Abstract
A major priority of the breeding programs is the development of varieties and hybrid plants combining high productivity and a level of qualitative parameters. Equally topical is the problem of achieving their stable level of expression under uncertain climatic environments. Within three vegetative growth periods (2018, 2019 and 2020) characterized with different levels of abiotic stress, 20 varieties of common winter wheat were investigated. The criteria for setting up of the working collection were the genotypes to be included in the Varietal List of Republic of Bulgaria and to cover the groups’ quality levels. The trials were carried out at two locations: the Institute of Agriculture – Karnobat and Dobrudzha Agricultural Institute – General Toshevo. These regions have specific soil and climatic conditions and are characterized with different risk factors for the development of the cereal crops. The variance analysis showed that the environmental conditions had a significant percent in the total variation of grain yield, the number of productive tillers, 1000 kernel weight and test weight. Concerning these traits, a genotype x environment interaction was also established. The cultivars with high mean yield from the two locations were Rada, Kristalina, Kalina, Katarzhina and Bozhana. The correlation between productivity and quality was successfully broken in Lazarka, Pchelina and Merilin, which belong to the group of strong wheat genotypes. Under the specific technology for conducting the field experiments we used, cultivars Pchelina and Merilin from group A were with expectedly high levels of wet gluten content and W index. The values determined for Lazarka were lower but less variable. In the group of medium wheat genotypes with increased strength, worth mentioning are Enola, Kristalina, Rada and Katarzhina.
Keywords: winter wheat, genotype-environment interactions, grain yield, quality traits