Effect of the fertilization and the fungicide treatment on the alveographic quality of winter wheat

Abstract

Introduction Sustainable wheat production is much related to quality performance. Jolankai (1982) obtained improved quality of wheat with 12 varieties but found that crop year had more influence on the quality than fertilizing. According to Tanacs et al. (1993), the varieties showed specific reactions on various doses and combinations of NPK fertilizers. Nitrogen dosage and pesticide treatment had significant effect on the crop yield of winter wheat in a 3-year study (Toth, 2005; Jolankai et al., 2006). Each year, nitrogen had stronger effect than pesticide (herbicide+fungicide) treatment. In Hungarian studies (Petroczi et al., 1996) it was found that imidazole-based fungicides increased the yield of certain winter wheat varieties. In the variety GK Othalom, triazole treatment improved the farinographic value and technological water binding, but tebuconazole (Folicur) had negative effects. Alveography is a method for measuring the extensibility and stretch resistance of wheat flour doughs. The first correlation studies in the Hungarian literature were published by Feher and Banyasz (1992), Benedek and Gyiri (1995) and Vida et al. (1996). The relationships found allow an indirect estimation of alveographic parameters. In the studies of Feher and Banyasz (1992), the alveographic parameters of a wheat cultivar varied greatly in different crop fields. Benedek and Gyiri (1995) obtained similar results. In a three years long experiment, Matuz et al. (1999) studied wet gluten content, alveographic parameters and farinographic value of 29 winter wheat varieties, and found that the wheats with the best farinographic values also had the best alveographic P and W parameters. In the present study, alveographic quality parameters of winter wheat varieties, treated with fertilizers of fertilizers + fungicides, were investigated in a year with average rainfall (2001), and in a dry (2002) and an extremely dry (2003) year.