Effect of main cultivation methods in dry rainfed conditions on the amount of weed under winter wheat

Relevance. Against the background of predecessors, soil cultivation and nutritional conditions, weeding of the area under Barakatli 95 durum wheat variety was studied and the results obtained are given in the article. Thus, high weeds in the field reduce the quantity and quality of crops. One of the main factors preventing this is the application of proper cultivation methods appropriate to the region. This is one of the most important and urgent issues in agriculture.Methodology. The research was conducted in a 3-factor (2×3×3) field experiment in a short-rotation crop rotation (pea-wheat-wheat) located at the Jalilabad Regional Experimental Station in the rainfed conditions of South Mugan. The amount of weeds in the field was studied in the first decade of March and April by counting weeds per 1 m2 from different parts of the field according to the options.Results. The results of the 3-year study (average for 2019–2021) showed that the effect of predecessors, soil cultivation and nutritional conditions on the amount of weeds under winter wheat was different. Among the cultivation options, relatively high weeding soil was obtained with a heavy disc harrow at a depth of 10–12 cm in the form of 1 disc, and against the background of feeding conditions, N60P60 + 10 tons of manure on all three cultivations, and the least weeding was observed in the variant where N90P60K45 fertilizer norm was applied in 2 discs at a depth of 10–12 cm with a heavy disk trowel after the pea predecessor.

Quality of bread from flour of different spelt wheat varieties

Purpose. To study the quality formation in bread from different flour of spelt wheat (premium, whole-wheat) depending on the variety and line. Methods. Laboratory, mathematical and statistical, physical and chemical. Results. The bread volume made from high-grade flour varied from 303 to 523 cm3, which corresponds to 1.0–7.6 points depending on the variety and line of spelt wheat. The bread volume made from whole-wheat flour was 10–20% less than the bread volume made from premium flour. The average bread volume obtained from whole-wheat flour of ‘Zoria Ukrainy’ variety was 470 cm3, while low bread volume was obtained from flour of ‘Shvedska 1’ variety and LPP 3132, LPP 3117, TV 1100 lines which corresponded to 2.8–3.2 points. In other varieties and lines, these indicators were very low and ranged between 270 and 328 cm3 or less by 142–200 cm3 compared to the standard variety. The convexity of pan bread made from high-grade flour was the highest in ‘Zoria Ukrainy’ spelt wheat variety and NAK 34/12‑2 line: 0.49 and 0.54, respectively, which corresponded to 5.0 points. Significantly higher indicators were found in P 3, NAK34/12–2, and LPP 3122/2 lines: 0.38–0.51 (1.0–5.0 points). In ‘Shvedska 1’ variety and five lines, the indicator of bread convexity varied from 0.27 to 0.37 (from 3.0 to 4.0 points). In other varieties and lines it was significantly lower (0.07–0.21) than in the standard. The indicator of bread convexity from whole-wheat flour in ‘Zoria Ukrainy’ spelt wheat variety was 0.37 which corresponded to 4.0 points. Significantly higher indicators were found in P 3, NAK34/12–2 and LPP 3122/2 lines: 0.38–0.51 (1.0–5.0 points). In ‘Shvedska 1’ variety and five lines, the bread convexity indicator varied from 0.27 to 0.37, that corresponds to 3.0–4.0 points). In other varieties and lines it was significantly lower (0.07–0.21) than in the standard. Culinary quality of bread was high in all samples: 7.2–8.4 points (80–93% of the maximum value). However, the highest quality had the bread made from ‘Zoria Ukrainy’ variety, LPP 3132, NAK34/12–2, and TV 1100 lines. The overall culinary quality of whole-wheat bread was very high as it varied from 8.3 to 9.0 points. However, the bread made from ‘Shvedska 1’ variety and LPP 3117, LPP 3122/2, P 3, LPP 3132, NAK34/12–2 lines had the highest quality (9.0 points). Conclusions. Gloss index of bread surface and its overall estimate is affected by the protein content in grain. Gluten content has a slightly smaller effect on bread quality. In addition, crust surface, bread texture, the overall estimate of bread quality is also affected by the gluten deformation index. Bread obtained from ‘Zoria Ukrainy’ flour, LPP 3132, NAK34/12–2, and TV 1100 lines had the highest overall culinary evaluation.

Assessing Waterlogging Stress Level of Winter Wheat from Hyperspectral Imagery Based on Harmonic Analysis

Frequent waterlogging disasters can have serious effects on regional ecology, food safety, and socioeconomic sustainable development. Early monitoring of waterlogging stress levels is vital for accurate production input management and reduction of crop production-related risks. In this study, a pot experiment on winter wheat was designed using three varieties and seven gradients of waterlogging stress. Hyperspectral imagery of the winter wheat canopy in the jointing stage, heading stage, flowering stage, filling stage, and maturation stage were measured and then classified. Wavebands of imaging data were screened. Waterlogging stress level was assessed by a combined harmonic analysis method, and application of this method at field scale was discussed preliminarily. Results show that compared to the k-nearest neighbor and support vector machine algorithms, the random forest algorithm is the best batch classification method for hyperspectral imagery of potted winter wheat. It can recognize waterlogging stress well in the wavebands of red absorption valley (RW: 640–680 nm), red-edge (RE: 670–737 nm), and near-infrared (NIR: 700–900 nm). In the RW region, amplitudes of the first three harmonic sub-signals (c1, c2, and c3) can be used as indexes to recognize the waterlogging stress level that each winter wheat variety undertakes. The third harmonic sub-signal amplitude c3 of the RE region is also suitable for judging stress levels of JM31 (one of the three varieties which is highly sensitive to water content). This study has important theoretical significance and practical application values related to the accurate control of waterlogging stress, and functions as a new method to monitor other types of environmental stress levels such as drought stress, freezing stress, and high-temperature stress levels.

