Effect of climate and of agricultural practice on the vegeto-productive response of ancient wheat varieties: preliminary results

This research aims to assess the effect of climate and of the agronomic management, in particular sowing density and fertilization, on the growth and development of three ancient genotypes of winter wheat (Verna, Sieve and Andriolo) compared to the modern cultivar Bologna. Results showed that the ancient genotypes reached the flowering stage between 5 and 10 days after the modern cultivar, and required additional GDD_0 between 80 and 184. Nitrogen affected the vegetative as well as reproductive growth of all the four cultivars, resulting in more days and GDD_0 to flowering as nitrogen increased. Concerning the accumulated biomass, Verna showed a positive relation with the three nitrogen levels; Andriolo was not affected by the highest nitrogen rate, on the contrary of Bologna and Sieve. The obtained results allowed to obtain quantitative information about the vegeto-productive responses of the ancient wheat varieties so far unavailable and useful for their cultivation with modern agronomic management.