A reappraisal of the Pelshenke test as a screening technique in the breeding of bread-making wheats for the United Kingdom

Abstract

SUMMARY Growing conditions and testing methods were varied to investigate the use of the Pelshenke test in breeding wheat varieties for good bread-making quality in the United Kingdom. Varieties of winter wheat representing a range of bread-making quality were consistently differentiated. Fresh compressed yeast gave greater varietal differences than did dried yeast but kneading time and grain moisture content were not critical. The values obtained were relatively insensitive to the early stages of germination, to the addition of α-amylase and to variation in grain protein content resulting from N fertilization and irrigation. Thus it appears that the Pelshenke test mainly reflects gluten quality, rather than the whole complex of characters which are integrated by baking tests, and the ranking of the varieties is sufficiently independent of environmental conditions to be of considerable value for selection of early generation breeding material.