number (r2 = 0.94; n = 8, P < 0.001), and tended to be higher than
thermal time to first anthesis as cultivar cycle length decreased.
Leaf area continued to increase during the flowering phase, notably
in the earliest genotype NL-6. There were significant differences in
TPLAmax between genotypes. Despite differences in total leaf number,
early genotypes NL-6 and RU-5 had similar TPLAmax; while
late genotypes reached significantly (p < 0.05) higher TPLAmax, as
total leaf number increased. Genotype NL-6 combined an early LAI
increase and a TPLAmax similar to that of RU-5. Therefore, NL-6
had a significantly (p < 0.05) higher LAI than that of longer duration
cultivars (i.e., RU-5 and CO-407) in both densities, during early
development phases up to about 750 ◦Cd after emergence (Fig. 5).
Increasing density reduced TPLAmax, but effects were comparatively
small, values of TPLAmax for 33 plants m−2 were 80–87% of
those for 22 plants m−2 regarding the earliest and the latest genotypes,
respectively