Development and yield components of high-yielding wheat crops

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Abstract
In a field experiment, ‘Arawa’ wheat outyielded ‘Aotea’ by 10% through the production of a higher grain yield per ear. Irrigation had no effect on grain yield because of plant uptake of subsoil moisture. Nitrogen increased grain yield by 19% mainly by increasing ear number. Sowing rate had no effect on yield. Mean yield for the experiment was 6.6 t/ha, the mean yield components being 600 ears/m2, each composed of just over 17 spikelets containing 1.5 grains which weighed 43 mg. Arawa produced larger grain than Aotea; no other treatment influenced mean weight per grain, which was unrelated to flag-leaf-area duration. It is suggested that further yield increases will best be achieved by increasing grain number per unit area, probably by increasing grains per spikelet, the component most highly correlated with yield in this experiment.