Dr. Montserrat Salmeron program will provide two micrometeorological weather station that will monitor environmental conditions at both field experiments (total solar radiation, minimum and maximum temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity).
? Quantification of yield physiological traits with high intensive monitoring and destructive samplings at Lexington, KY, and to a lesser extent in Princeton, KY (timing and duration of developmental stages, rate of canopy cover, crop growth rate, individual seed growth rate, seed number, seed size, and effective seedfill duration). These traits will be used to study the relationship between environmental conditions and yield potential.
? Quantification of the rate of N accumulation in N fertilized and non-fertilized plots for a range of MG cultivars with different duration of seedfill period.
? Total irrigation water applied will be estimated for each individual treatment, allowing to calculate net economic returns for irrigated vs. rainfed conditions across MG choices.
? The net returns in the non-fertilized plots and the yield difference with the N fertilized ones will be used to calculate the pay-off value that would justify expenses in N fertilizer applications.