Looking at fields of cereal crops before harvest one finds, not uncommonly, that in a
smaller or larger portion of the field a number of plants have' lodged' or laid over.
Varieties of cereals having weaker culms, which are unable to support the weight of
the fully developed ears on them, tend to go down to adverse weather conditions like
high winds, rain storms and hail. The harvesting of such crops is difficult, yields are
lowered and the grain obtained suffers in quality and market value. When varieties,
not possessing strong enough straw, are grown under optimum irrigational and manurial
conditions in order to realize as fully as possible their potentialities for increased yield,
they are all the more prone to lodging. A thorough understanding of the various
factors governing lodging is, therefore, imperatively necessary for the cereal breeder
who aims at evolving superior varieties combining resistance to lodging with other
agronomically desirable characters and who wishes to get the best out of such varieties
through adequate manuring and irrigation.
Year: 1950
Volume: 10
Issue: 2
Article DOI: NA
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
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