11. Influence of source limitation on physiological traits of wheat

Abstract

To investigate the effect of source limitation on physiological traits of wheat crop, a field experiment was conducted in complete randomized block design having three replications, at Amir Muhammad khan campus, Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, during winter season, 2015. At anthesis stage eight source reduction treatments (normal plant (N) as control, removal of 2^nd + 3^rd leaf, removal of 2^nd + 3^rd + 4^th leaf, removal of 2^nd+4^th+5^th leaf, removal of 4^th + 5^th + 6^th leaf, removal of 4^th + 5^th leaf, removal of flag leaf (FLR), removal of all leaves (ALR) were applied. The results indicated that all source limitations significantly affected all observed parameters. All the treatments comparison was found significant except ALR vs FLR. ALR vs FLR was found non-significant for all parameters except for awns length. ALR and FLR had significantly decreased productive spikelets spike^-1 (5.24, 6.51 %, respectively), florets spikelet^-1 (17.0%, 10.4%), grains spike^-1, grain/straw ratio (58.8%, 50.0%), while increased non-productive spikelets, respectively (112.9%, 85.1%) and awn length (25.7%, 16.5%) and spike straw weight (10.80%, 15.9%) while in contrast, the removal of 2^nd +3^rd leaf significantly increased florets spikelet^-1 6.38 % and decreased non-productive spikelets spike^-1 by 33.3% as compared to normal plants. From the results it is concluded that wheat crop at anthesis stage is source limited.

Keywords: Anthesis; Flag leaf; Source reduction; Wheat crop

http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2018.70011