Effect of sowing date on the grain yield and quality of winter wheat

nle effect of sowing date on the grain yield and quality of winter wheat was investigated in 1998-2000 at Keszthely, on Ramann's brown forest soil. Twelve winter wheat varieties cultivated in Hungary and three sowing dates (late September, mid-October and early November) were tested. Winter rape was sown as forecrop and the plots were fertilized with 150 kg N/ha, 100 kg P2O5/ha and 100 kg K2O/ha. Mid-October proved to be the best sowing date from the point of view of grain yield, and the highest thousand-grain-masses were also meusured for this sowing date. Differences between the wet gluten contents could be detected as an effect of different sowing dates and varieties. However, the effect of sowing date on the farinograph values was slight and could only be detected for some varieties. No significant differences were detectable between the values of gluten spread. It can be condluded that sowing date affected the grain yield to a greater extent than the quality.