Tolerance of triticale, wheat and rye to copper deficiency and low and high soil pH

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Abstract
The tolerance of triticale to low copper status in a soil adjusted to extremes of pH was determined in pots in a glasshouse experiment, and compared with the tolerance of its parent species, wheat and rye. Wheat plants were extremely sensitive to copper deficiency at all soil pH values and failed to produce heads or grain, whereas rye produced maximum yield irrespective of copper status or soil pH. Intermediate tolerance of triticale was demonstrated by virtue of the copper‐pH‐genotype interaction in that triticale was tolerant like rye at pH 5.0, but sensitive at pH 8.4 like wheat. Concentrations of copper were highest in rye and lowest in wheat, and decreased with increasing pH. The uptake of copper into grain and shoot was also lowest in wheat, and showed the same pH dependence as concentration. The appearance of copper deficiency symptoms on all plants which had low yields suggests that the major effect of pH in this system was on copper availability; the change in availability was, however, insufficient to affect the response of wheat (highly sensitive) or of rye which is highly tolerant. Triticale responded dramatically to the pH treatment and as predicted for such a hybrid was generally intermediate in tolerance to copper deficiency. The genotype‐environment interaction was thus particularly strong.