Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 9:30 AM
141-1
Relationship of First Hollow Stem and Heading in Winter Wheat.
Jeff Edwards and Brett Carver. Oklahoma State University, 368 Agricultural Hall, Stillwater, OK 74078
The majority of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the southern Great Plains is produced as a dual-purpose crop and livestock enterprise. Profitability of the system is highly dependent on removal of cattle from wheat pasture at the first-hollow-stem stage of growth. Previous reports implied that earliness of first hollow stem and earliness of heading are independent traits, which would allow a grower to select a cultivar with late first hollow stem without sacrificing early maturity. We evaluated first hollow stem and heading records for 52 hard winter wheat lines over a seven-year period at Stillwater, OK . Our analysis shows a positive, linear relationship between occurrence of first hollow stem and heading in wheat when these phenological events were expressed as a function of cumulative thermal units after 1 January. When expressed in terms of calendar date, however, intervals between the earliest and latest cultivars for first hollow stem stage were much greater than those for heading date. Overall, our analysis indicates that among commercially available cultivars choosing a cultivar with later occurrence of first hollow stem will also result in later heading in the same given environment.