Spring Trials Up!

Spring naked barley plots for 2014 have emerged.

The experiment includes a whole pipeline for finding the ideal spring naked barley variety for the UK.  There are early generation populations (F2), ready for selection, right through to F5/6 lines that have been selected and are now being purified for potential release as a variety.

Good potential in the glasshouse is of no use if a variety doesn't perform in the field.

There are also plots of uzu naked barley (will explain in a later post) and white grained spelt wheat.

Facultative barley - what's that?

In my first attempt to create winter naked barley, I used a cross using a Syrian variety, bred by ICARDA.

Sown into cold mud in November 2012, the yield was good (7 t/ha), and even better, the quality was excellent with big bold grains.

So in 2013 we sowed on 20 September (an early sowing for winter barley to maximise yield potential) and the seedlings sprang out of the ground in a week.

Autumn 2013 was very mild, and the crop marched on too quickly.

By March it was apparent that the crop was too far forward, and there was damage by waterlogging.

The reason why being forward (developing too fast) is a problem is that the ear develops inside the plant too early and begins to move upwards and so is vulnerable to frost damage in late winter.  Thankfully March 2014 was mild (unlike March 2013) so for the most part we got away with it.  A few plants showed frost damaged ears (and a lot in the comparison plots of the Syrian parent), and these were rogued out to improve the population.  

So what does this mean? It appears that the first attempt at 'winter' naked barley I have is a 'facultative' type - a winter-hardy spring barley, that unlike a true winter barley, does not need a long cold period in winter (vernalisation) to initiate flowering next spring, but unlike spring barley, can survive winter.  The lack of vernalisation requirement means that this variety should not be sown too early in autumn - probably from 10 October onwards, but will do some experiments this autumn. 

This could be very useful, with a flexible sowing window from October until April - in the USA facultative barley is described as 'plant when you can'.

For a true winter barley, for sowing in late September-mid October, I'll concentrate on the Glacier crosses.

So now I have three types to suit all situations - spring, facultative and winter.

GM Camelina

Pleased to see the field trial of GM Camelina has got the go-ahead at Rothamsted.

I grew the non-GM varieties at Bangor University and found Camelina to be a good prospect as a low input crop.  Yields were low (around 2-3 t/ha), but costs very little to grow and has very short growing season (April/May - August).  Could be an ideal crop in a rotation to deal with black-grass and provide a timely sowing for a following wheat.

Usual complaints from the antis - sadly a lot of misinformed comments - although there are legitimate concerns with some other GM crops, the Rothamsted crop is not developed by Monsanto; is not 'Roundup-Ready'; will not cause Indian farmers to commit suicide; will not kill butterflies; and will not create 'super-weeds' etc.

Of course, it may not perform in the field as it has in the glasshouse - which is why the trial must be done.  

And as someone using (conventional) plant breeding to improve the health of our food I welcome this and Professor Cathie Martin's GM purple tomatoes (developed at the John Innes Centre, but having to be grown in Canada). All adds to the debate around food and health.

  

Spring naked barley

Spring barley needs fewer inputs, so is cheaper to grow.

In the UK, its ability to compete with black-grass is especially important, as this weed is expensive and difficult to control (or attempt to control) in winter wheat.  80% of black-grass seeds germinate in the autumn so can be destroyed before spring sowing by cultivation or total herbicide, creating a stale seedbed.  Spring germinating black-grass plants are less competitive and get beaten up by spring barley which covers the ground quickly, blocking out the light and grabbing water and nutrients.

I have a couple of dozen spring crosses, and these were sown in the field last week - F2s of new crosses and later generations of selected lines from older crosses.

This one looks promising...

Winter naked barley

Winter barley is sown in autumn, and has longer to develop a good root system and tiller (produce side shoots) than spring barley.  Yield potential is higher and the grains fill earlier in the year when conditions are likely to be cooler, so tend to be larger and of better quality.

Unfortunately there are no winter naked barley varieties in the UK.

The process:

I removed the anthers from 'Lawina' spring naked barley before they matured and shed their pollen. This prevents self-fertilization.  I then dusted pollen from 'Glacier' covered winter barley.

The F1 seeds set are shown below:

The F1 hybrid plants are then grown in the glasshouse to multiply seed.

The F2 plants will be grown in he field and I'll start selecting.

An F1 plant looking very promising...

Barley is an excellent food grain, being rich in beta-glucan that can lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes.

Unfortunately all barley currently grown in the UK has grain covered by an inedible hull or husk.

Naked barley grain threshes free from the hull so is perfect for food uses.

Again, unfortunately there are no naked barley varieties bred for UK conditions - that's where my efforts in plant breeding come in.

Naked barley grains bred at Harper Adams from a cross between Lawina (a low yielding, disease-susceptible naked barley, but with excellent grain quality) and Westminster (a high yielding, disease-resistant UK covered barley).

This is a blog to record my efforts in breeding naked barley varieties that can grow successfully in the UK.