Harnessing Winter Wheat Variability for Enhancement of Yield in Spring Wheat.

The winter wheat gene pool which possesses huge diversity for various agronomic traits it can be exploited for widening the genetic base and improving the yield of spring wheat varieties. With a view to assess the variability for various yield contributing traits in winter wheat, an experiment was conducted at Directorate of Wheat Research Karnal, Haryana. Fifty exotic winter wheat germplasm collections were evaluated for various yield contributing traits like plant height, number of tillers meter^-1, spike length and thousand grains weight in a paired row experiment. The results showed that large variability was present for all the agronomic traits studied. The plant height of the genotypes ranged from 56.4 to 155 cm, while the number of tillers meter^-1 row length ranged from 67 to 305. The spike length of winter wheat genotypes varied from 7.2 to 16.4 cm. Thousand grains weight was in the range of 19.6 to 47.96 g. Plant height is very important yield trait in winter wheat. The genotypes EC 609403 and EC 609399 were found to be of dwarf stature. The winter wheat lines viz., EC 479376, EC 493712, EC 493709, EC 609395 and EC 609401 had more number of tillers meter^-1 (>150). Longer spikes (>12 cm) were observed in EC 479375, EC 609410, EC 609405 and EC 609400 lines. EC 528127, EC 479378, EC 609410 showed high thousand grains weight (45 g). These promising lines have successfully been utilized in hybridization for transferring the desirable traits in the agronomic base of spring cultivars for the development of spring lines with high yield and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]