Managing Irrigation Scheduling to Alleviate the Impact of Salk Rot and Improve Yield of Winter Wheat

Abstract

【Background and objective】 Stem and root rot is a common disease of winter wheat. It not only affects crop growth but also root uptake of water. Considering that increasing irrigation times might spread the pathogen, an optimal combination of irrigation scheduling and rot-resistant wheat cultivars could alleviate the detrimental impact of stalk rot. The objective of this paper is to elucidate how irrigation scheduling combined with wheat varieties can minimize the yield loss due to stalk rot infection. 【Method】 The experiments were conducted in a field with all treatments organized based on split-zone design. We compared three wheat varieties: Hengguan 35, Jimai 22 and Heng 9966. For each variety, there were five irrigation treatments: Irrigating once (W1), twice (W2), three times (W3) and four times (W4), with no-irrigation taken as the control (CK); the irrigation amount in each irrigation was the same. In the experiment, we measured the susceptibility of the crop to the rot, soil moisture content, and the final yield. 【Result】 Irrigation scheduling had a significant effect on the occurrence of the stem rot. Regardless of the wheat varieties, stalk rots were least to occur when the wheat was watered with W3 and W4 irrigation scheduling. Heng 9966 was most rot-resistant among the three varieties. Soil water distribution varied with both growing stages and irrigation scheduling. When the wheat was maturing, the soil water content increased with irrigation times. Considering the impact of the pathogen, the impact of irrigation scheduling on the average yield of the three varieties was ranked in the order of W4> W3> W1> W2> W0. The average yield of each variety was ranked in the order of Heng 9966> Hengguan 35> Jimai 22. Regression analysis revealed that the yield estimated based on rot infection and the measured yield were highly correlated, especially for Jimai 22. Averaging over the three varieties, irrigation scheduling W0 gave rise to the highest yield loss, while the loss in W3 and W4 was the least. On average, the impact of the stem rot on wheat yield was the least for Heng 9966. 【Conclusion】 Considering the potential occurrence of stem rot, planting Heng 9966 and irrigating it three times were most effective to alleviate the pathogen and improve crop yield, while in the meantime reducing its water consumption.

Keywords

• winter wheat
• irrigation scheduling
• wheat variety
• stem rot
• yield