Cold tolerance and winter hardiness in Lolium perenne: II. Influence of light and temperature during growth and hardening

SummaryIn the first paper of this series it was shown that Lolium perenne material required hardening periods involving low, but above freezing, temperatures before frost tolerance was achieved. The present experiments show that the light conditions during the hardening and prehardening periods are also important. At both stages a reduction in total light energy reduced subsequent cold tolerance but the relative effects of light intensity and photoperiod differed between the prehardening and hardening treatments. Thus low light input during the hardening period at 2 CC reduced cold tolerance most when given at higher intensities over shorter days (8 h) while during the prehardening growing period at 20 °C the reduction was greatest when the lower light input was given at low intensity over longer days (16 h).Varieties of different climatic origins reacted differentially to the treatments. The Mediterranean variety Fano was particularly adversely affected by low light intensities during hardening and also benefited from higher temperatures during the prehardening growing period. With higher light intensities and higher growth temperatures this Mediterranean variety approached the more northern material in cold tolerance; but as a corollary it was clear that the N. European variety Veja was able to harden under lower light conditions, and lower growing temperatures. The varieties Melle and S. 321 from intermediate latitudes, were intermediate in response.Although water soluble carbohydrate content was increased during the hardening period, except at the lowest light intensity (2·9 W/m2), no simple relationship between the WSC content and the cold tolerance of the different varieties could be detected.The results provide a useful guide to the pre-treatments necessary to discriminate between varieties for cold tolerance in such a way that the results can be correlated with field performance.