Grain quality forecasting by amino acid concentration in the leaf juice

Abstract

Field experiments with soft wheat and malting barley, conducted on sod-podzolic medium loamy soil showed that under the influence of increasing rates of nitrogen nutrition in the leaf juice in the first stem node phase, the concentration of amino acids decreases. This fact is confirmed by high correlation coefficients. There is also a close correlation between the concentration of amino acids in the leaf juice, plant productivity and grain quality indicators. Wheat showed a close negative correlation of the concentration of amino acids in the leaf juice with the weight of 1000 grains, the total content of proteins and gluten in the grain, as well as gliadin and glutenin proteins, and a close positive correlation with the content of water-soluble, non-extractable proteins in the grain and the activity of proteases. The concentration of amino acids in the malting barley leaf juice was negatively correlated with the total content of proteins in the grain, the amount of gordeins, the total activity of amylases, and positively correlated with the test value indicators, grain extractivity, and the content of water-soluble proteins in the grain. The research results indicate that the concentration of amino acids in the leaf juice in the first stem node phase provides for a fairly accurate diagnoctics of nitrogen nutrition and prediction of the quality of soft wheat and malting barley grains.