Dependence of wheat dough extensibility on flour sulphur and nitrogen concentrations and the influence of foliar-applied sulphur and nitrogen fertilisers

Three field experiments on winter wheat from 1986 to 1988 tested the effect of late-season foliar-applied sulphur (S) and nitrogen (N) fertilisers on baking quality. Only the experiment in 1988 produced grain with an S concentration and N:S ratio that could be classified as deficient by the accepted thresholds. Grain or flour S concentration was increased slightly in 1986 and 1988 by foliar-applied S. Dough resistance was reduced slightly by applied S in 1986, but this effect was dependent on cultivar and whether foliar N was applied. There were no effects of the fertilisers on baking quality in 1987 or 1988. When data from all three experiments were combined and corrected for mean effects of year and cultivar, multiple regression showed that dough extensibility increased with both increasing hour S and N concentrations. This is the first report in the U.K. that dough extensibility is limited by flour S status of field-grown wheat, and these crops provide the earliest evidence in the U.K. of a relationship between a measure of baking quality and S status of hour. (C) 1998 Academic Press.