The effect of the interaction of different irrigation treatments with different varieties on the quality characteristics of bread wheat grains

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of soft wheat grains resulting from a field trial carried out at the research station of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tripoli, Libya, during the 2021/2022 growing season, to evaluate the interaction effect of three different  supplementary irrigation treatments from sowing to Tillering, to Anthesis and to Grain maturity with four different soft wheat varieties, the introduced variety Utique and the local varieties Buhouth 208, 210 and 212, on the quality characteristics of the grains that necessary and required for bread making, represented by the thousand kernel weight, protein content, wet gluten, gluten index and falling number. The results showed a significant difference amongst irrigation treatments, varieties, and their interactions on the measured quality parameters. The study indicates that the two local varieties Buhouth 208 and Buhouth 210 among the studied varieties, demonstrated their ability to adapt to the environmental conditions of the site by possessing the required quality characteristics under water deficit within grain filling phase, resulting from the supplementary irrigation treatment until Anthesis compared to the other supplementary irrigation treatments. Where, the quality parameters values for thousand kernel weight, protein content, wet gluten, gluten index, and falling number reached 37.4 grams, 14.9%, 28.8%, 59.0%, and 289 seconds for Buhouth 208 variety, respectively, and 31.1 grams, 14.5%, 32.0%, 79%, and 448 seconds for Buhouth 210 variety, respectively. The local variety, Buhouth 208, also shows a higher expected flour yield under various irrigation treatments compared to the local variety, Buhouth 210, While the latter variety was characterized by a higher gluten quality under the effect of the same irrigation treatments.