Plant and Soil Science

Productivity, ecological plasticity and stability of winter bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars across different agroecological zones of Ukraine

Halyna Dutova*, Svitlana Vaskivska

2021dutova@gmail.com

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Abstract

Winter bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the principal cereal crop in Ukraine and plays a crucial role in national food security and grain production. As climate change intensifies, evaluating the adaptability of newly developed cultivars under contrasting agroecological conditions has become increasingly important. The present study aimed to assess the productivity, ecological plasticity, and stability of winter bread wheat cultivars grown in the Steppe, Forest-Steppe, and Polissia zones of Ukraine. Thirty cultivars listed in the State Register of Plant Varieties Suitable for Dissemination in Ukraine were evaluated during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 growing seasons within the network of experimental sites of the Ukrainian Institute for Plant Variety Examination. Grain yield, thousand-grain weight, plant height, protein content, and wet gluten content were determined, while ecological plasticity and stability were evaluated using the Eberhart-Russell method. The Forest-Steppe provided the most favourable conditions for crop productivity, with an average grain yield of 8.45 t/ha, whereas the lowest mean yield (6.34 t/ha) was recorded in the Steppe. Among the cultivars studied, ‘LG TOMYOL’ produced the highest average grain yield (8.28 t/ha). Intensive-response cultivars included ‘LG TOMYOL’, ‘Rozumnytsia Odeska’, ‘Ratatui’, and ‘Vira Odeska’ (bi > 1.20), whereas ‘Avatar Kharkivskyi’, ‘Gravis’, ‘Polova Krasunia’, and ‘Nahoroda’ combined broad adaptability with high stability (bi ≈ 1.0). Grain yield showed a moderate positive correlation with thousand-grain weight (r = 0.48) but was negatively correlated with protein content (r = -0.55). In most cultivars, the highest protein and wet gluten contents were obtained under Steppe conditions. Overall, the results emphasise the importance of genotype × environment interaction in determining both grain productivity and quality and identify cultivars with high adaptive potential for cultivation across the major agroecological zones of Ukraine

Keywords

grain yield; adaptability; “genotype × environment” interaction; ecological plasticity; regression coefficient; grain quality

Suggested citation
Dutova, H., & Vaskivska, S. (2026). Productivity, ecological plasticity and stability of winter bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars across different agroecological zones of Ukraine. Plant and Soil Science, 17(3), 53-69. https://doi.org/10.31548/plant3.2026.53
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