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Wheat with high early vigour characteristics can produce more roots and use nitrogen more effectively, according to CSIRO Plant Industry research.
CSIRO Plant Industry scientists, including Dr Jairo Palta in Western Australia, measured how quickly roots grew and the way they grew in different wheat breeding lines.
Using glass-windowed root growth boxes, the roots of the commercial variety, Janz, were compared with two wheat breeding lines selected by Canberra-based CSIRO Plant Industry researchers for their early vigour – Vig 18 and B18.
“While the root depth of all three varieties reached was similar, root branching, particularly in the 0.2 to 0.7m layer of the soil profile, was more prolific in the vigorous wheats,” Dr Palta says.
“The early and more abundant root branching increased the root length density, the number of roots, and the capacity of wheat to capture nitrogen.”
Vig 18 and B18 developed a total root length 33 to 84 per cent more than Janz.
Also, their uptake of nitrogen from the top 20cm of soil was 60 to 68 per cent higher and was up to twice as much in the layer between 20 and 70 centimetres.
“These factors indicate that we should look more closely at wheat plants with favourable rooting characteristics to help identify potential breeding parents for future wheat varieties,” Dr Palta says.
“Increased nitrogen capture will also reduce the risk of nitrogen fertiliser leaching away, which is a waste of resources and harmful to the downstream environment.”
While conditions in controlled growth boxes are clearly different to field conditions, there is good evidence from the work of CSIRO Plant Industry scientists in Canberra that the same benefits of increased nitrogen uptake in wheat varieties with early vigour would be the same in the field.
Incorporating early vigour traits into wheat varieties could reduce input costs and improve yield for farmers.
Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.
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