Russia

2010. Barley Improvement in Krasnodar Region

V. Shevtsov, A.Sulim, E.Rudiaga

Kuban State Agrarian University

Krasnodar, 350044, Russia, e-mail: victorbarley@mail.ru

Weather conditions in autumn 2009 were not good for seedlings in proper time. Rain has come only in the last part of October. Then in summer abnormal high temperature has occurred and lasted very long period of time. But, because of mild winter and wet early spring conditions for winter barley cultivation were rather favorable. The average barley yield was 5, 3 t/ha from coverage about 200 000 ha. It is higher than in 2009 and 2008. Some districts and big farms harvested yields of 6-7 t/ha. The main acreages under winter barley were occupied with released varieties, developed in Krasnodar Research Institute of Agriculture: Kondrat, Hutorok, Pavel, Dobrynia, Sormat, Platon. Variety Kondrat was the best. It out yielded other varieties 2-4 q/ha, like in previous years.

As for research, all breeding material, selected in the last year, was screened on frost resistance and on the depth of crown node. These two characters are the major components determining winter hardiness. The depth of underground crown node is a trait facilitating to successful over wintering. Every centimeter of soil gives 1-3 o C protection against cold in the crown. The evaluation on this character was done in natural environments and under controlled conditions in phitotron of Kuban State Agrarian University, Krasnodar (Russia). Tested entries (about one hundred annually) have been planted in the field in specially prepared trances on fixed depth of 7 cm to study the depth of crown node. The measurements started at tillering stage, when it is easy to take the underground internodes length. It is also possible to measure the depth of the crown node at stem elongation stage and even later. Correlation between this trait and tillering capacity is negative, but not very high. Therefore, there is possibility to overcome it by intensive breeding and involving into crossings the new germplasm from International Research Centers.

The most interesting germplasm is winter hardy line Kubagro 1, developed at the Kuban Agrarian University by crossing local germplasm KM26M2 with American line NB 03435. The new line has been testing on productivity in yield trials in 2009 and 2010 (table 1).

In comparison with cold tolerant released varieties Samson and Faraon the new line Kubagro1 has advantage in productivity in combination with good frost resistance and general winter hardiness, because Kubagro 1 has deeper crown node than often check varieties. The deeper crown node gives advantage in the field, when snow cover is absent. Original seeds of the line Kubagro 1 are multiplied for organization of official and on-farm trials in the North of Krasnodar Territory and in the North Caucasus.

Table 1. Barley performance in advanced yield trials. Krasnodar. 2010

Variety, line	Botany	Resistance to, score *		Yield, q/ha
		cold	lodg.	2009	2010	m
Dobrinya-ch	par	8	7	73.9	53,0	63.4
Samson	pal	9	5	63.3	46,0	54.6
Faraon	par	9	9	67.4	46,5	57.0
Sarmat	nut	3	8	66.7	48,9	57.8
Kubagro 1	par	9	8	70.8	52,4	61.6
LSD 005	4,1			3.8	4.1

* Resistance, score: 1-very low, 5-mild, 9-very high

The seed rate experiments from 2 to 7 mln seeds per hectare have been testing during 40 years. Conclusion was the same as done before; starting from 3 mln there was no difference in yields between seed rates. Only barley fields, sowed by low seed rates, should be protected against weeds. As for date of planting, some corrections in recommendations for practice must be done (table 2).

Table 2. Planting dates and winter barley yields. Kuban Agrarian University. 2007-2010

	Average yield of six winter barley varieties , q/ha
	Date of planting
	1 Oct.	10 Oct.	20 Oct.	30 Oct.
	68,5	72,4	70,6	66,5
deviation	0	+3,9	+2,1	- 2,0

During last years some changes in weather conditions have been observed. The average yields for period of 2007 – 2010 showed that early date of planting was not good for barley cultivation because of disease spreading (barley yellow dwarf virus, powdery mildew) and decreasing of winter hardiness. It has resulted in yield increase in favor of sowing at the beginning of October or in the middle of the month.