Evaluation of winter wheat varieties from Central and Eastern Europe for important agronomic traits

Abstract

Different wheat germplasm exploited in breeding programmes in continental Europe and Pannonian region reflects specific breeding requirements in distinctive environmental conditions. In order to evaluate a potential of locally bred and grown wheat varieties from central Europe, as a source of new genetic variability in a wheat breeding programme in Serbia, 42 elite winter wheat representatives of two different European breeding pools were assessed at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops (IFVNC), Novi Sad, Serbia. A field trial with 20 elite wheat varieties was set at the IFVNC in a randomized complete block design with three replications during three seasons (2016/2017, 2017/2018 and 2018/2019). The genotypes were phenotyped for heading and flowering time, plant height, ear length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, thousand grain weight, yield, protein content, chlorophyll content index and prevalent wheat diseases. In addition, the varieties were genotyped with microsatellite markers.