Determination of high nutritious emmer wheat candidates suitable for konya conditions

Field performances of the 17 emmer candidate lines collected and selected from the populations via different provinces of Turkey were tested under Konya conditions to determine candidate emmer varieties suitable for this province. For this purpose, the trial was carried out in randomized complete block design with three replicates under Kadınhanı/Konya conditions. The commonly cultivated durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) varieties, Zenit, Svevo and Sarıçanak, were used as controls in the study. Agronomical traits such as biological and grain yield and some quality traits and contents of micro elements and vitamins (A and B) were determined. Emmer candidate lines were 5 days later than the controls for days to heading. On the other hand, all emmer candidate lines cultivated in the study were longer plant height than the controls. Although control varieties were generally found to be higher than the emmer candidate lines, 42 (6.3 cm), 45 (6.3 cm), 43 (6.2 cm) and 2 (6.2 cm) candidate lines had the higher spike length than that of controls. Emmer candidate lines were to be similar with the controls for grain yield but some emmer candidate lines were superior. Line 47 with 416.9 kg/da grain yield was especially satisfactory. Lines 25 (43.5 %) and 20 (43.4 %) were also better than the controls for harvest index. Control varieties were averagely better than the emmer candidate lines for main quality traits such as volume weight, thousand kernel weight and sedimentation. However, the candidate lines 47 and 21 were quite well for thousand kernel weight. Protein ratio was similar for both controls and emmer candidate lines. Additionally, some emmer candidate lines were promising for micro element contents such as 1 (1.44 ppm) and 21 (1.46 ppm) for low Cu content, 15 (28.35 ppm) and 3 (27.74 ppm) for Fe, 2 (25.70 ppm) and 15 (24.70 ppm) for Mn, 15 (19.97 ppm) and 3 (16.59 ppm) for Zn and 45 (0.22 ppm), 15 (0.22 ppm) and 6 (0.22 ppm) for Se. Especially, the emmer candidate lines 15, 2 and 3 were quite better than the control varieties for balanced micro element contents. There was no large variation between the candidate lines and varieties for B vitamin complex but lines 3 (8.34 ppm) and 17 (7.15 ppm) for B5 and lines 1 (85.91 ppm), 17 (74.32 ppm) and 20 (71.00 ppm) for B9 were promising. Lines 37 (163.17 ppb), 21 (162.65 ppb) and 46 (160.53 ppb) were also satisfactory for vitamin A. As a result, lines 47, 37, 21 and 15 were preferable in general in terms of agronomical and quality traits and they can be cultivated as an alternative to durum wheats in the rural areas of the Central Anatolia.