Evaluation of the mid-early spring soft wheat variety collection in terms of agronomic characters under the Altai Region’s conditions

Abstract

One of the important tasks in breeding of productive spring soft wheat varieties is to match the rate of their development with the agroclimatic conditions of growing. In the Altai Region, the local varieties of this crop are represented by three main maturity groups: mid-early, mid-season, and mid-late group. The mid-early varieties are most common in the forest-steppe zones of the Ob River area, the Biya-Chumysh Upland and the foothills of the Altai Mountains and the Salair Ridge. Despite the limited distribution in the Altai Region, the mid-early varieties have advantages over other maturity groups: the ability to avoid damage by leaf-stem diseases, stable grain growth with high content levels of protein and gluten, lesser yield decrease in mid-summer during drought, unlike mid-late varieties, and also due to early harvesting, the ability to maintain high sowing qualities of seeds. The studies were carried out on the experimental field of the Federal Altai Scientific Center of Agro-Biotechnologies in 2022 and 2023, under the conditions of the forest-steppe zone of the Altai Region’s Ob River area. Twelve collection accessions of spring soft wheat of the mid-early maturity group were studied for yield formula components and grain quality. As a result of the conducted research, 4 best varieties were identified: Zauralskaya Volna (spike length, productive tillers per plant, main spike grain content, and grain-unit); Krasnozerka (spikelet number per spike, main spike grain content, and main spike grain weight); Novosibirskaya 14 (spike length, productive tillers per plant, gluten content in grain); Novosibirskaya 31 (spike length, main spike grain content, and grain-unit). The above-mentioned accessions may be useful for the breeding of productive mid-early varieties of spring soft wheat.