ART EVALUATION OF BARLEY ACCESSIONS FOR ADAPTATION TO THE CEREAL GROWING REGIONS OF WESTERN-AUSTRALIA, BASED ON TIME TO EAR EMERGENCE

Ear emergence was measured on a wide range of barley accessions for a number of sowing dates in contrasting environments of the Western Aust ralian cereal-growing regions to determine suitable types for (i) earl y sowing in the low (<400 mm per annum) regions and (ii) barley produc tion in the high rainfall (>450 mm per annum) regions. Accessions were classified into nine groups via cluster analysis using the time to ea r emergence at four sites and a range of sowing dates. Australian cult ivars were members of the three groups with the shortest mean time to ear emergence, and, on the basis of an optimum time to ear emergence a t each site, were shown to be well adapted to a wide range of sowing t imes and sites. Members of only one other group showed an acceptable l evel of adaptation across sites and sowing dates, members of the other five groups being suited to early or very early sowings in the high r ainfall region only.