WALTer: a three-dimensional wheat model to study competition for light through the prediction of tillering dynamics

Branching is a main morphogenetic process involved in the adaptation of plants to the environment. In grasses, tillering is divided into three phases: tiller emergence, cessation of tillering and tiller regression. Understanding and prediction of the tillering process is a major challenge to better control cereal yields. In this paper, we present and evaluate WALTer, an individual-based model of wheat built on simple self-adaptive rules for predicting the tillering dynamics at contrasting sowing densities.