Evaluation of Phosphorus Efficiency in Cereals

A factorial completely randomized block design experiment with 3 replications was carried out in the greenhouse to evaluate cereals genotypic variation in phosphorus acquisition and utilization during 2006. Treatments consisted of 8 bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), 3 durum wheat (Triticum durum L.), 3 barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), 1 rye (Secale cereale L.), 1 oat (Avena sativa L.) and 1 Triticale (X Triticosecale L.), and two levels of P (0 and 84 mg P/kg soil). Genotypes showed significant differences in number of tillers, shoot P concentration and content, and dry weight. Also, P efficiency (taken as the relative above-ground yield) significantly differed among genotypes and ranged from 0.42 for a barley line (M- 80-16) to 0.97 for bread wheat cultivar (Azadi) with the average of 0.71. Application of P significantly increased shoot P concentration and content from 0.19% and 13.24 mg P/pot to 0.47% and 46 mg mg P/pot, respectively. In treatment P0, durum wheat (Yavaroos) with 20.15 mg P/pot and a barley line (M-80-16) with 5.85 mg P/pot had the highest and lowest P uptake, respectively. Oat produced the highest dry weight per unit of P uptake and, hence, was considered to be very efficient in P utilization. Azadi and Yavaroos with 0.45 and 0.43 had the highest relative P uptake, respectively. Therefore, these varieties were efficient in P acquisition. There was no correlation between P efficiency and shoot P concentration of genotypes, but the relationship between P efficiency and shoot P content was highly significant (r= 0.66**).