Economic and Biological Traits of the New Winter Durum Wheat Varieties ‘Yakhont’ and ‘Yantarina’

Abstract

In 2018 and 2020, two winter durum wheat varieties, ‘Yakhont’ and ‘Yantarina’, were included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements for the North Caucasus region. They were developed at the Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” by the intraspecific stepwise hybridization using both varieties and lines created in the ARC “Donskoy” and from the other regions. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the new winter durum wheat varieties ‘Yakhont’ and ‘Yantarina’ according to productivity, resistance to abiotic and biotic stress factors, grain and pasta quality. The study was carried out in 2014–2020 in the ARC “Donskoy” located in the southern part of the Rostov region, which is favorable for winter durum wheat cultivation. The soil of the experimental plot – chernozem ordinary calcareous heavy loamy. The climate of the region is characterized by semi-arid hot summers and moderately mild winters. The sum of positive temperatures is more than 3400°С; Selyaninov hydrothermal coefficient (HTC) – 0.8; average annual air temperature – 9.7°С. The average annual precipitation is 450–600 mm. This paper presents the results of studying varieties according to the traits and properties mentioned above, points to their advantages compared to the standard variety ‘Donchanka’. On average, over seven years of competitive testing, the varieties ‘Yakhont’ and ‘Yantarina’ showed the following: productivity – 8.46 and 8.52 t/ha; 1000-grain weight – 40.8 and 43.5 g; drought tolerance – 4.5 points both; lodging resistance – 4.6 and 4.2 points; leaf rust resistance – 10–20% both. They excided the standard variety ‘Donchanka’ by 1.17 and 1.23 t/ha; 4.0 and 6.7 g; 0.5 points; 1.0 and 0.6 points; 3.0 %; 10%, respectively. The varieties ‘Yakhont’ and ‘Yantarina’ formed higher yields due to the increased number of productive stems per 1 m2 (591 and 542; the standard variety formed 498 productive stems), the productivity per head (1.52 and 1.68 g, the standard variety yielded 1.47 g). According to grain and pasta quality, ‘Yakhont’ and ‘Yantarina’ met not only the requirements of GOST R9353-2016 but also exceeded the standard variety ‘Donchanka’ in vitreousness (by 7.4 and 8.0%), grain nature (by 41 and 46 g/l), gluten content (by 2.0 and 0.70%), falling number (by 4 and 44 seconds), SDS-sedimentation (by 4 and 3 ml).