Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important staple food crop with agronomic significance and a leading crop in terms of area planted and production worldwide. Therefore, its sustainable production is crucial, requiring greater attention due to its increasing global consumption. The following study aimed to assess the genetic potential of the soft wheat F₁-F₂ populations for economic traits obtained through crossing valuable landraces grown in diverse ecological zones of Uzbekistan. Crossing eight wheat genotypes obtained four hybrids that underwent further evaluation along with their parental forms in 2021–2024 at the Chirchik State Pedagogical University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Among the parental genotypes, the recorded trait of average maximum spike length resulted in the wheat cultivar Khivit (11.8 ± 0.25 cm), followed by Kzyl-bugday (11.4 ± 0.48 cm) and Tyuya-tish (11.4 ± 0.27 cm). In the investigated F₁ hybrids, the spike length varied from 10.7 to 12.6 cm. However, nonsignificant differences were notable between the ancient local cultivars Tyuya-tish and Khivit for the average number of spikelets per spike. The highest number of spikelets per spike appeared in the cultivar Ak-bashak (18.7 ± 0.44). In F₂ populations, negative transgression was evident, expressed as a shift by 2–3 classes to the left.

Keywords: Wheat (T. aestivum L.) landraces, F₁ and F₂ hybrids, inheritance, genetic variability, coefficient of variation, spike length, spikelets, grains per spike, grain yield

Key findings: Genetic analysis revealed grains per spike were dependent on the genetic potential of the wheat (T. aestivum L.) cultivars. The grains per spike occurred to be transmitted by the negative incomplete dominance. In F₂ populations, for grain weight per spike, the coefficient of variation was twice as high compared with the parental genotypes, indicating medium and high genetic variability.