The effect of varietal traits of durum wheat on the technological and baking qualities of flour when mixed with bread wheat

The development of bakery industry is possible due to the use of such non-traditional raw materials as durum wheat. The purpose of the current study was to estimate the effect of varietal traits of durum wheat when mixed with bread wheat according to the results of rheological parameters of dough, technological and bakery estimation of flour. There have been studied technological indicators of grain, rheological and physical parameters of dough, general bakery estimation. There has been established that the high gas-forming ability of durum wheat allows it to be used (30%) as bread wheat improver during baking. However, the positive effect was present not in all years of the study. There has been estimated an improvement effect due to mutual compensation of the missing components and complementarity of the bread and durum wheat varieties. There was found that in 2008, 2010 there was practically no improvement effect when durum wheat flour was added to the mixture in a ratio of 30:70%. There was established that in 2015 the maximum bread volume of 930 cm3 and a good bakery estimation (flat surface, oval shape, golden brown crust, as well as fine thin-walled porosity with elastic light crumb) were obtained by adding bread wheat varieties to durum wheat varieties, which during the year of the study there was formed weak grain (dilute of dough was 110 u.f.; valorigraphic number was 46 u.v.). In 2020, the varieties used in the mixtures of both spring bread and durum wheat were of high quality, and bakery estimation gave excellent indicators both in the control (the variety ‘Tulaykovskaya 108’ with 1300 cm3) and in the mixtures with 1140–1255 cm3; the appearance of bread and crumb in almost all variants had an excellent mark. The largest volume of bread, 1255 cm3, was obtained when the durum wheat variety ‘Bezenchukskaya Niva’ was added to the mixture. Adding durum wheat flour to the mixture in an amount of 30:70% when baking bread reduced its staleness by 6.5% relative to the control (bread wheat); bread remains fresh for a long time with an elastic, quickly regenerated crumb.

Formation features of the parameters of the model winter bread wheat variety of intensive type for the conditions of the Rostov region

Breeding success is determined by the correct choice of agro-ecotype. In this regard, we have carried out a comprehensive estimation of 75 winter bread wheat varieties and samples of the competitive trials. The variety ‘Ermak’ was used as a standard. The study was carried out using the material and technical base of the Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” (FSBSI “ARC “Donskoy”) in 2017–2019. The purpose was to study the correlation among economically valuable traits of winter bread wheat varieties and samples and to find genotypes similar in their parameters to the model variety based on curvilinear regressions. As a result of the phenotypic estimation of the quantitative traits of winter bread wheat varieties and samples, there was determined an average level and their variability degree. Their productivity ranged from 8.52 to 10.51 t/ha. Through the years of study, the variation coefficients indicated a high stability of these features (from 0.9 to 10.0%). In order to identify the similarities and differences between varieties and samples, there has been conducted a cluster analysis. As a result of this analysis, there has been selected the winter bread wheat variety ‘Yubiley Dona’ (C25), parameters which were more identical to the model (C76). This variety is recommended for further breeding process to improve the studied basic economic traits.

