Research Article

The Response of Durum Wheat to the Preceding Crop in a Mediterranean Environment

Table 4

Mean values of spike number, mean kernel weight, spike fertility index, and spikelet number per spike as affected by year, preceding crop, and variety.

TreatmentsSpike numberMean kernel weightSpike fertility index*Spikelet number
 m−2mg g−1 spike−1

Year
 2007-2008312.4a52.7a57.3a17.8a
 2008-2009335.7b36.2b68.8b17.2a
Preceding crop
 Alfalfa318.7a43.7a70.7a17.7a
 Maize328.1a45.4a59.6b17.8a
 Sunflower325.5a44.2a59.0b18.0a
 Wheat263.1b44.5a52.1b16.4b
Variety
 Levante324.3a44.5a60.6a19.2a
 Normanno308.5a44.1a59.5a17.1b
 Saragolla279.1a43.1a58.2a18.1ab
 Svevo323.2a46.0a63.1a15.6c

Spike fertility index: grain number m−2/spike chaff dry weight m−2 at maturity.
Within treatments year, variety, and preceding crop, numbers followed by the same letter are not significantly different at ≤ 0.05.