Pot propagation and phenotyping
Seeds from a single plant for each of the lines were sowed in small pots in the first stage (August 2018), and then transplanted into 10L pots in a greenhouse (31°55’45.23” N 34°51’56.27” E ) located at ARO, Bet Dagan, Israel. Pots were well irrigated using a dripping system (Fig. S2).
Although statistics were unavailable during this propagation cycle due to the small number of plants, several traits were scored per pot (Table 1). Maximal plant height (MPH) was measured from the pot surface to the top of the panicle. Grain was threshed manually and grain yield (GY) was measured in dry weight (gr) per pot. Stems were counted for each pot and grain per stem was calculated. Days from sowing to panicle emergence (DSP) was evaluated as the date over 50% of the plants in the pot were at or after panicle emergence. Plants where harvested at maturity, weighed and threshed manually. Average grain weight was roughly assessed by the calculation of the mean value of 10 seeds.