Foliar application of chlormequat chloride improves lodging resistance and grain yield in bread wheat

The present study was aimed to quantify the effect of growth regulator (GR) chlormequat chloride on lodging and yield attributes in the three recently released bread-wheat varieties in India. The findings indicate that, lodging incidence in high yielding wheat cultivars can be successfully reduced by a single spray of GR chlormequat chloride at the first node formation stage. A single treatment of GR significantly increased the yield/plot in all three wheat varieties and the effect of the second spray on grain yield was less incremental on study genotypes. Further, there was a differential GR×genotype interaction observed in yield and yield component traits. The lodging percentage in treatments showed a significant positive correlation with plant height and negative correlation with grain yield/plot and biomass. The higher yield of genotypes with GR treatment was attributed to increased tiller number, grain numbers per spike, thousand kernel weight and less lodging.