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Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 51, No. 352, pp. 1921-1929, November 1, 2000
© 2000 Oxford University Press

Original Papers

The strategy of the wheat plant in acclimating growth and grain production to nitrogen availability

Petter Oscarson1

Department of Crop Science, SLU, Box 44, S-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden

Two cultivars of spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were grown to maturity in hydroponic cultures. Nitrogen accumulation was controlled by daily growth-limiting additions of nitrate together with all other nutrients in excess. Six different curves of N accumulation were used, with the same relative changes from day to day, but with different amplitudes. These curves were obtained by using the same mathematic formula of the N accumulation curves but varying the value of initial N content. The total amount of nitrogen added varied from 20 mg plant-1 to 65 mg plant-1. Plant bioproductivity showed a linear response to accumulated N. The number of grains per plant increased linearly with increased N availability whereas grain weights were essentially unaffected. Grain N concentrations and N content varied slightly, with highest values generally at the lower N availability levels. The quantitatively most important response to increased N availability was an increased number of earbearing tillers per plant. This varied from 0.1 tiller plant-1 at maturity when given 20 mg N plant-1, up to about 2 tillers plant-1 when given 65 mg N plant-1. Not all tillers that were initiated developed ears. The reduction of tillers seems to be one important mechanism in adapting plant productivity to N availability. Other individual characters influenced by N availability were straw height and the number of spikelets per spike. The two cultivars behaved in a qualitatively similar manner over the range of N availability even though they quantitatively differed in grain size, N concentrations and yield.

Key words: Nitrogen accumulation, nitrogen availability, tiller number, spring wheat, straw height.


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