Technological quality of spring wheat lines at different rainfall levels

Abstract

Due to developments in the food and baking industry, grain quality determines prices and market options to a large extent. The introduction of high quality wheat varieties into cultivation requires not only favourable technological parameters, but also good adaptation to unfavourable environmental conditions. The level of rainfall in Poland during the spring and summer differs greatly from one years to the other, so the varieties introduced into cultivation must be capable of giving high values of quality parameters with both an excess and deficit of rainfall. the aim of the present work was thus to study whether the quantity of rainfall affected the technological traits determining the industrial usefulness of the crop, and if so, in what way. interactions were observed between the evaluated genotypes and the environmental conditions (particular years and locations), which greatly influenced the average level of the technological traits. This was most strongly observed for traits related to gluten quantity and quality. the rainfall level over the whole vegetation period was not correlated with the technological traits examined, while the rainfall measured in May significantly influenced the sedimentation value and water absorption (r= -0.68** and r= -0.54*), which are the traits most strongly related to the gluten quality and rheological qualities of the dough.