The effect of fertilizers on productivity and quality of winter common wheat varieties under arid parts of chestnut soils in the Volgograd region

Winter wheat cultivation in the dry steppe zone of chestnut soils of the Volgograd region make it possible to yield high-quality grain using a traditional set of intensification tools (early spring fertilization with ammonium nitrate, foliar fertilization with micronutrients). However, taking into account the increased demands of grain buyers for its quality, and the emerging increase of precipitation, and, consequently, productivity, which somewhat reduces protein percentage, agricultural producers have been faced with the concern to find a tool that will help to stabilize grain quality indicators. There have been studied 5 promising winter wheat varieties developed by two originators, the varieties of which are most popular in the Volgograd region, namely the Agricultural Research Center “Donskoy” and the FRC “Agroecology” of RAS, on the use of urea fertilizing. The work was carried out from 2022 to 2024. The purpose of the current work was to evaluate winter wheat varieties that have a pronounced reaction to foliar treatment of crops with urea, and to identify the effect of this agricultural technique on various yield structure elements and grain quality. During the study there was found that the use of additional nitrogen fertilizers during the ear formation period in the steppe zone of the Volgograd region on dark chestnut soils had a positive effect on winter wheat productivity, allowing to obtain from 3.14 to 3.69 tons per hectare, which exceeded the control indicator by 0.13–0.26 tons per hectare. The largest productivity was given by such varieties as ‘Krasa Dona’ (3.69 t/ha), ‘Kamyshanka 4’ (3.46 t/ha) and ‘Etyud’ (3.45 t/ha). The highest protein percentage in grain was established in the variety ‘Etyud’ (13.9 %). The indicators of the varieties ‘Krasa Dona’, ‘Kamyshanka 4’, ‘Zhavoronok’ ranged from 13.1 to 13.3 %. The variety ‘Kamyshanka 4’ gave the greatest yield increase due to this agricultural technique (1.1 %).