A note on a non-destructive method of chlorophyll determination in wheat (Triticum aestivum L)

The relationship between the chlorophyll content of wheat flag leaves estimated by a chemical method in the laboratory and that obtained using a Minolta chlorophyll meter was evaluated. A statistically significant (r(2) 0.85, P < 0.001) linear relationship was found to exist between extractable chlorophyll and meter readings when chlorophyll content was expressed on a leaf area basis. A further improvement in the relationship was obtained when a quadratric function was fitted to the data (r(2) 0.88). The use of the quadratic equation for predicting chlorophyll concentrations from meter readings was validated using an independent data set. Predicted values of chlorophyll content on this data set were highly correlated (r(2) 0.91) with the measured chlorophyll concentrations. The results indicate that this rapid technique for chlorophyll determination can play a useful role in many areas of crop science especially where estimates of leaf senescence are required.