Spinach Breeding
The spinach breeding program at the University of Arkansas began in the early 1970's and until the past year his spinach program was the only public sector breeding program in the United States and it is well known and respected worldwide. The major breeding contributions have been in the areas of disease resistant varieties, primarily white rust. 'Fallgreen', a semi-savoy released in 1987, was the primary variety in the Texas Wintergarden comprising 95% of the acreage for 10 years. It is still considered to be the standard for white rust resistance. The flat leaf variety 'F380', released in 1998 (PVP 9500066), has the same level of white rust resistance as the semi-savoy 'Fallgreen' but grows much faster and is easier to clean, thus making it more suitable for the processing market. 'F380' is the primary fall variety in the Arkansas-Oklahoma (Ozark) production area. 'Wintergreen' released in 2003, is a high quality, slow growing, semi-savoy with a good level of white rust resistance. It is widely known that Arkansas spinach genetics are present in all commercial spinach hybrids that exhibit white rust resistance.
Arkansas researchers have also been the leaders in race identification of the world's most important spinach disease, downy mildew (Peronospora farinosa f.sp. spinaciae). The Arkansas research group has identified 4 of the seven recognized races (4,5,6, and 7). Of these, the most recent 3 races occurred almost simultaneously with races 5 and 6 occurring only in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains and with races 5 and 7 occurring in Europe. Race 6 occurs only in the United States and race 7 only in Europe.
Arkansas conceived and organized the Biannual Spinach Educational meeting in 1994 and this has evolved into the National Spinach Conference. Research reports are presented by workers from all over the United States and printed abstracts are distributed at the meeting. This meeting is normally attended by people from 12-15 states and 2-3 foreign countries.
Southernpeas (cowpea) are an important processing and fresh market crop in the southeastern United States and are highly prized by home gardeners. The Arkansas breeding program is over 50 years old and during this time 16 varieties have been released. At present the program emphasis concentrated pod set, fresh plant type with pods produced on top of the plant with high yield potential and good processing quality.
'Early Scarlet', released in 1995, has become the only eyed variety that is grown by the largest canner of southernpeas in the United States. It has been adopted by this processor because of its superior plant type, high yield, and good processing characteristics. The Arkansas southernpea breeding program is the largest in the United States.
The program hosts an annual southernpeas field day at the University of Arkansas Vegetable Substation at Kibler, Arkansas. The field day consists of research presentations and a tour of the advanced breeding nurseries containing about 2000 advanced breeding lines as well as a tour of other field research plots. Normally there are people from 5-6 states at this field day.
Cooperative research is presently underway screening for resistance to several highly effective herbicides with promising results. It appears that usable levels of resistance to these herbicides exist in some Arkansas breeding lines. As this work comes to completion, it may develop herbicide resistant lines that are not transgenic, but are products of conventional breeding procedures.
Dr. Teddy Morelock