Table 1.

Time to the six harvests, and soil water content (mean±SD) at harvest in two spring wheat cultivars, Gansu 69 (GS) and Longchun 8275 (LC), with (+) and without (–) treatment with 100 µM β-aminobutyric acid (BABA). The rate of soil drying (% h^–1) during progressive soil drying is also given. Means within column with the same letter are statistically similar at P <0.05.

Cultivars

Chemical treatment

Time (d)

Soil water content (% FWC)

Rate of soildrying

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

H6

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

H6

(% h–1)

GS

–BABA

1

6

8

9

15

18

87.6±0.2 a

61.9±0.8 c

50.4±0.8 a

46.4±0.5 a

26.7±0.4 a

22.4±0.2 a

0.16±0.001 a

+BABA

1

5

8

9

16

19

87.7±0.1 a

67.8±0.9 b

52.5±1.1 a

47.3±0.4 a

26.7±0.5 a

21.6±0.5 a

0.15±0.001 b

LC

–BABA

1

5

8

12

16

18

87.3±0.2 a

67.1±1.5 b

52.4±0.6 a

36.2±0.5 b

25.8±0.9 a

22.4±0.2 a

0.16±0.001 a

+BABA

1

3

8

12

17

19

87.4±0.3 a

72.4±0.3 a

53.1±1.6 a

37.0±0.3 b

25.5±0.4 a

22.1±0.6 a

0.15±0.002 b