P. Chamurliyski1*, N. Tsenov2, I. Stoeva3, S. Doneva3, E. Penchev3

1Department of Crop Science and Plant Protection, College Dobrich, Konstantin Preslavski University of Shumen, 9300 Dobrich, Bulgaria 2Agronom I Holding, 9300 Dobrich, Bulgaria
3Dobrudzha Agricultural Institute, 9521 General Toshevo, Bulgaria

(Manuscript received 23 March 2016; accepted for publication 28 September 2016)

Abstract. One of the main directions of the breeding programs in common winter wheat, besides increasing productivity, is developing of cultivars with excellent baking properties. An important prerequisite for this is the involvement of new gene plasma of variable origin, which is adequate to the growing conditions and the desired breeding direction. The aim of investigation is study of some main properties related to the grain quality and the baking properties of bread wheat accessions of foreign origin under the conditions of the South Dobrudzha region. Twenty-five foreign bread wheat cultivars of various origins were investigated for a three year period. Cultivars Aglika, Enola, Pryaspa and Yantur were used as standards. Some indices related to the quality of grain and flour were analyzed at the Bread Making Laboratory of Dobrudzha Agricultural Institute (DAI). The expression of the following parameters was followed: test weigh, % of protein, sedimentation, wet gluten yield, softening degree, pharinographic value, bread volume, and the quality index (QI) was calculated. The cultivars, which demonstrated high grain quality, were the Romanian Faur, Moldovan Dobropolka, American Wahoo and the Ukrainian Zmina. Averaged for the three years, highest variation was found for the index pharinographic value. On the whole, the materials with origin from Romania, Ukraine and USA were characterized with high values of the quality indices. Cultivars Faur and Zmina can be successfully included in the breeding program of DAI for development of strong wheat varieties.