Spring barley grain quality changes in conventional and organic growing conditions

Summary

While breeding for organic farming it is necessary to identify the most appropriate
growing conditions in which to perform the selection process. Soil fertility, crop
management, yield level and other factors may vary very much between each organic
farm, and between organic farms and research institutions where the selection is usually
performed. Since plant breeding requires considerable input of resources and the market
for organic varieties is limited, it is essential to find the most appropriate selection
conditions that will provide acceptable varieties for organic farms.
Spring barley breeding lines selected from two cross combinations (Primus/Idumeja and
Anni/Dziugiai) at two distinctive organic and two conventional locations were used in the
study. The organic location 1 was situated in a research field of the plant breeding
institute (with green manure as fertilizer), the organic location 2 included an organic
farmer’s field (with stable manure as fertilizer), the conventional location 1 was located
in a barley breeding field (with medium level of mineral fertilizer input) and the
conventional location 2 in a seed production field of the institute (with high mineral
fertilizer input).
Selection of the breeding lines was done under the respective growing conditions starting
from F3 generation. Most appropriate lines for growing in organic farming were selected
at all 4 environments. Selected breeding lines were evaluated in F5 (n=20-23 per cross
combination, without replications) and F6 generations (n=10 per cross combination, 3
replications).
Correlations between barley traits and the environments and cross combinations will be
compared in the presentation.
The analysis of the correlation between grain yield and observed plant traits of F5 lines
indicated that tendencies between the lines obtained from both cross combinations as well
as between the environments were dissimilar in most of the cases. Soil shading
(evaluated at early stem elongation stage) correlated positively with grain yield in all
cases; the correlation was always significant for lines from the cross Primus/Idumeja, but
only at the conventional location 2 for Anni/Dziugiai lines
(p<0.05). A significant positive correlation between grain yield and plant development
speed at tillering stage as well as between yield and plant height at the beginning of stem
elongation was found for Primus/Idumeja lines at both organic
locations and at the conventional location 1 (p<0.05). Plant height before harvest did not
correlate significantly with yield under organic conditions which is in contradiction with
some other studies. There was a tendency for planophyle growth
habit to correlate positively with yield under organic and conventional conditions for
lines from both cross combinations.
The analysis of correlation of the F6 lines will be included in the presentation.
This study was performed with financial support of EEA grant EEZ08AP-27and
European Social Fund co-financed project
2009/0218/1DP/1.1.1.2.0/09/APIA/VIAA/099.