Division of Agronomy

The effect of growth regulators on the roots of historical and modern winter wheat varieties - master thesis of Jana Kunst

05 December 2019: In a master thesis, Jana Kunst examined the effect of growth regulators on the root growth of historical and modern wheat varieties. Six winter wheat varieties were grown on the Reinshof experimental site at the University of Göttingen. The “historical” variety group consisted of Strubes Dickkopf (released 1895), Strubes General von Stocken (1920) and Carstens V (1921). The “modern” variety group consists of the varieties Greif (1989), Tommi (2002) and Premio (2007).

There were no significant differences in the root mass and root length density of the historical and modern varieties. The use of the growth regulator also showed no significant influence. Modern varieties tended to have a higher root length density in the deeper soil layers (80-100 cm).

Both, the historical and the modern varieties increased yields when growth regulators were used. The modern varieties were superior to the historical varieties.

We will repeat the experiment this year at the Reinshof. If you are interested to do your bachelor or master thesis, please contact Katharina Hey (katharina.hey@agr.uni-goettingen.de) or Prof. Stefan Siebert (stefan.siebert@uni-goettingen.de).

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