The effect of various doses of Cd on productive features and quality of wheat

Similarly to the other heavy metals, cadmium (Cd) is in higher concentrations toxic to all living organisms, including plants. The main path by which Cd enters food chain is by the food of plant origin. Therefore, we set experments to examine to which extent Cd to which wheet grain was exposed during imbibition, can aect later plant growth and Cd content in harvested grain. Winter wheat grains, cultivar Pobeda, were soaked in the following concentrations of CdCl2, dissolved in deionized water: 0 (control), 10-5, 10-4, 10-3 and 10-2 M Cd, for 24 h. Thereafter, grains were bree y rinsed with deionized water and the excess of water removed by lter paper. One portion of seeds was used to assess concentration of Cd. With the increase in Cd concentration on the imbibition solution, the concentration of Cd in grains signicantly increased. The other portion of imbibid grains were sown in the eld on soil classied as a calcareous, gleyic chernozem in which concentration of Cd in the soil was signicantly lower than the maximally allowed (2 mg kg-1). The plants were grown to maturity and analysed at harvest. Plant height, number of spikes per m2 and grain yield signicantly declined with the increase in Cd concentration in the solution in which grains were imbibid prior to sowing. Concentration of Cd in harvested grains increased up to 40%. Concomitantly, length of spikes, number of spiklets per spike, mass of grains per spike, harvest index and mass of 1000 grains changed to a much lesser extent.