New Plastic Wheat Variety Stavropolskaya 25

The objective of the study is to develop a new competitive wheat variety adaptable to cultivation in the North Caucasus, Lower Volga, and Central Black Earth regions. Using modern methods of classical, haploid, marker-assisted, and ecological selection, the North Caucasus Federal Scientific Agrarian Center developed a new adaptive variety of universal soft winter wheat, Stavropolskaya 25. Complex stepwise hybridization was used in the crosses, with the final cross involving the Odyssey x Ethnos varieties. The new variety is adaptable to growing conditions in the North Caucasus, Lower Volga, and Central Black Earth regions and should be used in crops following all fertilized fallow predecessors, semi-fallow, fallow, and intensive and medium-intensive technologies. Stavropolskaya 25 belongs to the lutescens variety and has high yield potential. On average, over four years (2022–2025), with a grain yield of 9.79 t/ha, Stavropolskaya 25 exceeded the standard Grom variety by 1.98 t/ha. This mid-early variety has high lodging resistance (5 points). Its frost resistance amounted to 93.6 % of live plants after freezing in KNT chambers, compared to 70.8 % for the standard variety, which is included in the group of frost-resistant varieties in Russia. Stavropolskaya 25 possesses the highest levels of drought and heat resistance. In terms of physicochemical, technological, and flour-milling-baking indicators, Stavropolskaya 25 complies with the GOST standards for strong wheat varieties. It does not shatter or sprout on the vine, is suitable for high-quality, loss-free mechanized harvesting, and has a high grain yield of 5 points. As a variety with high field resistance to a range of pathogens, Stavropolskaya 25 can be used in production to produce environmentally friendly products.