Prospects and problems of hybrid rye breeding in Belarus.

Polish F1 rye hybrids were tested in the field trials under Belarussian climatic conditions and compared to local varieties used as standards. Five-year investigations proofed that in spite of harder Belorussian winter conditions in comparison to these ones in Poland, winter-hardiness of hybrids was at the same level as of the population local standards. All hybrids were characterized by higher lodging resistance compared to standards, mainly due to lower plants height. One of the main problems which have to be solved is to find a reliable restorer. Use of population cultivars as pollinators so far was not resulted in a development of high-yielding hybrids. It is known that for P-CMS the genes of fertility restoration are scarce.