Sixty years of sprout damage in New Zealand wheats

Abstract

Pre-harvest sprouting in wheat grains can cause serious processing problems. This paper summarises the regional incidence of sprout damage in New Zealand since 1928. For the 15 years from 1971 to 1986, an overall increasing risk of sprout damage was found towards southern latitudes. Hence, Otago and Southland generally had the highest proportion (24.7 and 23.7% respectively) of their wheat crops damaged by pre-harvest sprouting. The lowest risk areas were Nelson/Marlborough (2.5% sprout damage), North Island (4.9%), and North (5.9%) and Central Canterbury (3.6%). Indeed, these latter regions could well be suited to growing white-grained or high quality, sprout-susceptible red wheats. Historically, white-grained wheat cultivars such as ‘Arawa’ have been highlighted in harvest reports as being particularly vulnerable to sprout damage.

Keywords:

• wheat
• sprout damage
• regional occurrence
• cultivar susceptibility