Study of collection soybean material in the Rostov region

The current paper has presented the study results of soybean varieties of different ecological and geographical origin to use them as sources of high productivity in breeding. The purpose of the study was to estimate economically valuable traits of collection soybean samples. The study was conducted on the experimental plot of the laboratory for breeding and seed production of grain legumes of the FSBSI “ARC “Donskoy” in 2021–2023. The material for the study was 10 soybean samples from the ARIPGR collection. The zoned variety ‘Donskaya 9’ was sown as a standard. During the study, there were identified such sources of early maturity as the soybean samples ‘Selekta 201’ and ‘SK 82’, with a short vegetation period (108 and 104 days), which was 3–7 days less than that of the standard variety ‘Donskaya 9’. The variety ‘Selecta 201’ (65.4 cm) was the best in terms of plant height. Some samples showed a reliable productivity increase compared to the standard ‘Donskaya 9’, such as ‘Kyoto’ with 1.39 t/ha, ‘Kleopatra’ with 1.38 t/ha, ‘Zelda’ with 1.37 t/ha, ‘Selekta-201’ with 1.36 t/ha and ‘Emperor’ with 1.29 t/ha. The conducted correlation analysis showed a close correlation between productivity and 1000-seed weight (r = 0.81±0.05), a mean positive correlation with height of a lower bean attachment (r = 0.61±0.05), seed weight per one plant (r = 0.44±0.05) and an inverse correlation with a number of productive stems (r = -0.39±0.05), a weak correlation with a vegetation period (r = 0.30±0.5) and a number of productive beans (r = 0.19±0.05). The identified soybean varieties can be recommended as an initial material for the development of highly productive varieties that meet production requirements.