Productivity and stability of a collection of common winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars under contrasting growing conditions

A collection of 52 common winter wheat cultivars were studied under three contrasting environments (2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021) with the aim to determine some peculiarities in the productivity adaptability-stability system. Adaptability and stability were evaluated using six parameters using different statistical approaches. A new approach for evaluation was developed based on the standard deviation of the yield results. An integrated approach was applied to consolidate the effects of the stability parameters in the form of an average rank. The obtained results showed that the three environments were drastically contrasting, which determined the high variability in the response of the respective genotypes. With the highest values of yield, averaged for the period, were cultivars Korona, Antonovka, Kalina, Merilin and Rada, and with the lowest – Anapurna, Ingenio, Avenue, Solveig and Mulan. The parameters used for assessment of stability and adaptability lead to different conclusions with regard to the stability of the investigated cultivars. Nevertheless, cultivars Bozhana and Exotic followed a tendency toward high stability regardless of the approach used. The combination of the data on productivity and stability showed that cultivars with productivity close to the mean could be considered more stable. Good and compromise combinations of productivity, adaptability and stability based on the mean ranks and the applied integrated multiple approach were demonstrated by cultivars Antonovka, Kalina, Kiara, Bolyarka and Kristy. In spite of fact that the combination of productivity and stability is one of the pending problem, cultivars such as Bolyarka and Exotic, which follow a tendency toward higher productivity and stability, could be successfully used for improvement of these characteristics in the contemporary breeding programs.