Effects of Removal of Some Photosynthetic Structures on Some Yield Components in Wheat

Abstract

Photosynthetic structures such as flag leaves, second upper leaf blade and awns were removed at heading stage of wheat (cultivars Gerek-79 and Gun-91) in an experiment in Turkey conducted during 1999 and 2001. Flag leaf removal resulted in 13, 34 and 24% reduction in grain number/spike, grain weight per spike and 1000-grain weight, respectively; and 2.8% increase in grain protein contents. Significant reductions in these traits and increases in grain protein content resulted from the removal of second upper leaf blade and awns.