Choosing parental pairs for development initial material of alsike clover

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study in 2021 of 13 tetraploid selective varieties of alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum L.) from Norway, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Latvia, Belarus and Russia in terms of the productivity of air-dry matter of the standing crop and seed yield. The observations were carried out in a greenhouse experiment set up in the greenhouse complex of the Federal Williams Research Center of Forage Production & Agroecology. The purpose of the research is to choose for crossing and further breeding work the most productive tetraploid clover genotypes from different geographical regions in terms of standing crop and seed yield. The criterion for selecting promising selective numbers for crossing was the deviation of the standing crop yield and (or) seed yield by more than 3 standard deviations (σ) from the corresponding arithmetic mean in the experiment. For experimental data on the yield of air-dry matter of the standing crop, a normal distribution was characteristic, and for seed yield, an exponential distribution. This made it possible to use the critical value of 3σ in making breeding decisions. The average productivity of air-dry matter of the standing crop is 47 g/vessel, σ=16 g/vessel. The average seed productivity is 1.1 g/vessel, and σ=0.9 g/vessel. According to the value of air-dry matter of the standing crop of 102 g/vessel, selective number 56 (cv. Tetraploid from the Republic of Belarus) was identified, and according to seed yield of 4.2 g/vessel, selective number 42 (cv. Alpo from Norway). They belonged to the productivity of Novator variety 213% and 233%, respectively. Selective numbers 56 and 42 are promising for crossing and studying the ability of offspring to combine high fodder and seed productivity.