Winter hardiness of durum wheat in Hungary

Abstract

One basic precondition for the reliable cultivation of winter durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) in Hungary is for the varieties to have good winter hardiness and frost resistance. Field overwintering experiments carried out in Martonvásár between 1995 and 2003 demonstrated that there was a significant difference every year between the overwintering of varieties with poor and good frost resistance, though only in two years was there a significant difference between that of varieties with medium and better frost resistance. Only a medium correlation was observed between the mean annual values of the air temperature in the winter months and the winter hardiness of the varieties, confirming that winter hardiness is influenced jointly by a number of environmental factors (e.g. cold, snow cover). In the experiments carried out on the winter hardiness dynamics of durum wheat, it was found that in milder winters even T. durum varieties which are sensitive to frost overwintered with little damage, while in the two coldest winters during the experimental period the hardiness of these varieties did not provide sufficient protection even in December, and all the plants were destroyed by January. The early spring frosts experienced in 1996 proved in these experiments that spring frosts may cause considerable damage even to durum wheat varieties with relatively good winter hardiness. Averaged over eight years, the results prove that T. durum genotypes are now available whose average state of hardening and winter hardiness are equal or better than those of winter T. aestivum varieties with moderate frost resistance.