Yield of awnless brome grass of the 'Udalets' variety and elements of its structure at different sowing dates

The article presents the results of three-year studies on the sowing dates of the new 'Udalets' variety of awnless brome when cultivating for seed purposes. In the forest-steppe conditions of the Middle Volga region, spring (3 dates), summer (3 dates), and autumn dates were considered. The studies established the advantage of spring sowing dates in terms of plant density, including productive stems, plant height, in-florescence length, and, ultimately, seed yield over two years of use. The greatest number of productive stems in the first year of use — 214–242 pcs/m2 with a plant height of 127–128 cm was obtained with early spring sowing dates. In the second year of use, with the same sowing dates, the greatest number of generative shoots was also formed — 192–221 pcs/m2. The highest seed yield was obtained with spring sowing dates — 665–950 kg/ha (in the first year of use), 510–550 kg/ha (in the second year). With late June, August and September sowing dates, the yield was only 35–39 kg/ha or 95.5–96.0% lower than with early spring sowing. Low seed yield with these sowing dates is explained by dry conditions in the year of sowing, as a result of which the seeds did not germinate for a long time, did not have time to ver-nalize and form generative shoots.