Semi-Dwarf Spring Wheat Cultivars Have Lower Root and Shoot Biomass Than Wild-Type Cultivar at Post-Anthesis and Maturity

This work aimed to find out root and shoot traits at early and late growth stages at three diverse semi-dwarf spring wheat cultivars, ‘Vida’, ‘Oneal’ and ‘Duclair’ and a wild type, ‘Scholar’ spring wheat cultivar at Plant Growth Center of Montana State University. In the study, we used long pots (50 cm) which were filled by mixture of peat (70%) and perlite (30%) as soil media. Plants were harvested at tillering (GS 22-24) with 5-6 tillers, post-anthesis (GS 69), and maturity (GS 92). The study results showed that root biomass per plant at tillering, post-anthesis and maturity, were ranged from 0.10 to 0.14 g, 0.47 to 0.90 g and 0.55 to 0.85 g, respectively, while shoot biomass per plant varied a range from 1.7 to 2.5 g, 6.5 to 10.7 g and 21.2 to 24.5 g. When comparing from post-anthesis to maturity, root biomass was unchanged markedly, however shoot biomass increased considerably. Moreover, a wild-type cultivar, Scholar consisted of higher root and shoot biomass than semi-dwarf cultivars at post-anthesis and maturity, even though there were no significant differences among the cultivars at early growth stage. In maturity, wild-type cultivar, Scholar had higher plant height and the lowest grain yield per plant were obtained from Oneal. In that event, wild-type cultivar, Scholar may be used in breeding program to improve genotypes with superior root biomass.

Keywords: Wild-type, semi-dwarf, root and shoot traits.