We know that all living organisms require certain temperatures for their growth and development, but less we know about Growing Degree Days (GDD) concept. The name itself self explains the concept. Can you guess?
Well, some of you might have guessed like Growing means growth and Degree Days means days in degrees?? Yes, the guess is right...only confusion is degree days right? Degrees we generally use for temperature. So growth of an organism depends on temperature accumulation to move from one growth phase to another, like from vegetative to fruiting.
Still wondering what this means? Let us understand using plant. For a plant to move
from one phenophase to another, it needs to accumulate certain temperature above a base temperature. This is GDD.
In case of rice plant to reach maturity, it may need to accumulate 1500 to 1600 GDD. When that much is attained the plant will reach its physiological maturity irrespective of the month in which it is growing.
Any plant, may be your ornamental or vegetable plant in your garden, will follow this GDD concept. You might have observed that during summer your plants go from vegetative to reproductive and then to maturity faster than in other seasons. The reason behind this is your plants have accumulated the required GDD faster .
GDD is a concept that explains the growth and development of an organism above certain base temperatures, depending upon the organism of interest. This concept is applied in many agriculture, pest and disease studies.
To expand your knowledge further, do visit the link below
https://extension.psu.edu/understanding-growing-degree-days
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329117822_HEAT_UNITS_REQUIREMENT_FOR_DIFFERENT_RICE_VARIETIES_IN_THE_CENTRAL_ZONE_OF_KERALA
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