Leaf appearance rate and final main stem leaf number as affected by temperature and photoperiod in cereals grown in Mediterranean environment

Submitted: 11 February 2016
Accepted: 12 January 2017
Published: 28 September 2017
Abstract Views: 1908
PDF: 713
HTML: 431
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

  • Ezio Riggi Trees and Timber Institute, National Research Council (CNR - IVALSA), Catania, Italy.
  • Danilo Scordia dscordia@unict.it Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Italy.
  • Concetta Foti Cuzzola Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Italy.
  • Giorgio Testa Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Italy.
  • Salvatore L. Cosentino Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A), University of Catania, Italy.
In the present study, a two-year field trial was carried out with the aim to evaluate daylength and air temperature effects on leaf appearance and related rates in two durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.), two bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and two barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars, using six different sowing dates (SD). Significant effects of SD on final main stem leaf number (FLN), thermal leaf appearance rate (TLAR), daily leaf appearance rate (DLAR) and phyllochron (PhL) were found. Cultivars resulted inversely correlated to mean air temperature in the interval emergence - fifth leaf full expansion (E-V). Linear response of leaf number over days after sowing was shown for all SD and cultivars, with R2 higher than 0.95. FLN linearly decreased from the first to the last SD for durum wheat, while more variable behaviour was observed in bread wheat. TLAR and DLAR showed a linear increment of the rate from the first to the last SD in durum wheat, while did not for bread wheat and barley. PhL in durum wheat decreased from the first to the last SD. Barley and bread wheat showed the highest values on those SDs which did not reach flowering. The increase of TLAR was affected by photoperiod and photothermal units in durum wheat, while by temperatures only in barley and bread wheat. Present results might find practical application in the improvement of phenology simulation models for durum wheat, bread wheat and barley grown in Mediterranean area in absence of water and nutrient stress.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Riggi, E., Scordia, D., Foti Cuzzola, C., Testa, G., & Cosentino, S. L. (2017). Leaf appearance rate and final main stem leaf number as affected by temperature and photoperiod in cereals grown in Mediterranean environment. Italian Journal of Agronomy, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2017.770