MORPHOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LAND RACES OF THE SPRING SOFT WHEAT GROWN IN THE ORGANIC FARMING SYSTEM

Abstract

Organic farmers have become more interested in the marginally grown (neglected) cultivars, as spring forms of the hulled wheat varieties (eincorn, emmer wheat, spelta wheat) or intermediate forms of the soft wheat. 173 land races from the gene bank at the RI in Praha-Ruzyně were grown on the organic certified parcel and evaluated in 2008. The trial aimed to evaluate the conditions of the competitiveness to weeds, tolerance to diseases, assimilation of the sun shine and establishment of the yield. The results show that all the evaluated material inclines to the competitiveness to weeds. This ability is, nevertheless, reduced because of the inclination to the lodging (all the cultivars have long weak stalks). Eincorn and emmer wheat are resistant to mildew and brown rust, spelta wheat is less resistant cultivar and the intermediate cultivars incline to disease attack very much. Eincorn and emmer wheat have short and dense spikes, spelta wheat has long and sparse spikes. Perspective materials have been found in the study and trials. We are going to focus on a possible increase of the resistance to lodging, choice of the resistant cultivars to funga diseases and increase of the spike productivity.