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Vegetative and Grain-Filling Periods of Growth in Barley¹

Nine barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars and five populations obtained from intercrosses among them were used to study duration of the vegetative and grain-filling periods. Identifying and characterizing the variation that may exist is an essential first step in determining if higher grain yield gains can be obtained by optimizing the duration of the vegetative and grain-filling periods.

Nine cultivars representing three distinct types spent 25, 33, or 39% of their growth cycle in grain filling when grown in field environments. The nine cultivars maintained about the same ranking in five field environments; however, the ranking was different in the growth chamber, and the proportion of time in grain filling was greater than that in the field. Estimates of heritability (parent-progeny and variance component methods) were high for duration of the vegetative period. Estimates were low for the grain filling period when based on a single plot (parent-progeny method), but relatively high when based on means of replicated plots (variance component method). Correlations between the two growth periods and between them and days to maturity suggest that selection aimed at optimizing duration of the two growth periods and days to maturity would be hindered, but not precluded by the associations. However, we recommeno that more information be obtained about the relationship between effective grain filling and duration of the growth periods before substantial breeding work is done.

Key Words: Hordeum vulgare L. • Heritability • Growth periods

² Professor in agronomy and plant genetics, Univ. of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108 and former graduate assistants (now graduate student, Michigan State Univ. and assistant plant breeder, Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Assoc., respectively).

Received for publication June 19, 1978.