AGRO-ECOLOGICAL CONDITIONS AND MORPHO-PRODUCTIVE PROPERTIES OF SPELT WHEAT

Experiments were conducted during 2011-2012, at three localities in Serbia (Valjevo, Nova Varoš and Nova Pazova). The seed of spelt wheat cultivar Nirvana was used, having been selected at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad. The objective of the research was to assess the effect of agro-ecological conditions on morphological and productive properties of spelt wheat grown on different types of soils. The effect of the locality was significantly expressed in all tested morphological properties of spelt wheat (plant height, number of spikelets, number of grains per spikelet), while meteorological conditions (year) affected spike length and grain mass per spike significantly. The average grain yield from all three localities was 3.20 t ha. A considerably higher yield was achieved on chernozem, locality Nova Pazova (3.89 t ha). The comparison of the grain yields from Valjevo (eutric cambisol) and Nova Varoš (grey forest soil) did not show any significant differences.


Introduction
The majority of the world wheat production comprises Triticum aestivum and durum (T.durum) cultivars.Nowadays, there is a growing interest in some old wheat species.These species are now rather limitedly used in human diet, unlike in animal diet where they are used as alternatives to oats and barley.Spelt wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp.spelta L.) is the oldest known wheat species came as a result of spontaneous crossings of wild grasses.At the end of the twentieth century, after studying the nutritional characteristics of spelt wheat grains (Abdel-Aal et al., 1995), this species had a significant role in field crop production.Reviving of spelt wheat production has started in the hilly and mountainous regions of Central Europe and North America.This tendency can be related to the development of ecological agriculture and a high nutritional value of this cereal.Moreover, there is evidence of its positive effect on human health (Campbell 1997;Majewska et al., 2007;Sulewska et al., 2008).
Serbia has considerable agricultural resources that are a basis for possible improving plant production for about 50%, which is very important not only for meeting domestic demand but also for improving the export of agricultural products (Filipović, 2005).The realisation of organic production comprises various production programs with different forms of supply, complying with the program on »environmental quality of foods«.That is in function of a tendency for food safety, which gives an advantage to Serbian supply on agricultural products (Popović et al., 2013).To support these tendencies, there are some studies on the quality and status of oat and wheat seeds selected in Serbia, with distinctive production properties of satisfying quality (Janković et al., 2012;Rakić et al., 2012a,b).The nutritional value of spelt wheat grains shows it can be used in production of quality and healthy food (Dražić et al., 2010).Spelt is a wheat species that has not been grown in Serbia for long time.Since there is a growing demand for flour of this cereal (Zielinski et al., 2008), the objective of this research was to assess the effect of agro-ecological conditions on the morphological properties and yield of spelt wheat.

Materials and Methods
In two-year research (2011-2012) Nirvana spelt wheat seed was used.The experiments were conducted at three localities: in Valjevo (western Serbia); Nova Varoš (south-western Serbia) and Nova Pazova (Srem) and on different types of soils -on eutric cambisol in Valjevo, grey forest soil in Nova Varoš, and chernozem in Nova Pazova.Based on agrochemical soil analysis, it was established that the most fertile soil was on the location of Nova Pazova, while on the other two locations, the contents of the main nutrients (N, P, K) were significantly lower (Table 1).Potatoes are used as a pre-crop at all three localities.Sowing was done manually in late October.During the vegetation period, crop tending and crop protection measures were not applied.Prior to early June harvest, sampling was conducted in order to determine the following morphological properties: stem height, spike length, number of spikelets, number of grains per spike, and grain mass.After the harvest, the morphological properties were analysed, and grain yields per unit area were calculated based on the grain mass of the spike samples.At each locality, a sample was based on 200 randomly selected plants.In order to assess the significance of environmental conditions (locality and year) for the morphological properties and grain yield of spelt wheat, the analysis of variance for two-factorial experiments was used (ANOVA MANOVA, Stat 5).
Meteorological conditions.Data on monthly precipitation and air temperatures in 2011/12 were retrieved from the Republic Hydro-meteorological Service of Serbia.The annual heat distribution varied with the localities, months and years.In 2011, the average temperatures recorded on all three localities were lower than the ones recorded in 2012 (Figure 1a).As for the monthly distribution of precipitation, it varied with all localities, with pronounced maximum of 115 mm in June.In 2011, the total annual amounts of precipitation recorded at all three localities were smaller than the ones recorded in 2012 (Figure 1b).

Results and Discussion
Based on the obtained results and the assessment of significance, it was determined that the agro-ecological conditions significantly affected the morphological and productive properties of the spelt wheat grain.The effect of the locality was significantly expressed in all the properties of spelt wheat, and meteorological conditions (year) significantly affected only spike length and grain mass per spike (Table 2).
The average values for plant height, number of spikelets, grains per spike and average yields did not differ, except for spike length and grain mass per spike.In 2012, spike length and grain mass were considerably higher at all the localities.A considerable higher yield was obtained in Nova Pazova, on chernozem (3.89 t ha -1 ).Comparing the grain yields from Valjevo (eutric cambisol) and Nova Varoš (grey forest soil) no differences in yields were determined (Table 3).The results achieved on naturally less fertile soils of the hilly and mountainous regions of Serbia shows alternative cereals can also be grown in less favourable conditions for field crops farming (Glamočlija et. al., 2010).When it comes to the localities, the highest values of the investigated morphological properties were obtained on the chernozem-type soil (Nova Pazova); slightly lower values were obtained on eutric cambisol (Valjevo), and the lowest on grey forest soil (Nova Varoš).This indicates that a soil type has a big influence on these properties.It is important to point out these properties did not show significant differences between grey forest soil and eutric cambisol.Compared to the data from a previous study (Andruszczak et. al., 2011), the results obtained on less fertile soils are also satisfactory and since spelt wheat is tolerant to adverse agro-ecological conditions and pathogens and it does not need intensive cropping practices used for other wheat species.

Conclusion
The effect the agro-ecological conditions had on spelt wheat was significant.The effect of the localities was expressed in all morphological properties of spelt wheat (plant height, number of spikelets, number of grains per spikelet), while the meteorological conditions (year) significantly affected spike length and grain mass per spike.The crops grown on chernozem therefore had higher values of the investigated properties, compared to the ones grown on eutric cambisol and grey forest soil.The grain yields obtained in the two-year research and compared to the ones in the best agricultural regions in Serbia show that hilly and mountainous regions have favourable agro-ecological conditions for spelt wheat.

Table 2 . Analysis of variance for morphological and productive properties
NS not significant, * 5% level, ** 1% level