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Effects of drought on yield and on grain and malt characters in spring barley
Author(s) -
Morgan Alan G.,
Riggs Timothy J.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740320405
Subject(s) - agronomy , biology , ripening , drought stress , shoot , germination , doubled haploidy , amylase , irrigation , horticulture , ploidy , biochemistry , gene , enzyme
The effects on yield and on grain and malt characters, of drought stress applied at different stages of grain development and ripening were studied in three varieties of spring barley grown in a glasshouse. Differences between variety means were found for most of the characters studied, but only for wort filtration time was there a significant interaction between variety and irrigation treatment. Grain yield was reduced by all the treatments involving drought stress and the reduction was greatest when stress was applied at heading and maintained for at least 14 days. A similar response was found for the number of ears per plant. Number of grains per main‐shoot ear was reduced by drought stress applied at heading but not when the stress was applied from 32 days after heading until harvest. Grain size was significantly reduced by all treatments. Raw‐grain characters known to be correlated with malt extract were found to be affected by the treatments: grain nitrogen content, barley extract viscosity and the rate of sedimentation of barley flour in ethanol were all increased by drought stress, the degree of response varying with the length and timing of the period of drought. Malt extracts were reduced by drought stress whether this was applied early or late in grain development. Malting loss and germinative energy were reduced, and wort filtration time increased by late stress. α‐Amylase activity in the germinating grain was unaffected by any of the treatments.