Testing sunflower varieties under the conditions of southern forest-steppe of Western Siberia

Modern varieties and hybrids of sunflower represent a wide range of genotypes with different household purposes. At the Siberian experimental station of VNIIMK six early-maturing high-yielding varieties of sun- flower of oilseed and confectionary types were created and included in the State register of breeding achieve- ments. The most important in production is variety Irtysh. Due to the state task environmental testing of sun- flower by different scientific institutions of the country is conducted at the station annually. The objective was to obtain experimental data for making decisions about the areas of cultivation of new genotypes. In 2014-2015 9 varieties of oilseed type, 3 of confectionary one and 1 high-oleic one were studied. Precocity is the main condi- tion in the cultivation of sunflower in Siberia. The shortest vegetation period (90 days) noted for Irtysh variety, and the longest one (125 days) for Kruiz variety. The tendency was observed that the longer the vegetative peri- od of the varieties, the higher the plants. The largest percentage of oil (54.8 %) was recorded for Vector variety. Varieties of oilseed type: Photon, Siberian-97 and Vector showed the seed yield of 2.85-3.02 t/ha and oil yield of 1314-1441 kg/ha. For the large-fruited varieties Siberian-12, Oreshek and Poseidon-625 are marked through great weight of 1000 achenes (80.2-86.5 g), low oil content (48.7-49.3 %) with the yield of 3.08-3.18 t/ha and oil yield of 1350-1408 kg/ha. Variety Siberian-12 is marked through its shorter vegetation period (13 days). High-oleic variety Kruiz was less adapted to Siberian conditions - the seed yield was 1.83 t/ha, the oil yield - 803 kg/ha. The results showed that the varieties of Siberian selection are more adapted for cultivation in South- ern forest-steppe of Western Siberia.