LEONIDA

Soft winter wheat of the Leonida variety is a mid-early and medium-height intensive type variety, created on the farm of Ivashov A.D. in the Oryol region under the guidance of Professor Zhivotkov L.A. The variety's lineage includes the Kievskaya 8 and Mironovskaya 68 lines. The plant is characterized by an intermediate bush type, a strong hollow stem of medium thickness, and intensely green leaves with very weak anthocyanin coloration of the ears. The ear is pyramidal, of medium density, white in color, 7 to 9 cm long, with short white barbed awns. The grain is large, dark red in color, the mass of 1000 grains varies from 42 to 52 g, and the grain natural density is 770–790 g/l. The Leonida variety is distinguished by high yield and resistance to adverse conditions. In State trials, yield reached an average of 59.5 c/ha with maximum indicators up to 111.8 c/ha in the Kursk region. The variety demonstrates high plasticity, yield stability, frost and winter hardiness, as well as resistance to lodging and grain shattering during prolonged storage. Drought resistance is at the level of the Odessa 267 variety. Additionally, the variety shows moderate resistance to diseases such as brown rust, septoria, and powdery mildew, with damage at the level of 10–15%. Leonida effectively utilizes mineral fertilizers, especially requiring early spring feeding and fertilizer application on poor soils. The bread-making qualities of the variety are good: raw protein content is 13.7–15.7%, raw gluten is 24–30%, and the gluten deformation index (GDI) varies from 73 to 79. The dough falling number reaches 320–380 seconds, and the volumetric bread yield is rated at 5 points with a volume of 550–570 cm3. The flour's water absorption capacity is 63–68%. Recommended for cultivation in the Central Black Earth region, in particular in the Kursk and Oryol regions, with an optimal seeding rate of 5.0–5.5 million viable seeds per hectare on dark-gray forest soils and chernozems.