In addition to the common wheat varieties generally grown by conventional agriculture, there is an increasing need for new resources to produce health-promoting products by modern food industry. Due to their special ingredients, stocks of ancient wheat species might be valuable raw materials for these purposes. Agronomical practices and the productivity of these ancient forms with today's technology is unknown. The aim of this 4-year study was to select lines from the T. spelta, T. sphaerococcum, T. vavilovii, T. dicoccon, T. turgidum, T. polonicum, T. turanicum, T. persicum and T. monococcum lines that may be produced economically by farmers using today's usual agronomical processes and their high quality grains are adequate for the above goals. Based on the results of multi-site experiments, two promising lines of T. spelta, and one of T. persicum were selected for further studies and breeding efforts. Based on three years of multi-site experiments, a T. spelta (3-year average: AUS4: B. R. 4.41 and G 4524 4.42 t ha-1) and a T. persicum (G 459 4-year average 4.13 t ha-1) gene bank lines stood out with their productivity. The yield of most of the tetraploid and diploid gene bank strains was between 1 and 3 tons per hectare. From the G 4524 (T. spelta) strain, several red-eared, with low FODMAP (allergenic carbohydrate groups) content strains suitable for large-scale production were selected, one of which was reported in autumn 2020 under GKS code 458.20 for variety release into the official state experiments.

Keywords: wheat species, Triticum spelta, T. turgidum, T. dicoccon, T. monococcum, yield