The selective absortion of red light by foliage changes the light quality in plant communities. This work was conducted to determinate if plants can detect those early modifications by changing tiller emission and dry mass accumulation. Embrapa 16 wheat cultivar was grown at approximatelly 400p- /m² under natural radiation conditions during wintertime, in Southern Brazil. On the first experiment (poor light quality), green and red filters were placed between rows, from Haun stages 1.0 to 3.1. For the second experiment (good light quality), low fluence red light (660nm) was supplemented during the day from Haun stage 1.0 to 3.1. In the third experiment (poor light quality) low fluence far-red light (730nm) was supplemented during the day from Haun stage 1.0 to 3.1. Light quality affected tiller emission, tillers dry mass and mass allocation between mainstem and tillers. Poor light quality (filters that reduced red light and light supplementation) induced plants to emit less tillers with less dry mass per tiller. Poor light quality priorized mainstem against dry mass under community conditions, even if there was not a real competition for the total amount of light received by plants. Good light quality (red light supplementation) had the opposite effect. Tillers were emitted in higher amounts and mass allocation for mainstem was less than for low light quality treatments.
tiller emission; red and far-red light; dry mass allocation; wheat
