Fructan to nitrogen ratio as an indicator of nutrient stress in wheat crops

• Published in: The New phytologist Vol. 136; no. 1; pp. 145 - 152
• Main Authors: McGRATH, V. B., BLAKENEY, A. B., BATTEN, G. D.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Cambridge University Press 01.05.1997; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Blackwell
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Avena sativa; Biological and medical sciences; Calibration; Cereal grains; chemical constituents of plants; Crop economics; Cropping systems. Cultivation. Soil tillage; Crops; Fructan; Fructans; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General agronomy. Plant production; Generalities. Cropping systems and patterns; Grains; Hordeum vulgare; near infra‐red spectroscopy; New South Wales; Nitrogen; nitrogen content; non‐structural carbohydrate; nutrient deficiencies; Plant physiology and development; Plants; spectroscopy; stems; Tissue samples; Triticum aestivum; Victoria (Australia); Water and solutes. Absorption, translocation and permeability; Wheat; Victoria (Australia); New South Wales; near infra-red spectroscopy; wheat; Fructan; non-structural carbohydrate; nitrogen; Near infrared spectrometry; Investigation method; Nutrition; Correlation analysis; Fructosan; Cropping system; Cultivated plant; Biological accumulation; Nitrogen; Decision; Stress; Stem
• ISSN: 0028-646X; 1469-8137
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1997.tb04741.x

Wheat stems serve as a store for fructans to buffer the plant against nutritional and environmental influences. It has been suggested that fructan storage influences yield stability and tolerance of environmental factors. Near infra-red spectroscopy (NIR) analysis provides a rapid and accurate assessment of the fructan content of the wheat stem, as well as allowing detection of growth-limiting nutrient stresses, and so is proving to be a useful technique for making crop management decisions. Commercial laboratories using NIR analysis have been tissue-testing crops in the eastern Australian wheat belt since 1993. In healthy, normally developing crops not under stress there is a predictable relationship between nitrogen and fructan. Investigation of the nitrogen and fructan concentrations in commercial crops has confirmed an inverse relationship between these two constituents. The function: Fructan (%)=a+bN%+cN%2 accounted for up to 81% of variation in tissue fructan concentration. In commercial tissue-testing this relationship is used to detect crops under stresses other than nitrogen deficiency. If the fructan concentration deviates by more than 4%, cereal growers are advised that their crop might be subject to other stresses which might reduce its response to applied nitrogen.