One of ways to increase resistance of agricultural plants to abiotic stresses is the use of biofertilizers with anti-stress and growth-regulating properties. They improve absorption of nitrogen and phosphorus from organic fertilizers and soil. The purpose of the research was to study sowing qualities of seeds, morphological indicators of spring barley seedlings after presowing seed treatment with biofertilizers under conditions of sufficient humidification and osmotic stress. The laboratory experiment was carried out to study the effect of biofertilizers on seedlings of spring barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) cv. Gubernatorsky under conditions of sufficient and insufficient humidification. The barley seeds were treated once according to the following scheme: 1. control (distilled water) 10 L/t; 2. Gumi 20 M potash (0.4 L/t); 3. Borogum-M complex (0.2 L/t); 4. PEG 6000 (100 g/L); 5. Gumi 20 M (0.4 L/t) + PEG 6000 (100 g/L); 6. Borogum-M complex (0.2 L/t) + PEG 6000 (100 g/L). Treatment of spring barley seeds with biofertilizers increased the germination rate and germination capacity by 35 and 2 %, respectively. When modeling drought using PEG-6000, the sowing qualities of seeds decreased by 4 %. Under conditions of sufficient humidification, the studied biofertilizers had a complex positive effect on shoot and root weight of barley seedlings. In addition, the average length of roots, shoots and the total root length increased. The number of roots did not change significantly. Lack of moisture decreased the effectiveness of Borogum-M complex biofertilizer, while Gumi 20 M potassium biofertilizer had a positive effect on the parameters of barley seedlings under water stress conditions.

The use of instrumental methods of analysis in the assessment of indices that record changes in symmetry in the structure of grains to evaluate the quality of durum and soft wheat grain is currently considered a search tool that will allow us to obtain previously unavailable data by finding correlations associated with differences in the shape and ratio of starch granules in conditionally symmetrical and asymmetrical wheat fruits (kernels) formed in different field conditions and with different genotypes. Indicators that had previously shown their effectiveness were used to analyze the obviously complex unique material obtained as a result of growing under critically unique sowing conditions in 2022, which affected the stability of grain development and filling. For the evaluation, a typical agronomic comparative experiment was chosen, which was used to evaluate the soil tillage practices (fallow, non-moldboard loosening, and plowing) and sowing dates (early and after excessive rainfalls), which made it possible to analyze a wider range of factors influencing the studied indices. The soil tillage methods were found to affect the uniformity of kernel fullness and their symmetry, and the sowing dates did not lead to significant differences. This study presents detailed changes in the shape of the middle cut of a wheat kernel, associated with assessing the efficiency of kernel filling and the symmetrical distribution of storage substances under the influence of external and internal physical factors that affect the formation of the wheat kernel. The data obtained may be of interest to breeders and developers of predictive phenotyping programs for cereal grain and seeds of other crops, as well as plant physiologists.

The purpose of the current study was to characterize varietal differences according to the grain quality indicators of spring durum wheat during the years with different growing conditions in the arid zone of the Orenburg Cis-Urals. The trials were conducted at the experimental field with southern blackearth of the FSSI FRC BST RAS in 2023–2025. There have been studied the varieties developed in Orenburg, Samara, Saratov, and Italy. The quantity and quality of gluten in grain were estimated according to GOST 54478-2011, and according to GOST ISO 21415-2-2019 in flour. There has been found a significant variability in grain density depending on weather factors and a variety. According to three-year data, the varieties Bezenchukskaya 210 (731 g/l), Bezenchukskaya Zolotistaya (737 g/l), and Taganrog (739 g/l) have produced heavier kernels with more grain nature weight. There has been found that, with excessive precipitation and optimal air temperatures during the grain-filling period, grain nature weight decreases to the 4–5 class, reaching 636–723 g/l. Grain units of the 1st class (770 g/l) was obtained from the variety Bezenchukskaya Zolotistaya in 2025. There has been identified a general trend for grain hardness to decrease to the 3d class among the studied durum wheat varieties, caused by unfavorable weather conditions during the grain-filling period. There have been established the highest levels of crude gluten in flour of the varieties Orenburgskaya 10 (78.5%), Orenburgskaya 21 (70.4%) and Bezenchukskaya 210 (74.0%), as well as dry gluten in flour of the varieties Orenburgskaya 10 (24.1%) and Orenburgskaya 21 (27.9%) harvested in 2023. The variety Luch 25 has met the optimal gluten index requirements with 68.2–80.8% during all years of trials, the variety Taganrog with 87.8 and 92.9% in 2024 and 2025, the variety Melyana with 69.3% in 2024, and the variety Bezenchukskaya 205 with 81.4% in 2025. The obtained results may be useful for breeding and production practices.