Agro-biological diversity of Slovene ecotypes and standard varieties of cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.): comparison and agronomic value

Characterisation and evaluation of accessions, e.g. ecotypes of cultivated plants, are the primary task of each agricultural gene bank. In a field experiment, agro-biological diversity and agronomic value of 15 Slovene ecotypes (group 1) and 7 standard varieties (group 2) of cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata L.) were investigated during the 2015-2019 period. A particular emphasis was given to the comparison of the two groups. The spaced plant experiment with 20 single plants of each treatment entity per replicate was arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. Significant differences among investigated entities were confirmed for all agro-biological traits (p < 0.001). The same holds when the groups were compared (p < 0.001) except for the infection with leaf fungal diseases (p = 0.113).Considering these differences varieties possessed higher agronomic value than ecotypes. In general, the intra-population diversity of Slovene ecotypes was higher than that of standard varieties and represented a higher portion of the ecotype complete variance. Principal component analysis (PCA) of all investigated traits showed a distinctive difference between ecotypes and varieties and higher similarity within the variety group than within the ecotype group. PCA also showed that the ecotypes can be separated into two subgroups, which however cannot be explained by the characteristics of ecotype origin.