Research On The Ear Development And Main Agronomic Traits Of Major Wheat Varieties In Northern Winter Wheat Region

Eleven varieties which were widely grown and highly representative in Northern Winter WheatRegion and Yellow and Huai River Winter Region in China according to the data in2012were selectedand grown in Xinxiang Henan Province in2013to2014wheat growing season. The stage of eardevelopment, yield and yield components were studied in order to provide technical support to thewheat improvement in these regions. The results are as follows:The significant differences in ear differentiation rate and duration were found between differentregions, varieties and ear development stages.Lunxuan987from Northern Winter Wheat Region showedthe slowest ear differentiation rate in all the stages. The varieties from Yellow and Huai River ValleyWinter Wheat Region showed obvious variation in ear differentiation. The varieties from the sameecological region, even the same province, showed the obvious differences in ear differentiation. Thecomparison of ear differentiation in different stages between varieties showed that differences of eardifferentiation during the single ridge stage were small and became bigger and bigger after entering thedouble ridge stage. The differences in ear differentiation after the stage of anther connective tissueformation between varieties become smaller and smaller.The heading date of all the accession raged from176to182days. Lunxuan987from NorthernWinter Wheat Region had the latest heading date. Yanzhan4110and Aikang58, both from the southernpart of Yellow and Huai River Valley Winter Wheat Region, and Shi4185from the northern part ofYellow and Huai River Valley Winter Wheat Region had the same heading date of176days. Plantheight ranged from73to98cm. Lunxuan987was the tallest variety, and Aikang58the shortest.Yannong19, Huaimai20and Xiaoyan22had the plant height beyond90cm. The rest of accessions wereabout80cm high. The average of productive tiller rate was41%. Shi4185had the highest productivetiller rate of50%and Zhoumai16had the lowest productive tiller rate of38%.The average yield of all the accessions was9024.3kg/hm2,ranging from8003.1kg/hm2to9831.9kg/hm2. Xiaoyan22from the southern part of Yellow and Huai River Valley Winter Wheat Region hadthe highest yield, and Jimai22from the northern part of Yellow and Huai River Valley Winter WheatRegion, having the yield of9752.7kg/hm2and Lunxuan987from Northern Winter Wheat Region,having the yield of9240.75kg/hm2, ranked the second and third among the accessions respectively. Theyield components ranged from570to825ears per square meter,30to38kernels per spike and39to51grams per thousand kernels. The varieties from both Northern Winter Wheat Region and the northernpart of Yellow and Huai River Valley Winter Wheat Region had more spikes per square meter and thevarieties from the southern part of Yellow and Huai River Valley Winter Wheat Region had the higherthousand kernel weight.The study indicated that it may be feasible to compensate the differences in ear differentiationbetween varieties from different ecological regions. The synchronization in yield components is crucialfor the yield further improvement. The breakthrough in yield has the different approaches in terms ofyield components. The results provided some basic information in ear differentiation, yield and yield components of the current dominant and representative wheat varieties in Northern Winter WheatRegion and the Yellow and Huai River Valley Winter Wheat Region.