Essay: Phenological Development Of Six Wheat Varieties.

Discuss about the Phenological Development of Six Different Varieties of Wheat.

Drought and extreme temperature are main constraints to wheat production. Different wheat varieties do well in different temperature and climate. Wheat is one type of grass family which mainly grown for its seed, it is staple food worldwide, (Venkateswarlu & Shanker, 2012). Wheat has many species that together make up genus Triticum. The most common species is Triticum aestivum. Wheat trade is largest in world and it is most produced cereal after maize. It is on high demand globally as it is source of carbohydrates and source of vegetal protein necessary for human consumption, (D’souza &  Jellife, 2012). The most common cultivated types of wheat are T. aestivum, T. spelta, T. durum, T. dicoccon, T. turanicum and T. monococcum.

Due to change of global environmental features and population increase, water resources and crop production are on increase. It is necessary to come up with wheat genotypes which are tolerant to drought and heat t o counter the rising food demand, (Buck et al., 2007). Though this requires a lot of capital and time, thus the faster and quicker way is to test adaptability of already existing genotype. The world requires more than 50% increase in production of wheat, maize and rice to sustain its projected population by 2045, (Godfray et al., 2010).

Wheat usually requires between 110 days and 130 days between sowing time and harvest time which will be affected by climate, soil conditions and seed species. Growth regulators, fungicides, herbicides and fertilizers are applied in specifics wheat development stages.  There several systems to identify crop development stages which include Feekes and Zadoks scale the most common. Wheat genetics differs from other domesticated species, some species are diploid like T. monococcum, and others are tetraploid such as emmer and durum and hexaploid. This different genetics version is necessary for yields.

The research questions answered in study are

• How wheat genotype affect wheat yields and morphological system of wheat that is number of leaves, biomass and wheat grain.
• Which is the best variety of wheat to be plant in order to get higher yield and harvest?

The study tries to identify important genotype features that help wheat to give more yields and also to compare old varieties of wheat and new varieties. Which is the best varieties to grow and get high yield.

Curtin university is in Bentley, Western Australia; 30⁰00’22”S 115⁰53’36”.  The climatic condition of this area is hot Mediterranean climate with wet winter; average temperature is 13.7-26⁰c.

This study made use of six different wheat varieties with different realised time. Old varieties were federation, olympic and gamenya while relatively new varieties were mace, magenta and yitpi.  The seeds of all varieties of heat were sown at 25 May 2017 in the Field Trial Area (FTA) of Curtin University. The seeds sown depth was at 30 cm row spacing with 13 g seeds of each variety per row and there were 26 rows in each block.

Methodology: Description of the experimental site

The growing area had two blocks with clay soil and in the previous year, faba bean was sown in same block. The pre-season treatment had approx. 6kg/m2 calcium bentonite.  The base fertilisers were 100kg/ha Urea; 100kg/ha Sulphate of potash; 90 kg/ha trace mix and 220kg/ha Super phosphate. One side dress 2kg of Nitraphoska special had applied on planted area. Both plots had tebuconazole 1ml/L, plus 2ml/L hasten applied approx. 300 L/ha.

Growth measurements were plant height, number of tillers and Zadock score. These data was collected every week until harvest. Dry matter weight was measured by weighting the stem after putting them in the oven at 60^oC for 48 hours in separate bags.

This experiment used completely randomised block design (CRBD) with four replications.  Treatments which were varieties of wheat were applied to blocks at random. ANOVA (α=0.05) analysed all data using R studio following tests of normality and homogeneity of variance. Tukey’s post hoc test was performed, to check if there was any significant difference following any of the ANOVA test to identify the treatments that are significantly different.

Chart 1

From chart above gamenya was first to record 50% flowering on 28^th August and second varieties to show 50% flowering were magenta and mace on 4th Sept while the last one was federation on 2^nd October.

The significance level is 0.05, the p-value of wheat varieties, blocks and interaction between wheat varieties and block are less than significance level we reject null hypothesis and conclude that the mean height of different wheat varieties is not the same. Treatment that is wheat varieties is statistically significance. As shown in Table 1

From Table 2 the mean height of gamenya is highest with mean of 112.69, federation with 112.69, olympic with 104 and magenta, yitpi and maze have mean less than 100.

Table 3. ANOVA table of wheat tiller number

From discussion from above it is evident that different genotype of wheat give different yields. From previous research wheat genotypes and tolerant to drought and heat are correlated, (Buck et al., 2007).  The study found that old wheat varieties that is federation, Olympic and gamenya produced more morphological features such tiller and plant height as compared to new varieties of wheat. Ancient wheat are better compared to modern one, they are mainly in organic farming system while new wheat varieties are usually bred for intensive high input systems.  It is therefore necessary to perform cultivators on different sites to identify interaction between environment and genotype, (Heun M. Et al., 1997). Strong evidence can be found from study of various research papers that genetic change determines the crop yield potential. Various varieties are released having variable genes that hive high yield potential, resistant to disease, various unfavourable environmental conditions like drought, (Perry & Antuono, 1989).  

They are many wheat varieties and some being modified to suit certain climatic condition. Some varieties do well in rainy climatic condition and other do well in Mediterranean countries where drought follow the spring  and they take a lot time to flower and ripen, (Canavara et al, 1994). Old varieties of wheat did better in flowering, height and number of tiller than new varieties but the yield was the same. The new varieties have being modified to suit the climatic condition.

 The research assumes that if the research was replicated in different regions and restricted to same condition will find the same results. The study only made use of morphological features such as tiller, height and biomass to make conclusion not yields or the nutrients content further research can conducted on the same.

Conclusions

The mean height of old varieties is better compared to new varieties. The mean height of gamenya is highest and federation second highest and olympic third highest. Also the two old varieties wheat that is gamenya and federation has high tiller number as compared to the other. Ancient wheats are better compared to modern one. The mean yield and mean weight of wheat plant were same for the six varieties of wheat, new varieties have been change their genotype in order to survive in Mediterranean condition.

Key words

ANOVA- analysis of variance

CRBD- completely randomised design.

References

Blum A. (2011). Plant water relations, plant stress and plant production. New York, Ny: Springer.

Canavara M., Romani M., Corbellini M., et al., (1994). Evolutionary trends in morphological, physiological and agronomical trait in old wheat: Europe Journal of  Agronomy vol. 3 pg. 175-185.

Buck H., Nisi J., Salomon N. (2007). Wheat production in stressed environments; Springer Science and Business media, vol. 12, pg. 456-460.

D’souza A. & Jollife D. (2012). Food security and wheat prices in Afghanistan: in World Bank policy research working paper; Washington DC

Godfray H., Beddington J., Crute I., Lawrence D., et al. (2010). Food security: the challenge of feeding 9 billion people. Science, Vol. 327, pg 812-818.

Huen M., Schafer R., D Klawan et al., (1997). Site of einkorn wheat domestication identified by DNA fingerprinting; Science, vol 278, pg 1312-1314.