AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS OF SOME FOREIGN WINTER BREAD WHEAT CULTIVARS (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.)

The study is carried out in the experimental field of Institute of Plant Genetic Resources “Konstantin Malkov” - Sadovo, Bulgaria during 2015-2017 growing seasons. Seven Italian, seven Czechian, two Francian, two Portugal and two Polish cultivars were evaluated for six agronomic traits. In general the evaluated foreign cultivars had later date to heading than the national standard Enola. An exception was cultivar Bilancia which had the same length of vegetative growth phase as Enola. Bohemia had the longest spike. Italian variety Alcione had the highest number of spikelets per spike. The Czech cultivars Bohemia and Seladon and Polish variety Kobra Plus had the highest thousand grain weight. Relatively the highest yield was recorded for Jordao and Coa from Portugal and Carisma from Italy. K-means cluster analysis permitted to group the cultivars in four clusters. The standard variety Enola with other six cultivars was grouped into second cluster including 35% of total genotypes. The maximum average inter-cluster distance was found between cluster I and cluster III. So, the crossing between these two highly diverse cluster parents would be fruitful for getting heterosis cross combination. The results of this study will support efforts of utilization of foreign cultivars in winter bread wheat breeding programs.