Growth and phenology of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) as influenced by irrigation scheduling under in situ rice residue management

ABSTRACT

The impact of irrigation regimes on growth and phenology of wheat was studied under in situ rice residue management (RRM) using split plot design. Treatments were consisted of methods of rice residue management (3): conventional method, in situ RRM using Happy Seeder without Press Wheel (HSw/oPW) and Happy Seeder with press wheel assembly (HSwPW) in main plot and nine irrigation regimes[irrigations at growth stages (3): three irrigations at crown root initiation (CRI), booting and milking (I_3CBM); four irrigations at CRI, tillering, flowering and milking (I_4CTFM); five irrigations at CRI, tillering, booting, flowering and dough stages (I_5CTBFD), and irrigation depths (3): 55 (I₅₅), 65 (I₆₅) and 75 (I₇₅) mm] in subplot. Under in situ RRM, the physiological maturity was delayed resulting in higher accumulation of growing degree days (GDD), helio-thermal units (HTU) and photo-thermal units (PTU) than conventional method. The initial growth under HSw/oPW was slow, however, till harvest it was statistically at par with conventional method. I_5CTBFD resulted in the highest days taken to physiological maturity and GDD, HTU and PTU accumulation. Grain yield (pooled) was significantly higher under I_5CTBFD than I_4CTFM and I_3CBM. I₇₅ recorded at par growth parameters and yield with I₆₅.

KEYWORDS:

• Irrigation depth
• growing degree days
• happy seeder
• root dry matter

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India for providing facilities for conducting these studies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).