Cultivation of new genotypes of spring triticale for the Non-Black Earth zone of the Russian Federation with a potential yield 6-7 t/ha, resistant to biotic and abiotic factors
Spring triticale is the crop of the future. This article highlights the results of the selection of spring triticale in the Upper Volga Federal Agrarian Research Center in 2021. The methodology and cultivation technique applied since 2006, as a result of ecological breeding and the cooperation of crop breeders, help to create a new source material, 17 varieties of spring triticale. Nine of them are approved for use in the Russian Federation, 2 - in the post-Soviet countries. The varieties belong to different agro-types when it comes to the growing season, forage use, intensity of cultivation, and resistance to conditions of soil with low fertility. Alongside yielding capacity, research focuses on resistance to diseases, drought, low-fertile soils, preservation of grain quality during filling and maturation in wet conditions, and resistance to lodging. Success in breeding is caused by its ecological organization. The cultivated varieties allow growing the crop in all types of soil and applying different treatment systems both the simplest and the most intensive ones. All stages of selection have promising examples, including highly resistant ones to the growing harm of yellow rust. The deficit of seeds caused by the lack of an effective seed production system prevents the opportunities to increase yield, improve fodder supply, greater use of the adaptive crop farming in the Non-Black Earth Zone, improve the environment, and expand sowing on “non-wheat’ soil. The results of the last two years show the features of spring triticale, which make it difficult to create new varieties. Firstly, the selection requires a greater period of variety testing since there is a lack of formed ecotypes, connected to an insignificant period of phylogenesis. Secondly, the visual analysis of triticale productivity is the least informative compared to other grain crops, which places certain limitations on the level of effort.