Sponge cake baking quality—An 18‐year retrospective

Abstract

Background and objectives Sponge cake quality is an essential end‐use trait for U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW) soft white (SW) wheat. This study examined sponge cake volume of SW winter wheat germplasm from 48 balanced datasets spanning 18 years. Findings Half of the datasets returned significant whole model and variety ANOVA F‐values, compared to 35 with significant whole model and environment F‐values, indicating that environment was in general the greater source of variation. Low (mean 3.1%) coefficients of variation suggested that nonsignificant variety F‐values were due to no substantive genetic variation (as opposed to high error variance). Datasets with only two environments rarely returned significant whole model F‐values, and never significant genotype F‐values, whereas 93% of datasets with ≥5 environments had significant ANOVA models. Nevertheless, significant models did not always delineate genotypes. Infrequently were significant differences detected among the commercial varieties. Conclusions In terms of sponge cake volume, PNW soft white winter wheat varieties, especially club wheats varieties, are genetically similar and consistent. ANOVA indicated that varieties need to be grown in ≥5 environments to detect small genotype differences. Significance and novelty Sponge cake quality has remained remarkably consistent among commercial soft white winter wheat varieties over 18 years of breeding and selection. The results indicate this consistency may be due to effective testing and selection, a narrow genetic germplasm base, or a combination thereof.