Influence of drought to some spike parameters of triticale (xTriticosecale Wittm.)

Hristo Stoyanov, Valentin Baytchev, Tatiana Petrova

Abstract: Triticale is characterized as relatively tolerant crop to various stress factors, but the effects of drought, especially during the period from anthesis to maturity, severely limit its productivity. The length of spike and the number of spikelets per spike are the basis for the formation of spike productivity and their high drought tolerance is associated with higher productivity. In order to study the effect of drought on triticale, 11 varieties and 10 hybrid populations of triticale were studied. The experiment was conducted under the conditions of a drought greenhouse in two variants - a drought variant and an irrigated control variant. The parameters including length of spike, number of spikelets per spike, spike density and fertility are reported. Of the four studied parameters, the length of spike and the number of spikelets per spike responded least to the drought averaging 13.41% and 12.90%. The smallest reduction in the length of spike in the drought variant compared to the irrigated control variant was observed in the cultivars Atila, Irnik and Blagovest and crosses 12/14 (Atila x Akord) and 13/14 (Atila x Respekt), and by the indicator the number of spikelets per spike for the Respekt, Lovchanets, Blagovest and Borislav and crosses 13/14 (Atila x Respekt) and 34/14 (Respekt x Bumerang). Fertility is characterized by a very high susceptibility to drought conditions - an average of 40.78%. Akord, Bumerang, Blagovest and Borislav cultivars are with the lowest reaction to drought and also the 12/14 cross. Despite the significant decrease in the values of the studied parameters in the conditions of drought, Bumerang shows high fertility, which is close to that of the standard winter wheat cultivars. This demonstrates the extreme tolerance of the variety and its high adaptability to different environmental conditions.

Keywords: drought; fertility; length of spike; number of spikelets per spike; spike density

Date published: 2019-12-06