Peculiarities of morpho-biological and valuable economic features in spring barley lines and cultivars

Abstract

Purpose and objectives - to determine the breeding value of spring barley cultivars and lines.

Materials and methods: Twenty-two cultivars and 3 lines of spring barley were taken as the test material. The field experiments were carried out in the competitive variety trial nursery in compliance with the method of state variety trials. The forecrop was grain pea. The plot area was 10 m²; the experiments were carried out in 4 replications. Barley was sown with a breeding seeder SSFK-7. The yield, growing period length, lodging resistance, performance and its structural elements were determined. Calculus of variations analysis of variance were performed in STATISTICA 10 and EXCEL as BA Dospekhov described.

Results and discussion: The peculiarities of 22 cultivars and 3 lines of spring barley were described by expression levels of the following quantitative traits: morpho-biological (performance, total and productive tillering capacity, spikelet and grain number per spike, spike length, grain weight from the main ear and lateral stalks) and economic (yield, growing period length, lodging resistance) ones.

The variability of quantitative traits of the accessions under investigation was determined. In particular, the plant height variability was low (9.5%), the spike length and grain weight from the main spike variabilities were medium (15.6 and 19.5%, respectively), and the variability of other traits were high.

The analysis distinguished intensive high-yielding cultivars Margret, Grace, Avhur, Datcha, Khors, and Troian and the line 14-561 (5.07–4.84 t/ha); lodging-resistant cultivars Amil, Troian (Lider), Datcha, and Grace and line 15-139; and high performance cultivars Amil, Khors, Hatunok, Akhiles, and Krasen.

Conclusions. As a result of determining the characteristics of the spring barley accessions with high levels of expression of quantitative morpho-biological and economic traits, the breeding value of cultivars and lines suitable for combination breeding was evaluated.