The effect of growing conditions on quality of winter rye grain pentosans

The purpose of the current study was to identify the most valuable winter rye genotypes in the competitive variety testing for pentosans content and quality. The objects of the study were 15 varieties and promising populations, harvested in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Soils were southern chernozems with solonetz spots; the rye was laid in black fallow, plot area was 25 m 2 ; climate was moderately continental. Rheological properties of “rye meal-water” suspensions were determined using a Brabender rotary viscograph at a temperature of 20 °C in conventional units of the device (v.u.). There have been analyzed the viscogram indices ВС 0 , ВС 10 , ВС 30 and the calculated values V̅ 10 , V̅ 30 . There have been used dispersion and correlation methods of statistical data processing. The weather conditions varied from the respectively wet 2017 to all other dry years, with the exception of 2023, when June was “reliably wet”. The BC 0 data has shown that the highest viscosity values were observed in almost all varieties in 2019 and 2024, the lowest ones in 2017 and 2023. The highest values of V̅ 10 , which indicated hydrophilicity of pentosans, were observed in 2018, 2019 and 2024. Similar conclusions can be made about the values of the BC 10 , BC 30 indicators and the swelling rate within 30 minutes ( V̅ 30 ) in all years of study. At the initial stage of the trial, pentosans swell more intensively; after 30 minutes, the viscosity of the suspension reaches its maximum only in some varieties. The mean value of BC 0 for all years of the study was 164.8 units; 252.7 units of BC 10 and 323.9 units of BC 30 . The ranks of the studied varieties and populations do not change significantly, with the exception of 2024, since the vegetation conditions were extremely dry. The highest absolute values of all studied characteristics were observed in dry years, however, if the period of grain filling and ripening was characterized as “extremely dry” (2024), then the rank of varieties became different. The lowest viscosity values and the range of their variation were observed in 2023, when 102.8 % of the precipitation from long-term data fell in June. The varieties ‘Marusenka’ and ‘Solnyshko’ were characterized by reduced viscosity in all years of the study, ‘RZh-1’, ‘RH-11-20’, ‘KKG’ (belozernaya) and ‘KKG’ (zelenozernaya) had higher viscosity.