evaluation and conservation of germplasm (Meier et al., 2009). The Biologische Bundesantalt, Bundessortenamt and Chemische Industrie (BBCH) coding system can accurately describe each growth stage of all flowering plants (Bleiholder et al., 1989). This scale is generally designed with 10 principal stages (0–9), and each stage is subdivided into 10 secondary growth stages. A modified 3-digit coding system, referred to as ‘extended BBCH scale’ is used to characterise certain crops (Hack et al., 1992).