Plant yield and its quality depend on many processes occurring during the growing season and on growing conditions. Spike productivity is determined by many parameters, such as chlorophyll content in leaves, carotenoid content, etc., as they are indicators of physiological activity in leaves. During 1999–2002, the content of photosynthetic pigments at two plant growth stages and agronomically valuable characters were evaluated in 13 Lithuanian spring barley varieties in LIA. In the examined varieties, larger amounts of pigments were accumulated in ‘Dotnuvos ketureiliai’ and the new variety ‘Aura’ at both growth stages. The variability of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b content and carotenoid content was low and medium. The strongest correlation between pigment content and grain per spike and grain weight per spike was established at tillering stage. The coefficients of correlation were respectively 0.485–0.775 and 0.463–0.746.

Keywords: spring barley, varieties, chlorophyll, agronomic performance, main yield components