ChileanJAR

In plant breeding, it is fundamental to give the most adequate conditions to express the character to be studied. Yellowberry in durum wheats is an important defect and the environment has a great influence on it. In fact, nitrogen fertilizers diminish the proportion of yellowberry. To better determine the genetic differences, with respeet to this character, a nursery, with all the varieties and lines under yield trials, was sown at La Platina Exp. Sta. (INIA-Santiago), without nitrogen application. The percentage of yellowberry in this nursery was determined, as well as in the same varo ieties, in the yield trials with nitrogen. The average for yellowberry in the plots without nitrogen was 40.1% and in the ones with nitrogen, 24.4%. A highly significant correlation (r = 0.47) was found, between yellowberry percentages, with and without nitrogen. This shows that an important part of the differences between varieties is genetic. In the cheek varieties, with no nitrogen, a rather large variation was observed, showing the great effeet that small variations in the environment have in the percentage of yellowberry.