Twenty three inbred lines obtained at the Instituto Agronômico from the wheat breeding program plus the cultivars BH-1146 and Alondra-S-46 were evaluated in field experiments carried out at Campinas Experiment Center, Capão Bonito and Tietê Experiment Stations, and at two farms located in the Paranapanema Valley, during the period 1984-86. Grain yield, plant height, number of days from emergence to flowering and from emergence to maturation, percentage of lodged plants, head length, number of grain per spike and per spikelet, number of spikelets per spike, weight of 100 grains, and resistance to stem and leaf rusts were evaluated under field conditions. The resistance to stem and leaf rusts was tested in the greenhouse, and tolerance to aluminum toxicity was tested in the laboratory. Considering the experiments carried out at Capão Bonito the line 19 presented good productivity showing moderate resistance to Helminthosporium sp. and high tolerance to aluminum toxicity. This line was early in maturity and exhibited tall type of plant but it was resistant to lodging. The cultivars BH-1146 and the line 16 showed high grain yield at the Paranapanema Valley. The line 16 presented a semidwarf type, early maturity, field resistance to leaf rust, resistance to lodging and tolerance to Al toxicity. At Tietê the line 16 showed high productivity. There were no differences among the lines at Campinas. The lines 1, 3, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 22, 23 and the cultivars Alondra-S-46 exhibited semidwarf type when compared to the tall cultivars BH-1146. The lines 9, 10, 11 and the cultivars Alondra-S-46 were resistant to stem rust, presenting at seedling stage, resistance to six races under greenhouse conditions. The lines 11, 16, 18 and the cultivars BH-1146 presented low levels of the leaf rust from natural infection out in the field. The line 7 with long heads, the lines 7 and 8 with large number of spikelets per spike, the line 2 presenting high head fertility and the line 21 exhibiting heavy grains were considered as good genetic sources of these characteristics for the wheat breeding program. The lines 1, 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21 and the cultivars BH-1146 were tolerant to the presence of 10 mg/liter of Al in the nutrient solution.
plant breeding; wheat; yield; stem and leaf rusts; aluminum toxicity