Analysing the contribution of component cultivars and cultivar combinations to malting quality, yield and disease in complex mixtures

Abstract

AbstractBACKGROUND: Mixtures of cereal cultivars grown together generally enhance yield and reduce disease but end‐users will not accept them for quality uses. Some combinations with very different quality may be problematic, others complementary. The common origin of Maris Otter for quality in winter barley may enable the benefits of complex mixtures to be exploited without quality compromises.RESULTS: Seven winter barley cultivar monocultures and all their equal proportion mixtures were trialled and data analysed by ANOVA, REML and principal component analyses to determine the contribution of particular varieties or combinations to crop performance. Agronomic yield was positively correlated with component number. Pipkin contributed negatively to thousand grain weight (TGW), but positively to several quality traits; Gleam negatively to the same quality traits but strongly positively to yield; and Melanie combined strong yield and TGW characteristics with neutral quality traits. Interactions in mixtures with Maris Otter, from which most of the cultivars are likely to derive some of their quality traits, were less apparent for quality than for yield.CONCLUSIONS: Complex mixtures gave yield benefits generally without compromising quality, and analysis methods were developed to identify the beneficial or negative effects of component cultivars on malting quality traits, thereby providing data for optimising mixtures design. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry