Effect of Soil Water Content on the Winter Survival of Winter Wheat, Rye and Triticale

Abstract

. 1990. Effect of soil water content on the winter survival of winter wheat. rve and triticale. Can. J. Plant Sci. 70: 66'l-675. A field study was conducted to determine the effect of soil moisture on the survival of three winter cereal species. Treatments were applied by watering and weighing the soil to the desired water content. Plants were overwintered in a plastic greenhouse in 1988 and in 1989, in which the air was not heated, but the soil was slightly heated on cold days to avoid very low temperatures. Soil temperature did not fall below -16'C.Soil temperature rate of change was dependent on moisture content. Puma winter rye and Otrastajuskaja 38 winter wheat were the hardiest, followed by Wintri winter triticale and Norstar winter wheat. Harus winter wheat was less hardy, and Champlein winter wheat was totally winter killed. The highest survival rate was obtained at moderate to high soil moisture content. The soil contained 44% water at field capacity and,79Voat the wilting point. The drier the soil in the range 13-23%, the greater the mortality indicating a negative effect of long-term drought on plant survival. By contrast, the wettest treatments: 58% and partial ice encasement, did not reduce survival. However, total ice encasement ktlled50-75% of the plants depending on winter rye, cv. Puma was used as the hardiest cultivar, and the winter wheat Harus, a line of inter-Experimental Design mediate hardiness, was added in the second trial. The experiment was a split plot with cultivars ranSeeds of the cultivars were sown in flats and were domized among the main plots and water treatgerminated in a growth chamber at20"C with 16 h ments randomized among subplots. The main plots illumination at 900 pE until seedlings reached a conrained 5 cultivars in 1988 and 6 in 1989 when leaf length of 5 cm. Plants were transferred to a cv. Harus was added. The subplots contained 6 to cold chamber maintained at 1 "C with an 8-h illu-7 water treatments (13, 18, 23, 43, 58 and partial mination at250 pE for 4 wk. At the end of this ice encasement in 1988, and 13, 18, 23, 30, 50, cold-hardeningperiod,plantswereremovedfrom total ice encasement, and inoculated in 1989). the flats, without damaging the roots, and trans-There were 5 replicates arranged in complete planted in a plastic greenhouse in groups of eight blocks each year. Analyses were performed (1988) or ten (1989)

Resistance of winter cereals to various winter stress factors - inter- and intraspecific variation and the role of cold acclimation

“…The maximum temperatures tolerated by the most winter hardy cultivars of oats (Avena sativa L.), barley, triticale, wheat and rye are -17°C, -19°C, -24°C, -25°C and -34°C, respectively (Fowler and Limin 1987). This order of species was confirmed also by Andrews et al (1986), Cloutier et al (1990), Fowler and Carles (1979) and . In this study, rye turned out to be the most winter hardy species, followed by winter wheat and triticale.…”

Genomic constitution of a partial amphiploid OK7211542 used as a source of immunity to barley yellow dwarf virus for bread wheat

“…Finally, a Russian 2n = 56 wheat-like amphiploid of unknown genomic status, Otrastajuscaja 38, was also crossed to OK7211542. This 'perennial' wheat is very hardy and moderately resistant to BYDV (A. Comeau, unpublished data), but is not completely perennial (Cloutier et a!. 1990).…”