Fig. 1

Selection of a rapidly elongating internode. a S. viridis A10 grown under controlled conditions at half-head emergence developmental stage. b Main stalk height and sucrose concentration measured at seven developmental stages: 6-leaf (1), 9-leaf (2), booting (3), half-head emergence (4), anthesis (5), milky dough (6), and maturity/hard dough (7). The harvested stage (half-head emergence) is indicated with a dashed line. c The main stalk was stripped of its leaf sheath with internodes labelled 1–5 (counting only internodes ≥5 mm in length). d Internode 5 length measured at harvest and at maturity. All values are mean ± SE of five biological replicates