Genotypic variation for lodging tolerance in spring wheat: wider and deeper root plates, a feature of low lodging, high yielding germplasm

•Genotypic variation for lodging tolerance in wheat present in multi-environment trials.•Similar lodging rankings in multi-environment and detailed phenotyping experiments.•Wider and deeper root plates underpin low lodging, high yielding spring wheat.•Root plate spread in the field was highly heritable and correlated across environments.•A simplified phenotyping approach is proposed for lodging tolerance in breeding programs.