Productivity and adaptability of winter bread wheat varieties developed by the SSE “Agricultural research center «Donskoy»” in the southern part of the Rostov region

The current paper has presented the results of a five-year (2016–2020) study of nine winter bread wheat varieties (‘Aksinya’, ‘Nakhodka’, ‘Etyud’, ‘Shef’, ‘Donskaya Step’, ‘Yubiley Dona’, ‘Univer’, ‘Zodiak’, ‘Ermak’ – standard) developed in the SSE “Agricultural Research Center «Donskoy»” (city of Zernograd). In the competitive variety testing, they were scrutinized according to productivity, its elements, ecological stability, adaptability and breeding value. The purpose was to study the new winter bread wheat varieties of intensive type developed by the ARC “Donskoy” on productivity, adaptability and their indicators, as well as a balance between them, in order to identify new promising genotypes. According to the study results, it has been found that the average productivity was 9.32 t/ha in 2016–2020. The highest productivity was identified in the varieties ‘Univer’ (9.86 t/ha) and ‘Donskaya Step’ (9.76 t/ha). Structural analysis of the studied varieties has shown that their productivity was formed due to such elements as ‘productive plant density’ (variety ‘Shef’); ‘productive tilling capacity’ (variety ‘Etyud’); ‘number of spikelets per head’ (variety ‘Univer’); ‘number of kernels per head’ (variety ‘Ermak’); ‘1000-grain weight’ (variety ‘Zodiak’). While studying the varieties according to general adaptive capacity, such varieties as ‘Zodiak’ (0.10), ‘Donskaya Step’ (0.44) and ‘Univer’ (0.54) have been identified. Varieties ‘Yubiley Dona’ (1.07), ‘Donskaya Step’ (1.06), ‘Univer’ (1.05) and standard variety ‘Ermak’ (1.02) were found highly adaptable to environmental conditions, i.e. these varieties positively respond to the improvement of growing conditions and belong to the varieties of intensive type. Variety ‘Etyud’ (0.03) has demonstrated the maximum stability over the years of study, ‘Univer’ (0.60) and ‘Ermak’ (0.17) turned to be less stable. In our trials, all varieties had a breeding value almost at the same level, ranging from 5.10 (‘Ermak’) to 5.96 (‘Donskaya Step’). Taking into account the complex of such indicators as general adaptive capacity, stability and breeding value, varieties ‘Donskaya Step’ and ‘Univer’ can be referred to as the most adaptive ones among all studied in the current work.