Investigation of the Cold Resistance of Two-row Winter Barley Cultivars (Hordeum vulgare ssp. distichum L.)

Abstract

The cold resistance of eleven Bulgarian and European varieties of two-row winter barley (Hordeum vulgare,ssp. distihum L.) has been investigated in laboratory and natural field conditions. The laboratory trial has been conducted in Agricultural University - Plovdiv by express methods of Bojhanova and Petrova (2000) for determination of cold resistance based on the comparison of depression of root and shoot development in low temperatures. The accurate field trial from 2011 to 2013 was carried out on the experimental field of the Institute of agriculture – Karnobat. The differences in percentage of survived plants and the grain yield in natural climate conditions have been assumed. All investigated cultivars has been clustered in two major groups- “tolerant” and “susceptible”, based on the analyses of the results. The correlation in cultivar`s behavior and their arrangement in identical groups in both methods prove the reliability of this express method and his possible use in the early stage of plant breeding process for barley tolerance to low temperatures. The best yielding cultivars with higher cold tolerance has been used in new breeding programs of winter barley