Morpho-biological features of collection varieties of broad bean in the conditions of the south of the Central Black Earth region

Broad beans green fruit, seeds and young leaves are used in the food, both fresh and cooked, dry, frozen, canned, they are a valuable food crop and are great agronomic value. The morpho-biological features of collection varieties of broad beans in the conditions of the South of the Central Black Earth Region (Russia): the duration of the growing season; level seed production and its components; biochemical composition of seeds; structure of microbial interactions in the rhizosphere and relation to pathogens were studied. In field experiments 2014-2016, the first reproduction seeds of 24 varieties were cultivated according to the requirements of the zonal farming. It was revealed early-maturing, high-yielding varieties with large seeds, high protein. The parameters of a promising variety of broad beans were determined and indirect signs of high-protein and productivity when working with initial material were revealed. On average, the vegetation period of broad bean lasted 89 days. At the very early maturing varieties the vegetation period averaged 77, at the latest - 96 days. The duration of the periods before the seedling and after flowering, was highly correlated with the duration of the vegetation period (r=+0.61 and r=+0.87 respectively). The seed weight per plant was significantly correlated with the number of bean per plant (r=+0.8) and the number of pods on the lateral stem (r=+0.68). The averaged correlation was observed for the seed weight per plant and the number of producing lateral stem (r=+0.42), the number of productive nodes of the main stem (r=+0.54), the number of inflorescences per plant (r=+0.36), number of inflorescences of lateral stem (r=+0.39). The number of seeds per pod was negatively correlated with the number of fruits per plant (r=-0.46). The pod size was negatively correlated with the number of bean per plant (r=-0.54). Protein content of the broad bean seeds is 18-33%. An indirect indicator of the high protein content of the seeds can be served as "the number of nodes on the main stem" with the inverse relationship (r=-0.4) and "the weight of 1000 seeds" with a positive relationship (r=+0.7). The most common and harmful broad beans diseases were Fusarium root rot, Alternaria, Ascochyta, Stemphylium and chocolate leaf spot.