AGRONOMIC AND QUALITY CHARACTERIZATION OF OATS GENOTYPES SELECTED FOR WINTER TOLERANCE

Although oats have recently become more and more important as human food due to its high nutritive value, oat production has not increased, even decreased in Turkey because oats are much less winter hardy than other fall-sown cereals. Therefore, improving winter tolerant oats genotypes is necessary to increase oats production. This study was undertaken to evaluate the agronomic and quality traits of twenty-three oat lines selected from a Quaker Nursery for cold tolerance in comparison to a local check. The material was grown on-farm in Kızılkaya in 2003 and in Ürkütlü in 2004 in the Burdur Province of the West Mediterranean Region of Turkey using a Randomized Complete Blocks Design with three replicates. Grain yield, biomass, harvest index, 1000-grain weight, days to heading, plant height, test weight and protein contents were studied. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences among genotypes for most of the traits studied. The genotype, 95Ab1222, was superior for protein content compared to the remaining entries; 95Ab1-4 was superior for grain yield and biomass and finally 95Ab1216 had the highest test weight. Considering the winter tolerant background of the genetic material studied, these superior lines should be suitable for fall sowing, and thus contribute to increase oat production and quality directly or indirectly.