Grain filling duration and temperature pattern influence on the performance of wheat genotypes under late planting

Terminal heat referred to as increase in temperature during grain filling, is one of the important stress factors for wheat production and is responsible for decline in wheat production in many environments worldwide. In order to meet the challenges of high temperature ahead of global warming, concerted efforts are needed to evaluate wheat genotypes for heat tolerance and develop genotypes suitable for such stressed environments. Twenty-seven advanced wheat genotypes developed for stress and normal environments by different research centres were evaluated during 2009–10 and 2010–11 under timely sown (normal) and late sown (heat stress) environments. Analysis of variance revealed that the genotypes differed significantly in grain filling duration (GFD), grain growth rate (GGR) and thousand-grain weight (TGW). Out of 27 genotypes, 16 were found to be tolerant for thousand-grain weight under late planting (heat stress) during 2009-10 but only 12 were tolerant during 2010–11. Many of the genotypes registered ...