QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF SPELT WHEAT CULTIVARS GROWN IN SOUTHERN SLOVAKIA

Summary During 1996-1999 a field experiment with different varieties of Triticum spelta (L.) was carried out of brown loamy arable soil within an ecological system in Nitra region. The yield formation characters and the crop yield itself were investigated by three spelt wheat cultivars (Baulander Spelz, Schwabenkorn, Roquin) and compared with common wheat. The achieved results revealed that the agroecological conditions of Nitra region are most suitable for the Baulander Spelz cultivar of German origin, with the highest crop yield of 6.06 t.ha -1 , i. e. 92.2% of common wheat yield. This cultivar reached the lowest percentage of glumes (26.13%), the highest TGW (49.29 g), the longest spike (112.45 mm), the highest number of fertile spikelets (14.32) and the highest weight of grains per spike (1.33 g). All of the spelt wheat cultivars had lower productive density of stand (501.3 to 518.7 productive stems per square meter) than common wheat (605.3 productive stems per square meter). Spelt cultivars mainly differed from common wheat cultivar for higher contents of P, S, some of them for Ca, Na. Spelt cultivars were higher in sugars, fat and lower in starch content.