LODGING EFFECTS ON A SEMIDWARF AND 2 STANDARD BARLEY CULTIVARS

Crop productivity in the black soil zones of western Canada can be affected by lodging when high biomass production and late season winds and rain occur. This experiment was conducted to assess the effects of mechanically induced lodging at different growth stages on three barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) cultivars. Five field trials were run at Lacombe, Alberta (Navarre loam, black Chernozemic), from 1985 to 1988. At anthesis, milk, soft-dough, and hard-dough growth stages, the semidwarf cultivar Samson, the mid-height cultivar Leduc and the tall cultivar Johnston were subjected to lodging treatment. Yield losses for all cultivars tended to be greatest when lodging was imposed at the milk stage with an average yield loss of 1.7 +/- 0.4 Mg/ha. Significant losses also occurred with lodging at heading and soft-dough stages with average yield losses of 1.3 +/- 0.5 and 1.2 +/- 0.7 Mg/ha respectively. Samson appeared to have the greatest tolerance to lodging, while Johnston had the least. Yield losses when lodging occurred at the hard-dough stage were minimal with an average yield loss of 0.57 +/- 0.49 Mg/ha. Test and kernel weights were not significantly affected by lodging. However for Johnston, kernel weight tended to be reduced by lodging and percent thin kernels was increased to 12.8% by lodging at the soft-dough stage from 5.3% for the control. Significant yield losses can result from lodging and in areas where lodging is of concern, efforts should be made to breed for, and promote the use of, strong-strawed cultivars such as the semidwarf cultivar Samson.