Object: Determination of morpho-biological, adaptive and genetic features and breeding value of spring barley cultivars and their parents in the dialect crossing design and of the effectiveness of creation of valuable starting material for breeding. Objective: To assess the breeding value of spring barley cultivars, their parents and hybrids in the diallel crossing design, to identify sources of valuable features and to create starting material for the crop breeding. Methods: General-scientific, specific, mathematical-statistical. Novelty: The breeding value of spring barley cultivars, their parents and hybrids derived from them by diallel crossing and the efficiency of creation of new starting material for the crop breeding on their basis were estimated. Significant differences in the quantitative traits of the spring barley cultivars were found via comparison (in one experiment). Expression of individual breeding-valuable features and their sets was determined in the cultivars, depending on combination of the trait levels in their parents. Stable expression of traits was detected by low variability. The peculiarities of the cultivars were defined by economic characteristics. The peculiarities of relationships between quantitative traits of the cultivars were determined by unequal pair correlations. The peculiarities of pair correlation coefficients between the yield and 11 plant characteristics were described. Path analysis of the yield demonstrated that lodging resistance and the grain weight/straw weight ratio, which strongly pair-correlated with the yield due to direct and indirect effects, were of significant value for breeding. Unequal levels of environmental stability of the cultivars were determined by low plasticity parameters (regression coefficient, bi) and variances of its stability (S2i) of quantitative characteristics. Inheritance (by dominance degree) of the performance and its structural elements was described for 55 F1 hybrids from diallel crossings. The unequal manifestation of the GCA for the traits of their parents was shown for the cultivars. The unequal ratios between variances of GCA and SCA were observed in F1 for 11 quantitative traits of barley plants. Results: The breeding value of 11 cultivars estimated by morpho-biological and genetic-breeding features is of great importance for their use in combining breeding. Six breeding-valuable cultivars were distinguished by quantitative traits: Vitrazh, Modern, Hranal, Dzherelo, Badioryi, Etyket. Of the 113 lines created, 21 valuable ones were identified; they were involved at various stages of the breeding process in the Laboratory of Barley Breeding and Genetics of thePlant Production Institute named after VYa Yuriev of NAAS, in the Laboratory of Barley Breeding of Myronivka Institute of Wheat named after VM Remeslo of NAAS, in the Laboratory of Barley Breeding of Donetsk State Agricultural Experimental Station of NAAS in 2017. Degree of Implementation: In 2016, line of 12-215 selected from the investigated combination Dzherelo/Zvershennia with the applicant’s participation and named Stymul was submitted to the state variety trial, which started in 2017. Scope of Implementation: scientific institutions of NAAS, NAS and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, educational establishments, agrarian enterprises of Ukraine.
