Authors:
E. Al-Shehadah, M. Jawhar
Volume 28, Issue 1;
Pages: 68-72; 2022
ISSN: 2069-0053 (print) (former ISSN: 1453-1399), Agroprint;
ISSN (online): 2068-9551
Earliness is an important factor in adapting barley genotypes to different cultivation regions and growing seasons, and consequently for maximizing crop yield. Therefore, breeding early-maturing genotypes is a major purpose in barley breeding programs. Keeping in view this objective, doubled haploid (DH) lines derived from crossing barley cultivars presently used in Europe and West Asia were tested for earliness and yield traits during two consecutive seasons. Results demonstrated significant differences among barley lines with a wide spectrum of earliness ranging from early-maturity to late-maturity, which were consistent in both seasons. Interestingly, 12 derived DH lines had slightly early -maturity (128 - 135 days to heading) than the mean of the parents (142-151 days). Some weak but significant correlation (r =0.40, P<0.01) was found between the short maturity periods and grain yield, indicating that identification of early-maturing and high-yielding traits in the same lines is possible. Hence, in environments with cool growing seasons, the newly identified DH lines with short‐maturity period and high yielding can be potential donors in the breeding program to produce new commercial barley genotypes.