The effect of meteorological conditions on the course of development stages and yield of winter wheat in southern Poland

Yield and the course of crop vegetation are the result of the interaction between the level of cultivation technology and the course of meteorological conditions, which are a variable production factor. The aim of the study was to quantify the effect of meteorological conditions on the course of development stages and yield of winter wheat cultivated in two technological variants (A1 – medium-intensive and A2 – intensive). The paper uses data on yield and timing of winter wheat development stages from four Experimental Stations for Variety Testing (Pol. Centralny Ośrodek Badania Odmian Roślin Uprawnych – COBORU) experimental stations from 2007–2016 located within the Upper Vistula and Upper Oder River basins. To determine the dependence of the length of development stages of winter wheat on the values of selected meteorological elements, the linear regression metod, correlation coefficient. It was found that the lengths of the selected developmental stages are positively correlated with air temperature and negatively correlated with the sum and number of days with precipitation in these stages. A 1°C increase in air temperature resulted in a shortening of the shooting – heading and heading – full maturity periods by 2.5 and 2.8 days respectively. An increase of 100 mm of precipitation in the periods sowing – full maturity and heading – full maturity resulted in an increase of these periods by 5 and 10 days. Increasing the number of days with precipitation by 10 days in the sowing – full maturity and heading – vax maturity stages resulted in extending these stages by 4.1 to 4.4 and 7 to 7.5 days for the A1 and A2 cropping technologies, respectively.