Deep Soil Water-Use Determines the Yield Benefit of Long-Cycle Wheat.

ABSTRACT: Wheat production in southern Australia is reliant on autumn (April-May) rainfall to germinate seeds and allow timely establishment. Reliance on autumn rainfall can be removed by sowing earlier than currently practiced and using late summer and early autumn rainfall to establish crops, but this requires slower developing cultivars to match life-cycle to seasonal conditions. While slow-developing wheat cultivars sown early in the sowing window (long-cycle), have in some cases increased yield in comparison to the more commonly grown fast-developing cultivars sown later (short-cycle), the yield response is variable between environments. In irrigated wheat in the sub-tropics, the variable response has been linked to ability to withstand water stress, but the mechanism behind this is unknown. We

SUBMITTER: Flohr BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7242739 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature