The breeding of sunflower lines and hybrids for early ripening

The breeding aimed to reduce the vegetation period is one of the classical directions of work with all agri-cultural crops. Its primary objectives are as follows: to introduce the crop in northern cultivation regions, to guaran-tee the production in traditional regions by excluding possible periods of frost, drought, heavy rain, pathogens and pests massive spreading. The material of the studies were sunflower lines and hybrids of VNIIMK breeding, the lines of Agricultural Research Institute of South-East, and joint hybrids of these originators. The opportunity to develop early high-productive sunflower hybrids was demonstrated. The breeding program for such hybrids and lines devel-opment is proposed for the cooperation with the aim to introduce sunflower in new regions.