Patterns of tillering and grain production of winter wheat at a wide range of plant densities.

Abstract

The effect of plant density on the growth and productivity of the various ear-bearing stems of winter wheat was studied in detail to obtain information on the pattern of grain production of crops grown under field conditions. Strong compensation effects were measured: a 160-fold increase in plant density (5-800 plants/m2) finally resulted in a 3-fold increase in grain yield (282 to 850 g DM/m2). Max. grain yield was achieved at 100 plants/m2, which corresponded to 430 ears/m2 and to about 19 000 grains/m2. At higher plant densities more ears and more grains were produced, but grain yield remained constant. Tillering/plant was largely favoured by low plant densities because these allowed tiller formation to continue for a longer period and a greater proportion of tillers produced ears. However, at higher plant densities more tillers/unit area were formed and, despite a higher mortality, more ears were produced. The productivity of individual ears, from main stems as well as from tillers, decreased with increasing plant density and with later emergence of shoots. In the range from 5 to 800 plants/m2 grain yield/ear decreased from 2.40 to 1.14 g DM. At 800 plants/m2 nearly all ears originated from main stems, but with decreasing plant density tillers contributed increasingly to the number of ears. At 5 plants/m2, there were 23 ears/plant and grain yield/ear ranged from 4.20 (main stem) to 1.86 g DM (late-formed stems). Grain number/ear was reduced at higher densities and on younger stems, because there were fewer fertile spikelets and fewer grains in these spikelets. At the low density of 5 plants/m2, plants developed solitarily and grain yield/ear was determined by the number of grains/ear as well as by grain wt. Above 400 ears/m2, in this experiment reached at 100 plants/m2 and more, grain yield/ear depended solely on grain number, because the wt. of grains of the various stems were similar. The harvest index showed a max. of about 44% at a moderate plant density; at this density nearly max. grain yield was achieved. At low plant densities the harvest index decreased from 45% in main stems to about 36% in late-formed stems. However, no differences in harvest index existed between the various ear-bearing stems if the number of ears exceeded 400/m2. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)