Summary
The mortality of young tillers to an extent of 36.5% under optimum cultural conditions was recorded in a field experiment. Attention is drawn to the necessity of minimising this loss and to diverting it towards productive tillers by applying selection pressure. Future yield advances may be achieved by selecting genotypes which tiller moderately in the vegetative phase, most of which survive to produce grains. The character association of each variety under consideration was studied for the suitability towards this objective. A modified selection procedure is suggested which may be advantageously applied to achieve this objective. The proposed new methodology may also be effectively applied to such other cereal crops as barley, triticale and oats.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aspinall D, Paleg LG (1964) Effect of daylength and light intensity on growth of barley. III. Vegetative development. Aust J Biol Sci 17:807–822
Benbelkacem A, Mekni MS, Rasmusson DC (1984) Breeding for high tiller number and grain in barley. Crop Sci 24: 968–972
Bingham J (1972) Physiological objectives in breeding for grain yield in wheat. In: Proc 6th Congr Eucarpia, Cambridge, pp 15–29
Begg JE, Turner NC (1976) Crop water deficits. Adv Agron 28:161–217
Chaturvedi GS, Aggarwal PK, Singh AK, Joshi MG, Singa SK (1981) Effect of irrigation on tillering in wheat, triticale and barley in a water limited environment. Irrig Sci 2:225–235
Evans LT, Wardlaw IF, Fischer RA (1975) Wheat. In: Evans LT (ed) Crop physiology. Cambridge University Press, London, pp 101–149
Evans LT, Wardlaw IF (1976) Aspects of comparative physiology of grain yield in cereals. Adv Agron 28:301–359
Forde BJ (1965) Differentiation and continuity of the phloem in the leaf intercallary meristem of Lolium perenne. Am J Bot 52:953–962
Friend DJC (1965) Tillering and leaf production in wheat as effected by temperature and light intensity. Can J Bot 43: 1063–1076
Ishag HM, Taha MB (1974) Production and survival of tillers of wheat and their contribution to yield. J Agric Sci 83: 117–124
Jain HK, Kulshrestha VP (1976) Dwarfing genes and breeding for yield in bread wheat. Z Pflanzenzücht 76:102–112
Kulshrestha VP, Jain HK (1978) Wider significance of Norin dwarfing genes. In: Ramanujam S (ed) Proc 5th Int Wheat Genet Symp. Indian Soc Genet Plant Breeding, New Delhi, pp 988–994
Kulshrestha VP, Jain HK (1982) Eighty years of wheat breeding in India: Past selection pressures and future prospects. Z Planzenzücht 89:19–30
Kulshrestha VP (1985) Yield trends of wheat in India and future prospects. Genet Agrar 39:259–268
Lupton FGH, Pinthus MJ (1969) Carbohydrate translocation from small tillers to spike producing shoots in wheat. Nature 221:483–484
Palfi G, Dezsi L (1960) The translocation of nutrients between fertile and sterile shoots of wheat. Acta Bot Hung 6:65–74
Pavilov P (1971) Establishing the interdependence among the tiller in wheat with the aid of 14C. C R Acad Sci Agric Bulgarie 4:309–316
Patrick JW (1972) The mature system of wheat. II. Development. Aust J Bot 20:65–78
Rawson HM (1971) Tillering pattern in wheat with special reference to shoot at the coleoptile node. Aust J Biol Sci 24:829–841
Rawson HM, Donald CM (1969) The absorption and distribution of nitrogen after floret initiation in wheat. Aust J Agric Res 20:799–808
Saini AD, Nigam PK, Nanda R (1980) Growth characteristics of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties differing in grain yield. Indian J Plant Physiol 23:127–136
Saini AD, Nanda R (1974) Observations on growth and yield of wheat. Indian J Genet 34 A:1001–1011
Simmons SR, Rasmusson DC, Wiersma JV (1982) Tillering in barley: genotype, row spacing and seeding rate effects. Crop Sci 22:801–805
Sinha SK, Aggarwal PK, Chaturvedi GS, Koundal KR, Chopra RK (1981) A comparison of physiological and yield characters of old and new wheat varieties. J Agric Sci 97:233–236
Thorne GN (1962) Survival of tillers and distribution of dry matter between ear and shoot of barley varieties. Ann Bot 26:37–54
Williams RD (1964) Assimilation and translocation in perennial grasses. Ann Bot 28:419–425
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by J. MacKey
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kulshrestha, V.P., Chowdhury, S. A new selection criterion for yield in wheat. Theoret. Appl. Genetics 74, 275–279 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289980
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289980