Abstract
Introduction and methodology. The value of the initial material is primarily determined by the tasks of modern breeding process, collection material playing an important role in it. The purpose of the current study was to estimate the initial material of winter durum wheat according to their yield structure elements in the south of the Rostov region. The objects of research were 159 winter durum wheat samples among which there were 69 of domestic breeding and 90 of foreign one.Results. The study has shown that in 2019–2020 grain productivity of the collection samples ranged from 227.9 g/m2 to 735.9 g/m2. All studied samples were divided into three groups according to the trait ‘productive stand’ (number of productive stems per 1 m2). There were 17.6% of samples with a small value of the trait (201–400 pcs./m2); with a mean value of the trait (401–600 pcs./m2) there were 72.3% of samples and with a large value of the trait (601–800 pcs./m2) there were 10.1% of samples. According to the trait ‘plant height’ more than a half of the samples (57.0%) belonged to the ‘semi-dwarf’ group (61–85 cm). Large part (70%) of winter durum wheat samples formed ‘length of head’ in the range of 6.5–7.5 cm. In 2019–2020, number of spikelets per head ranged from 17 pcs. up to 24 pcs. The trait ‘kernel weight per head’ of the studied collection samples varied from 0.77 g to 2.08 g, all the samples had different kernel sizes. The trait ‘number of kernels per head’ varied from 22 pcs. (the variety ‘Novinka 4’) up to 51 pcs. (the sample ‘1015/16’). The trait ‘1000-kernel weight’ in the trial ranged from 23.9 g to 49.0 g, the standard variety had 34.1 g. The productivity of the collection samples was formed due to 1000-kernel weight and kernel weight per head, the correlation coefficients for these productivity elements being r = 0.45 ± 0.07; r = 0.35 ± 0.07.