2009 Winter Grain Varieties Available for Testing
Contact: O.J. Lougheed at Lopez Community Land Trust 468-3723 email: olougheed@gmail.com

The newer and fairly new varieties below were selected based on their stripe rust and powdery mildew resistance and the fact that none are registered with the USDA under the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Act. The Act prohibits growers from selling, trading, or giving away seed of PVP varieties if that seed is intended for planting. All the below are 'open-source' varieties with public and non-genetic engineered pedigrees. All the wheats, except Gene, were also selected for their height which are taller than average for modern varieties. These wheats may prove to have an important role in the future of grain production on the islands, but they were primarily sourced because hundreds of pounds were available. 

It is often said that the Islands can't produce a good bread wheat. In France they use wheats with one to two percent protein lower than in North America. That doesn't seem to stop them from producing some of the best breads in the world. It is hoped that these varieties can serve in the interim until better adapted varieties can be grown from seedbank accessions from other climatically related areas of the world, such as France, Northwestern Spain, and Northern Portugal.

Cost is $.75/# with a minimum $5 order. First come, first served. Call or email for availability and delivery details.

‘UI Darwin’ (PI 639953) is a hard white winter wheat developed by the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station and released in February 2006. UI Darwin has the pedigree IDO445 / Manning. It is a tall semidwarf wheat released for crop-fallow rotations of the Intermountain West, where few hard white wheat cultivars are available. UI Darwin has improved resistance to stripe rust with resistance to dwarf bunt. UI Darwin has improved bread baking quality compared with current hard white winter wheat cultivars and has excellent color in akaline noodle products.

‘Juniper’ (PI 639951) is a hard red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) developed by the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station and released in February 2006. Juniper has the pedigree IDO352 / UT165093. It is a full-stature wheat released for very low rainfall, crop-fallow rotations of the Intermountain West and was released for its improved resistance to stripe rust and dwarf bunt and bread-baking quality compared with current full-stature cultivars.

'Neeley' (CI 17860) is a hard red winter wheat, developed by the USDA-ARS and the Idaho Agric. Exp. Station and released in 1980. It has the pedigree Heglar /3/ Norin 10 / Staring //2* Cheyenne. Helgar has the pedigree  Cheyenne /  UT 175A-53. Norin 10 is the famous Japanese semi-dwarf developed in 1935 with the pedigree of  Daruma /  Fultz //  Turkey Red. Staring has the pedigree  Vilmorin 23 /  Juliana. Cheyenne is a selection from Crimean, believed to be the same as Turkey Red. Neeley is tall and does not appear to have semi-dwarf genes. It has glaborous tan glumes. It has intermediate resistance to powdery mildew, and is resistant to the stripe rusts west of the Cascades.

'Finley' (PI 586757) is a hard red winter wheat, with awned, brown glumes developed by Edwin Donaldson at the Lind, Washington Experiment Station and released in 1995. It has the pedigree  Weston /3/  Hatton sib //  Short Wheat /  Scout. It is tall, mid-maturity, with good winterhardiness and emergence. It is adapted to low rainfall areas. Satisfactory stripe rust resistance and good bread quality.

'Boundary' (PI 586757) is a hard red winter wheat with beardless heads, and moderate resistant to dwarf bunt and adult plant resistant to stripe rust, but seedling susceptibility to dominant races of stripe rust. Resistant to leaf rust and powdery mildew. It has the complex pedigree  A76327W-2-3T -  5P /  A7457W-13-1 -  1T-2P  =  Norin 10 /  Brevor //2*  Centana ,  ID034 /3/  Centana *2/  CI14106 /5/  II60-155 /  CI14106 //  McCall /4/  Kiowa /  UT222a-437-2 //  Delmar /3/  PI476212 /  MT6619. it was released by the Idaho Agric. Exp. Station and USDA-ARS in 1997.  Boundary is included because it is tall, does not appear to have semi-dwarf genes, and is beardless, for those you want to try a beardless wheat or find out if deer really do prefer beardless over bearded wheats. It has good bread quality.

'Lambert' (PI 583372) is an early maturing tall semi-dwarf soft white winter wheat developed jointly by Idaho, Washington and Oregon State Universities and released in 1994. It's pedigee is  Stephens /  Sprague. Stephens is an older (1977) NW semi-dwarf soft white winter wheat with the pedigree Nord Desprez /  CI 13438. Nord Desprez is a French wheat.  Sprague is a 1972 average height semidwarf release from WSU with the pedigree PI 181268 /  Gaines. PI 181268 is from Afghanistan and has good snow mold resistance. Gaines was the famous first semi-dwarf WSU wheat. Lambert has excellent resistance to stripe rust and powdery mildew. It makes good pastry flour.

'Gene' (PI 560129) is a short semi-dwarf beardless soft white winter wheat developed for the high rainfall Willamette Valley, released in 1992. It has the pedigree Cleo /  Pichon //  Zenzontli. Cleo is from the Netherlands. The other two are not in the Small Grains Database. It is resistant to stripe rust and powdery mildew. For the islands Gene would seem to be an excellent wheat for winter nitrogen sequestration following higher fertilized vegetables, where the taller grains listed might be prone to lodging. It makes good pastry flour.

'Charles' (PI 637845) is the first American Malting Barley Association (AMBA) accepted winter malting barley. It was released in 2005, and was cooperatively developed by the USDA-ARS, Aberdeen, ID, and the University of Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station (AES). It has the pedigree ‘Bearpaw’/81Ab1702. Bearpaw was developed in Montana, 81Ab1702 is a selection from a composite cross of several barleys made in the 1970s. It does not appear to have been bred using Sodium Azine - a chemical mutagen - as many recent barley have been. It is also a perfectly good feed barley. As with most barleys it has rough beards.