Breeding of cocksfoot cultivars with different maturity

One of the most important criteria in breeding process of perennial grasses is maturity. Cultivars with different maturity play a very important role in utilization of perennial grasses, by providing the ability to create a mixture of different aspects utilization and time. The first grass species in Serbia whose breeding program involved this criterion was cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.). In general cocksfoot is early to medium-early in maturity in comparison with other grasses and legumes, and that is mayor problem since in the optimum phase for cutting, cocksfoot is often earlier then other species in mixtures. As a result of this work, in the previous period, two cultivars of different maturity were released, Kruševačka 24 (K-24) and Kruševačka 25 (K-25). K-24 is medium and K-25 is late in maturity. New material is adapted to local agro-ecological conditions and productive in the same time. In breeding process of both cultivars initial material originated from autochthonous populations collected in eastern and central Serbia. Material from the wild flora is selected based on medium and late maturity which is already adapted and has good productivity. We applied the standard method of phenotypic recurrent selection with the creation of synthetic varieties by polycross.