Productive oat ideotype for northern growing conditions

Summary Yield formation of four Finnish and three Nordic oat varieties and 12 breeding lines developed at the Hankkija Plant Breeding Institute was studied during four different growing seasons (1986–1989). Seventeen characteristics were measured, including traits representing the date of maturity and architecture of the oat stand. The variation between genotypes in the examined traits was studied by means of two-way analysis of variance. The relationship between grain yield and morpho-physiological traits was studied by means of simple correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis.The present study, carried out in highly dissimilar growing seasons, showed that ideotype breeding in the northern growing areas is likely to be successful only in moderate to optimal growing conditions. Based on the findings of this study, a productive oat ideotype for northern cultivation is composed of traits such as early maturation, high phytomass production with a high panicle weight resulting from a large number of grains. short straw length (high resistance to lodging), and reduced tillering. The importance of other factors influencing oat breeding in northern growing conditions is discussed.