Environmental and Morphological Effects on Pre-harvest Sprouting of Wheat.

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is generally associated with white wheat. However, frequent spring rainfall events in the mid-Atlantic soft red winter wheat (SRWW) producing states frequently delays harvest several days or even weeks after harvest maturity has been reached. In these cases decreased falling number can be the result. Low falling number results in decreased prices for producers and decreased flour quality for millers. This study evaluates PHS as affected by wetting/drying cycles, varying degrees of dormancy within red colored lines, and different techniques for screening lines for sprouting tolerance. The study also evaluates the effectiveness of using grain color markers developed by hard wheat in identifying color genes in SRWW wheat. Results have shown that dormancy levels derived from simple germination tests can be used to predict lines with high susceptibility to sprouting. Germination tests and possibly MAS could help breeders to assign lines sprouting scores and improve selection.