The impact of morphometric characteristics of plants self-pollinated sunflower lines on its lodging

We carried out the research in 2018-2019 at the experimental station of V.S. Pustovoit All-Russian Research Institute of Oil Crops. The aim of the research is to study the effect of certain morphometric characteristics of the overground part of plants and the architectonics of the root system on the sunflower lodging. We found significant differences in the architectonics of root systems in 17 maternal lines of sunflower: we identified three morphotypes, differing in the number and thickness of lateral roots of the first and subsequent orders, located in the top soil. We identified the sunflower lines that have a root system with a well-developed main root and many lateral roots of various orders (type A), lines with a normally developed main root and a small number of lateral roots (type B), and lines with a poorly developed main root and few lateral roots in top soil (type C). We identified the presence of both low and high lodging in sunflower lines with different types of root systems. At the same time, there is a tendency towards higher lodging in lines with root system types B and C. The line SL12 3660 showed the maximum lodging resistance during two years of observations. It may be of interest for further work as a possible source of a lodging resistance trait.