Mixing varieties mitigates early root competition in wheat under water and nutrient limitation

Competition between plants can lead to a tragedy of the commons (TOC), where excessive investment in resource-harvesting organs reduces collective performance. Mixing crop varieties could resolve such TOCs through niche complementarity-if varieties differ in resource use-or selection effects, where competitive varieties benefit from weaker neighbours. While most studies on varietal mixtures focus on above-ground traits, below-ground interactions remain poorly understood. We grew 36 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) varieties in pure stands and 54 binary mixtures using a high-throughput root phenotyping platform, under both non-limiting (R+) and limiting (R-) water and nutrient conditions, to assess early-stage root competition. In R-, mixtures produced less biomass than expected based on pure stands, largely due to a negative complementarity effect. This was mostly explained by the average projected root area of the two varieties. Rather than indicating a negative interaction, the effect reflected a relaxation of competition: varieties with larger root systems benefited from having weaker competitors, disengaging from the arms race for biomass accumulation. These findings suggest that root area is a promising breeding target for mitigating intra-specific competition and a critical trait for assembling optimal varietal mixtures.