Combining ability of the parental forms of the naked-grain oats (Avena sativa var. nuda) based on evaluation of several traits.

Tadeusz Śmiałowski

Plant Breeding and Acclimatisation Institute, Department of Cereal, Zawiła 4, 30-423 Kraków, Poland (Poland)

Stanisław Węgrzyn

Plant Breeding and Acclimatisation Institute, Department of Cereal, Zawiła 4, 30-423 Kraków, Poland (Poland)

Zygmunt Nita

Plant Breeding and Acclimatisation Institute Experimental Station in Strzelce, 99-307 Strzelce Poland (Poland)

Abstract

Combining ability of the varieties and strains of the naked-grain oat  was evaluated on the basis of the following traits: number of days to first heading, plant height and grain yield per plot. Six hundred and thirty nine strains of naked-grain oats were included involving F4-F8 generations over 5 years. Those strains were the progeny of 25 crossbreeding combinations of 9 testers with 13 varieties. The analysis of the variance in a hierarchic scheme showed highly significant values of the mean squares for years, testers, varieties and combinations for all the traits. The values of combining ability for testers, varieties and combinations of naked-grain oat were calculated. The results enabled to distinguish a group of naked-grain oat varieties, which effectively transferred the desirable traits to progeny: heading, shorter straw and high yield. The promising combinations for early heading were: Konradin × (Fl. nova × Swan mutant), and Caesar × (Płatek × Swan mutant), and for a higher grain yield Adam × Maro.

Keywords:

naked-grain oat, combining ability, heading, plant height, grain yield