Evaluating the Impact of Pre-Anthesis Water Deficit on Yield and Yield Components in Triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmak) Genotypes under Controlled Environmental Conditions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure the impacts of pre-anthesis drought during reproductive stages (GS31 and GS39) on triticale (X Triticosecale wittmak) yield and yield components. Four triticale genotypes (2 Local, and 2 from the USA) were exposed to pre-anthesis drought stress at both of stem elongation stage (B-treatment) and flag leaf emergence stage (C-treatment). Grain yield was not affected by pre-anthesis stress. Under no stress conditions (A-treatment), a strong correlation between grain yield and the number of grains per plant and plant height was detected. Under B-treatment, yield was negatively correlated with spike length and under C-treatment, yield was positively correlated with the number of grains per plant. The number of grains per plant, thousand grain weight, and harvest index were also not affected by drought stresses. This implied that the tested genotypes were drought tolerant since they form a large number of tillers, and when subjected to pre-anthesis drought it helps the plants to cover the soil surface and reduce water evaporation. JU and S1 showed fast pre-anthesis growth (early flowering cultivars) which makes them favored for further breeding. while N1 and N2 had slow pre-anthesis growth (late flowering cultivars) which enabled them to store more photosynthate pre-anthesis, which might compensate for the pre-anthesis drought effect on them.

Keywords

• yield
• yield component
• triticale
• drought
• pre-anthesis