Cereal properties of spelt wheat grains depending on the variety

Purpose. To investigate the formation of cereal properties of spelt wheat grain depending on variety and line. Methods. Laboratory, mathematical and statistical, physicochemical. Results. As a result of studies it is found that technological properties of grain significantly vary depending on spelt variety and weather conditions. The protein content in spelt grain ranges from 11.0 to 21.3 % depending on the variety. A very high protein content in spelt grain (over 18.0 %) is in variety Zoria of Ukraine; rather high protein content (16.0–17.9 %) is in varieties Schwabenkorn (17.6 %), NSS 6/01 (17.3 %), Avstraliiska 1 (16.7 %) and LPP 3218 (16.7 %); low protein content (12.0–13.9 %) is in varieties LPP 3435 (13.1 %)and LPP 1224 (13.0 %); very low protein content is in varieties Shvedska 1 (11.0 %) and LPP 3117 (11.5 %); the rest of varieties has this indicator at the level of average – 14.0–15.9 %. Vitreous consistency of the endosperm has corn of varieties Zoria of Ukraine and Avstraliiska 1, semi vitreous consistency has grain of varieties NSS 6/01, Schwabenkorn, Frankenkorn and lines LPP 3218, LPP 3132, LPP 1305, LPP 1197, LPP 3124, LPP 3435, semi floury consistency has Shvedska 1 and LPP 3117. Culinary assessment of rolled spelt grains varies significantly depending on the variety. Total culinary assessment of rolled grain porridge of the spelt ranges from 6,8 to 9,0 points. Origin of spelt variety does not affect this indicator. The highest culinary assessment (8.9–9.0 points) has porridge obtained from grain of the variety Zoria of Ukraine and LPP 3132 line which makes it possible to use its grain to obtain cereal products. The lowest assessment of the porridge has variety Shvedska 1 and lines LPP 1224, LPP 3117 – 6.8–7.7 points. The other varieties have a culinary assessment of the porridge at a level of 8.1–8.8 points. For spelt grain indicator of protein content and grain vitreuesness can be used to evaluate the culinary properties of cereals. Conclusions. As a result of the conducted researches, it is established that Zoria Ukrainy, Schwabenkorn, NSS 6/01, Australian 1 varieties and LPP 3218 line are characterized by high protein content. Hard consistency of endosperm has the grain of Australian 1 and Zoria Ukrainy varieties in which the grain hardness is 73 and 84%, respectively. The origin of spelt wheat variety does not affect the color of cooked porridge. The general culinary evaluation of rolled spelt wheat porridge ranges from 6.8 to 9.0 points. Zoria Ukrainy spelt grain has the highest culinary evaluation which makes it possible to use it to produce cereals. To evaluate the culinary properties of spelt cereals, grain protein content and its hardness can be used.

UAV- and Machine Learning-Based Retrieval of Wheat SPAD Values at the Overwintering Stage for Variety Screening

In recent years, the delay in sowing has become a major obstacle to high wheat yield in Jiangsu Province, one of the major wheat producing areas in China; hence, it is necessary to screen wheat varieties are resilient for late sowing. This study aimed to provide an effective, fast, and non-destructive monitoring method of soil plant analysis development (SPAD) values, which can represent leaf chlorophyll contents, for late-sown winter wheat variety screening. This study acquired multispectral images using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at the overwintering stage of winter wheat growth, and further processed these images to extract reflectance of five single spectral bands and calculated 26 spectral vegetation indices. Based on these 31 variables, this study combined three variable selection methods (i.e., recursive feature elimination (RFE), random forest (RF), and Pearson correlation coefficient (r)) with four machine learning algorithms (i.e., random forest regression (RFR), linear kernel-based support vector regression (SVR), radial basis function (RBF) kernel-based SVR, and sigmoid kernel-based SVR), resulted in seven SVR models (i.e., RFE-SVR_linear, RF-SVR_linear, RF-SVR_RBF, RF-SVR_sigmoid, r-SVR_linear, r-SVR_RBF, and r-SVR_sigmoid) and three RFR models (i.e., RFE-RFR, RF-RFR, and r-RFR). The performances of the 10 machine learning models were evaluated and compared with each other according to the achieved coefficient of determination (R2), residual prediction deviation (RPD), root mean square error (RMSE), and relative RMSE (RRMSE) in SPAD estimation. Of the 10 models, the best one was the RF-SVR_sigmoid model, which was the combination of the RF variable selection method and the sigmoid kernel-based SVR algorithm. It achieved high accuracy in estimating SPAD values of the wheat canopy (R2 = 0.754, RPD = 2.017, RMSE = 1.716 and RRMSE = 4.504%). The newly developed UAV- and machine learning-based model provided a promising and real time method to monitor chlorophyll contents at the overwintering stage, which can benefit late-sown winter wheat variety screening.

Allelic Variation Analysis at the Vernalization Response and Photoperiod Genes in Russian Wheat Varieties Identified Two Novel Alleles of Vrn-B3

Heading time is an important agronomic trait affecting the adaptability and productivity of common wheat. In this study, 95 common wheat varieties from Russia and the late-maturing breeding line ‘Velut’ were tested for allelic diversity of genes having the strongest effect on heading. In this research, allelic variation at the Ppd-D1, Vrn-A1, Vrn-B1, Vrn-D1, and Vrn-B3 loci was tested. The Vrn-B1 and Vrn-B3 loci provided the largest contribution to genetic diversity. We found two novel allelic variants of the Vrn-B3 gene in the studied varieties. Ten varieties carried a 160 bp insertion in the promoter region, and the breeding line ‘Velut’ carried a 1617 bp insertion. These alleles were designated Vrn-B3e and Vrn-B3d, respectively. The analysis of the sequences showed the recent insertion of a retrotransposon homologous to the LTR retrotransposon (RLX_Hvul_Dacia_ RND-1) in the Vrn-B3d allele. Plants with the Vrn-B3e and the ‘Velut’ line with the Vrn-B3d allele headed later than the plants with the wild-type allele; among these plants, ‘Velut’ is the latest maturing wheat variety. Analysis of the gene expression of two groups of lines differing by the Vrn-B3 alleles (Vrn-B3d or vrn-B3) from the F2 population with ‘Velut’ as a parental line did not reveal a significant difference in the expression level between the groups. Additional research is required to study the reasons for the late maturation of the ‘Velut’ line. However, the studied wheat varieties could be used as a potential source of natural variation in genes controlling heading times.