Claim · model-written summary
Nitrogen fertiliser application did not affect wheat rooting depth.
- Taxon
- Wheat
Triticum aestivume0 - Treatment
- application of nitrogen fertilisere1
- Outcome
- rooting depthe1
- Direction
- did not affecte1
Not reportedMaterialGeneCompoundOrgan / stageInteractorInteractor roleSecond interactorSecond interactor roleComparatorSettingValueQualifier
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Wheat roots penetrated to a maximum depth of 104 cm in crops sown in May, the optimum time of sowing for maximum yield, while delayed sowing reduced total root biomass and limited rooting depth to 73-83 cm”
e1“The application of nitrogen fertiliser did not affect either the rooting depth or growth and yield”
Title
Rooting depth of wheat in the Victorian Mallee
M Incerti; GJ O'Leary Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 1990. doi:10.1071/ea9900817
Other claims from this paper (14)
- Observation Wheat roots penetrated to a maximum depth of 104 cm in crops sown in May.
- Intervention effect Delayed sowing reduced total wheat root biomass compared with crops sown in May.
- Intervention effect Delayed sowing limited wheat rooting depth to 73-83 cm compared with crops sown in May.
- Intervention effect Nitrogen fertiliser application did not affect wheat growth and yield.
- Intervention effect Early and late sowing reduced total soil water content by 47 and 99 mm, respectively, and this occurred only in 1987.
- Intervention effect In 1986 the early-sown crop accumulated more water below 50 cm than the late-sown crop.
- Intervention effect Early sowing increased total water use, but only in 1986.
- Intervention effect Early sowing increased crop water use efficiency and yield in both years.
- Intervention effect Nitrogen addition had no effect on crop water use or water use efficiency.
- Observation A 1988 survey of wheat crops on 10 Mallee farms found shallow rooting to be widespread.
- Observation Roots did not penetrate as far down the profile as expected from reported rooting depths commonly in excess of 200 cm on similarly textured soils, irrespective of sowing time.
- Association Shallow wheat rooting was associated with high soil pH and salt content.
- Mechanism Poor rooting depth of wheat is suggested to restrict the use of stored water.
- Recommendation The authors call the practice of fallowing into question for wheat in this environment.