) that can coexist in winter cereal fields. The relationships between cumulative emergence and both growing degree days (GDD) and hydrothermal time (HTT) in soil were analyzed as sigmoid growth functions (Weibull). Iterations of base temperature and base water potential were used to optimize the HTT scale. All species were well described with Weibull functions. Both GDD and HTT models provided good descriptions of catchweed bedstraw emergence, as its seedlings have less dependence on soil water potential than false cleavers and threehorn bedstraw, which were described best with HTT. The HTT model for catchweed bedstraw was validated successfully with independent data from the United Kingdom. The models may be useful for predicting bedstraw emergence in semiarid Mediterranean regions and elsewhere.