Results of the tenth International Triticale Screening Nursery: ITSN 1978-79

Abstract

The 10th. International Triticale Screening Nursery (ITSN) was sent in September, 1978 to be grown by cooperators in their spring season of 1979. One-hundred seventy-nine nurseries went to cooperators in 76 countries. The 245 advanced lines and checks in the nursery had been chosen from among CIMMYT's best materials. All had been grown and observed by CIMMYT scientists under a high yield environment with pressure from major diseases on the CIANO Experiment Station in the Yaqui Valley in northwest Mexico. Here, too, seed for this international nursery was multiplied, cleaned and treated with insecticide and organic fungicide before shipment. Instructions on nursery management accompanied the mailing of seeds to each cooperator. Enough seed from each line was provided for a single row, unreplicated, of at least 2 m. in length. A field book was included with each nursery set, providing a standard format for recording data desired by CIMMYT. In receiving and processing the data returned by cooperators, CIMMYT assumes that the nursery was properly handled and that accurate results were reported. We cannot, however, attest to the rigor with which the trials were grown and results were obtained. Fifty-two of the cooperators receiving the 10th. ITSN returned field books with performance data at their locations in time to be included in this report. The choice of variables measured and the data returned rests with the individual cooperator. We have included in this summary all measures of all variables reported to us. The number of observations differs from variable to variable. The reader is urged to note the "NOBS" entry at the head of each variable column in the table that reports all data for all lines-that tells how many observations went into the data reported in that column, which may be an important indicator of the level of credibility that should be conferred. The reader should also bear in mind that the yield reported is from a single plot, essentially grown for observation rather than as a rigorous, replicated yield trial.