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Relative performance of Canadian spring wheat cultivars under organic and conventional field conditions

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Abstract

Producing higher yields under organic conditions is generally hampered by weeds and lesser nutrient supply. In wheat certain adaptive traits like early season vigour, taller plants, and shorter life cycle have been reported to help plants compete with weeds and produce satisfactory yields. In this experiment we tested the hypothesis ‘that early flowering and maturity conferred by insensitive vernalization alleles Vrn-A1a and/or Vrn-B1 has a yield advantage under organic conditions’ in Canadian spring wheat germplasm. We genotyped 32 cultivars for their vernalization gene composition (Vrn-A1a, Vrn-B1 and Vrn-D1) and studied these cultivars in organic and conventional management systems. We found 88 % of the cultivars possessed vernalization (Vrn) insensitive allele Vrn-A1a either alone or in combination with Vrn-B1. There were no differential affects between the cultivars having insensitive Vrn allele at either single locus (Vrn-A1a) or two (Vrn-A1a, Vrn-B1) under organic and conventional field conditions; except for days to maturity, where cultivars having only Vrn-A1a allele matured earlier. This earlier maturity did not translate to any yield advantage under organic field conditions. Overall, the cultivars grown under organic conditions were earlier flowering, lower yielding with lower test weight compared to the conventional management system. Significant cultivar × environment interactions were found for grain yield, grain protein content and grain fill rate. For grain protein content, cross-over interactions of the cultivars between the management systems were observed. Three cultivars (Marquis, Unity and Minnedosa) exhibited minimal comparative loss in grain yield and grain protein content under organic field conditions, and hence could potentially serve as parents for organic wheat breeding programs.

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Abbreviations

CWRS:

Canada western red spring

CWSWS:

Canada western soft white spring

CPS:

Canada prairie spring

CWHWS:

Canada western hard white spring

GFD:

Grain fill duration

GFR:

Grain fill rate

NIR:

Near-infrared reflectance

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge and thank Klaus Strenzke, Glen Hawkins, Lisa Raatz, Fabiana Dias, Alex Pswarayi, Joe Back, Ivan Adamyk, Henry Song, Graham Collier, Hua Chen, Muhammad Asif, Neshat Pazooki, and Rachelle Rimmer for their technical assistance. This research was supported by grants from the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund, Western Grains Research Foundation Endowment Fund, the Organic Cluster of the AAFC Cluster grant, and an NSERC Discovery Grant to D. Spaner. The study was partially supported by a Canadian Wheat Board fellowship to the first author who also received a scholarship from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, 4-10 Ag/For Building, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2P5, Canada

    Atif Kamran, Hiroshi Kubota, Rong-Cai Yang & Dean Spaner

  2. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre, Lethbridge, AB, T1J 4B1, Canada

    Harpinder S. Randhawa

  3. Seed Centre, Department of Botany, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Atif Kamran

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  1. Atif Kamran
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  2. Hiroshi Kubota
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  3. Rong-Cai Yang
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  4. Harpinder S. Randhawa
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  5. Dean Spaner
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Correspondence to Dean Spaner.

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Kamran, A., Kubota, H., Yang, RC. et al. Relative performance of Canadian spring wheat cultivars under organic and conventional field conditions. Euphytica 196, 13–24 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-013-1010-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-013-1010-3

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