Seed Yield Potential of Five Wheat Species/Cultivars without and with Phosphorus Fertilizer Application on a P-Deficient Soil in Northeastern

In the Canadian Prairies, many soils on organic farms are low in available phosphorus (P). Previous research has shown that wheat species/cultivars vary in their sensitivity to P deficiency, yield re-sponse to applied P fertilizer, P uptake and P use efficiency on P-deficient soils. A 3-year field ex-periment was conducted from 2012 to 2014 on a P-deficient soil at Kelvington, Saskatchewan, Canada, to determine the potential of five wheat species/cultivars (Spelt and Kamut representing “ancient”, Red Fife representing “old”, and Unity and Goodeve representing “modern ” wheat spe-cies/cultivars) for seed yield, protein concentration (PC) in seed, partial factor of productivity (PFP, kg seed kg−1 of N applied), total N and P uptake, P use efficiency (PUE, kg seed kg−1 of P ap-plied) and % recovery of applied P in seed under zero-P and with P fertilizer (triple superphos-phate) applied at 20 kg P ha−1. Seed yield, PFP and PUE were determined in all 3 years, but PC, to-tal N and P uptake, and % recovery of applied P in seed were determined only in 2012. There was a marked and significant response of seed yield and PFP of all wheat species/cultivars to P fertil-izer in all 3 years, but the actual seed yield and PFP, without and with applied P fertilizer, as wel