biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 16:35-42, 1974 | DOI: 10.1007/BF02920818

Intergenotypic competition and shoot production in wheat plants

J. Smoček¹

¹ Institute of Cereal Crops, Kroměříž

In field experiments, the competition among plants of two distinct wheat genotypes in binary mixtures, and among three genotypes being grown in adjacent rows was investigated. The competition greatly affected the over-ground dry weight, weight of stem and grain per plant. This effect was undercompensatory, the depression in poor competitor was higher than the enhancement of strong competitor for all these characteristics. From final components of grain yield per plant, the number of fertile stems and number of grains per ear were more affected than weight per grain. More expressively than weight of grain on the main-stem ear, the weight of grain per average secondary ear-bearing stem was affected by competition in binary mixture. The enhancement in standard height-a strongly competitive genotype- reached in binary mixture about 10% for this last characteristic in comparison with the value from the pure stand. Some morphological characteristics of plants being in relation with competition for grain yield per plant are discussed in these experiments.

Received: January 23, 1973; Published: January 1, 1974  Show citation