The evaluation of horizontal resistance of winter wheats by the 'center pivot' method

Twenty bread wheat varieties were sown in forty meter long plots and infected with a mixture of three races of stem rust (14, 34, 311) in the Center-pivot design. The epidemic's development and its effect on yield (factors) were studied in an experiment.With the Center-pivot method we modelled the natural processes without chemicals. The epidemic's development and the processes connected with it can be studied quantitatively as well as by subjective evaluation.Some of the studied genotypes were quickly infected and others slowly. The date of infection proved to be especially important to the amount of yield decrease.However, a quick spread of the epidemic does not inevitably lead to a decrease of yield and 1000-grain-weight for every genotype.Vertical resistance has qualitative features. On the other hand, there is only a quantitative difference between field resistant and tolerant genotypes, and between horizontally resistant and susceptible ones. The tolerant genotypes cannot limit the spread of the epidemic, but they can limit the degree of damage, and so their yields and 1000-grain-weights are essentially uninfluenced. The field resistant genotypes slow down the epidemic's development, and therefore their yields and 1000-grain-weights decrease less. This fact makes possible their separation in two steps, first on the basis of epidemic development, and then by measuring the decrease of yield and 1000-grainweight.Tolerance and field resistance are supposed to be inherited olygenically. Consequently, breeding for horizontal resistance should work with basically different methods than those previously used for race-specific resistance.