Stability of quality traits in winter wheat cultivars

We investigated the stability of 15 traits of quality in 45 winter wheat cultivars grown in two seasons in the Borovce locality of Slovakia. The gluten swelling, SDS test, starch content, α-amylase (α-AMS) activity, and volume weight were affected simultaneously by the cultivar, growing year, and the country of origin. Other traits were affected by only one or two of these factors. The English cultivars, when compared to the Slovak cultivars, demonstrated lower gluten swelling and volume weight, a higher α-AMS activity, and a longer vegetative period. We observed a higher α-AMS activity in the Czech, a lower starch content in the Austrian, and a longer vegetative period in the German cultivars. In the Hungarian cultivars, we detected a lower starch and a reduced amylose contents. The most stable quality traits in both growing years were identified in the Ilona (gluten swelling), Spartakus (SDS test), Cubus (falling number), Komfort (starch), GK Margit (amylose), GK Verecke (α-AMS), Saturnus (volume weight), and Vanda (thousand-kernel weight) cultivars. Other traits, such as protein, wet gluten, sedimentation index, grain hardness, grain weight per spike, grain yield, and duration of the vegetative period, were strongly affected by the environment (growing year). The foreign cultivars such as the Komfort (AUT), Saturnus (AUT), GK Rába (HUN), GK Csongrád (HUN), Silvius (AUT), GK Bagoly (HUN), and GK Forrás (HUN) were superior for growing in Slovakia. Each of them had more quality traits that were stable, comparable, and ultimately better than the control Slovak cultivars.