Morphological and phenological adaptation for convergent development of tillers in Widely spaced wheat sown on different dates

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the dynamics of leaf and tiller emergence and development of widely spaced wheat sown on different dates. We used the phyllochron (time interval between the emergence of successive leaves at the same stage), site filling (the relative rate of increase in the number of tillers per phyllochron), and indices associated with ‘the synchronous growth’. Number of productive tillers per plant (including the main shoot, MS) reached 45.7 in early sowing, and significantly decreased by the delay in sowing. The increase in tiller number with the elapse of leaf age (Haun stage) of MS (HSms) was almost the same as that expected from synchronous growth until HSms 8.6 and site filling before this HSms was close to 0.481. The phyllochron was shortest in MS and increased in axillary tillers with increasing tiller order and position, but the differences in phyllochron between MS and axillary tillers within a plant were significant only at higher order and positions of tillers. The time of emergence of tillers was always advanced in comparison with that expected from synchronous growth. A very close negative linear relationship was found between the number of days from emergence to heading of tillers and the time of their emergence expressed as day of year; this relationship was independent of the tiller order, position and sowing date. Although the phyllochron gradually became longer, a progressive decrease of the leaf and spikelet per spike with the increasing tiller order and position may contribute considerably to the convergence to heading time.