Changes in the federal farm program, in rainfall pattern and quantity, and
increased incidence of herbicide resistant weeds and diseases have generated
increased interest in spring grains in the Pacific Northwest. However, spring grains
have traditionally been treated as minor crops in this region, thus little research has
been done on them. Complicating the situation is the diversity in spring growing
conditions as well as crops grown. This study was conducted to a) assess the impact
of seeding date on the growth and development of the spring grains and b) to
determine the differences or extent of differences among genetically diverse grains.
Planting date and cultivar had significant effects on number of leaves and
tillers as well as dry matter production. The differences among planting dates were
mainly as a result of variations in temperature, though soil moisture was of
significance in some cases. Among the cultivars, Alpowa had a high tillering rate,
while Westbred936 was poor. The leaves of the cultivars generally emerged at a
constant rate (with a few exceptions) within a given planting date, but rates differed
among planting dates. Though significant differences in rate of leaf emergence
were observed among cultivars, rate of leaf emergence in wheat as a group was not
significantly different from that of the barley or oat cultivar evaluated.
Phyllochron decreased with later sowing in only the first year. In the second
year, no consistent increase or decrease in phyllochron with planting date was
observed. Rate of dry matter production followed an inverse quadratic polynomial
trend. Rate increased slowly during early growth and later rising sharply as plant
matured regardless of planting date. Among the cultivars, barley plants showed
clear superiority in dry matter accumulation. This is likely the reason why barleys
seemed to show superior growth to all the other cultivars. A relationship between
vegetative growth and grain yields was observed; however, assimilate
redistribution was also found to play significant role.
Results obtained were a clear reflection of differences in environmental
conditions for each year. / Graduation date: 2000
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/33333 |
| Date | 01 May 2000 |
| Creators | Armah-Agyeman, Grace |
| Contributors | Karow, Russell S. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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