Effect of time of sowing on wheat phenology in South Australia

Abstract

Relations between the growth intervals in wheat and meteorological variables were defined from time-of-sowing field experiments. The major factors affecting the duration of each interval were the date of sowing, the day-degrees of maximum air temperature and daylength. Equations to predict the number of days in a growth interval were tested against measurements made in other wheat growing districts. The relations between day-degrees of maximum air temperature and sowing date gave best predictions of the growth intervals in various districts. The data have application for estimating flowering dates and potential yield, and for estimating harvest dates,