The adaptability of soft spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties

Abstract

Soft wheat is one of the leading food crops grown in large areas on all continents. However, with the rapid growth of the world's population, increasing grain production remains the main task of all agricultural producers. Recently in Ukraine, due to the shortage of organic fertilizers, the soil's humus content has dropped sharply to 2.5-1.5%. As a starting material, we used ten samples of Triticum aestivum, obtained from the National Center for Plant Genetic Resources of Ukraine (NCGRRU). These samples had economically valuable features and were introduced from different ecological and geographical areas. We used the method of A.V. Kilchevsky and L.V. Khotylova to determine the environment parameters, phenotypic stability, and adaptive potential. We established the highest general adaptive ability in the samples of Swedish, Russian, and Ukrainian selection: Sunnan, Prokhorovka, and Kharkivska 30. We suggested that the level of combination of assessments of adaptability or stability by different methods should be a reliable indicator of predicting the variety's behavior and help the breeder choose the most appropriate and informative parameters that fit the stability concept.