AGRO-ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND MORPHO- PRODUCTIVE PROPERTIES OF SPELT WHEAT

Experiments were conducted during 2011-2012, at three localities in Serbia (Valjevo, Nova Varos and Nova Pazova). The seed of spelt wheat cultivar Nirvana was used, having been selected at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad. The objective of the research was to assess the effect of agro-ecological conditions on morphological and productive properties of spelt wheat grown on different types of soils. The effect of the locality was significantly expressed in all tested morphological properties of spelt wheat (plant height, number of spikelets, number of grains per spikelet), while meteorological conditions (year) affected spike length and grain mass per spike significantly. The average grain yield from all three localities was 3.20 t ha -1 . A considerably higher yield was achieved on chernozem, locality Nova Pazova (3.89 t ha -1 ). The comparison of the grain yields from Valjevo (eutric cambisol) and Nova Varos (grey forest soil) did not show any significant differences.