Phenotypic variability of seedling organs of winter triticale varieties and its relationship with economically valuable features

Abstract

The degree of seedling organ development is recommended for predicting seed yield properties and selecting valuable forms for selection. However, most work has been done on spring crops. The research was conducted during 2018 to 2020 at the Izhevsk State Agricultural Academy, Russia with an objective to determine the nature and the strength of the relationship between the degree of seedling organ development of different varieties of winter triticale with economically valuable features for further use in selection and seed production work. The character of seed germination of 10 winter triticale varieties, which were subsequently sown under laboratory conditions on two mineral nutrition backgrounds: sowing without fertilizer, N30 fertilizer in spring; before sowing fertilizer N32P32K32, N30fertilizer in spring, foliar Nfertilizer in the earing phase. During the growing season winter hardiness, productive tillering, and ear weight were evaluated. The correlation analysis between the given parameters and parameters of seedlings (coleoptile length, sprout, and length and number of germinal roots) was carried out. As a result of studies, significant inter-varietal differences in parameters of winter triticale seedlings were established, which allowed them to be considered as varietal features. Fractional application of fertilizers provided better development of plants, winter hardiness increased on average by 0.3 points (NSR05 = 0.1 points), productive tillering by 0.2 units (NSR05= 0.1 points), and ear weight by 0.15 g (NDS0.5=0.04 g). Tulus variety was the most responsive to fertilizer application. Sprout length and germinal root length can serve as an indirect indicator of winter hardiness since a direct average and strong correlation (r = 0.54…0.85) was established between these indicators in most varieties.