Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T11:09:00.331Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Stem and root characteristics associated with lodging resistance in four winter wheat cultivars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

M. J. Crook  and
A. R. Ennos
M. J. Crook
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Biology, University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
A. R. Ennos
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Biology, University of Manchester, Williamson Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The effects of root and shoot characteristics on the lodging resistance of four cultivars of winter wheat were investigated by combining results from a field trial (set up at Manchester University's Experimental Grounds, Jodrell Bank, in mid-September 1991) with morphological and mechanical measurements on their stems and anchorage systems. Cultivars showed contrasting lodging resistance: Widgeon was most susceptible, followed by Galahad, Riband and Hereward which, alone, did not lodge. Lodging resistance was not related to the strength and stiffness of the stems, which were usually adequate to withstand the forces to which they were subjected. Most plants instead failed in their root system which rotated through the soil. Resistance was associated with short and light stems (and hence on the force applied to the plants by wind and gravity) and with high values of the anchorage strength of the root system (and hence on the force resisting lodging). Lodging occurred during grain filling when the ears were heaviest and when the soil was wet. The anchorage strength of a plant depended on two characteristics of the root system: the bending strength and the angle of spread of the basal coronal roots. Plants with stronger, more widely spread coronal roots produced larger soil cones during anchorage failure and resisted larger forces. Future breeding for lodging resistance, therefore, should continue to select for plants with shorter stems and with stiffer, more widely spread, coronal roots.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 123 , Issue 2 , October 1994 , pp. 167 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, R. McN. (1981). Factors of safety in the structure of animals. Science Progress, Oxford 67, 109–130.Google ScholarPubMed
Barraclough, P. B. & Leigh, R. A. (1984). The growth and activity of winter wheat roots in the field: the effect of sowing date and soil type on root growth of high-yielding crops. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 103, 59–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coutts, M. P. (1983). Development of the structural root system of Sitka Spruce. Forestry 56, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crook, M. J. & Ennos, A. R. (1993). The mechanics of root lodging in winter wheat, Triticum aestivum L. Journal of Experimental Botany 44 (Supplement), 50 (Abstract A 11.4).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donald, C. M. (1968). The design of the wheat ideotype. In Third International Wheat Genetics Symposium, Canberra (Eds Finley, K. W. & Shepherd, K. W.), pp. 377–387. Sydney: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Easson, D. L., White, E. M. & Pickles, S. S. (1991). A study of lodging in cereals. HGCA Project Report 52, 75.Google Scholar
Ennos, A. R. (1989). The mechanics of anchorage in seedlings of sunflower, Helianthus annuus L. New Phytologist 113, 185–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ennos, A. R. (1991). The mechanics of anchorage in wheat Triticum aestivum L. II. Anchorage of mature wheat against lodging. Journal of Experimental Botany 42, 1607–1613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, J. (1983). Crop lodging in British wheats and barleys. PhD thesis, University of Reading.Google Scholar
Neenan, M. & Spencer-Smith, J. L. (1975). An analysis of the problem of lodging with particular reference to wheat and barley. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 85, 495–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Percival, J. (1921). The Wheat Plant: A Monograph. London: Duckworth & Company.Google Scholar
Pinthus, M. J. (1973). Lodging in wheat, barley, and oats: the phenomenon, its causes, and preventative measures. Advances in Agronomy 25, 209–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spatz, H. C., Speck, T. & Vogellehner, D. (1990). Contributions to the biomechanics of plants. II. Stability against local buckling in hollow plant stems. Botanica Acta 103, 123–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troughton, A. (1962). The Roots of Temperate Cereals (Wheat, Barley, Oats and Rye). Farnham Royal: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux.Google Scholar
Wainwright, S. A., Biggs, W. D., Currey, J. D. & Gosline, J. M. (1976). Mechanical Design in Organisms. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar