Had an idea for an advertising campaign based on the purple colour of the ears that matches black-grass almost perfectly:

Have a black-grass problem?

Go naked to hide your shame!

Harper Adams naked barley has been carefully colour-matched to hide the dirty purple stain of black-grass on your field - if your neighbours can't see, you can pretend it isn't there! 

On a more serious note - after crunching the data, I saw that the GAI (Green Area Index) of the facultative barley in November was more than twice that of KWS Cassia, so much more competitive in autumn when most black-grass germinates.

Other reasons to grow my barley:

2-row vs. KWS Cassia

6-row with 108 grains per ear

Many farmers complain about the trend for modern varieties to be late maturing - be careful what you wish for: this will be ready in a month (late June).

Why vernalisation matters

Vernalisation, the need for a period of cold over winter before a plant can switch from vegetative to reproductive development, is sometimes seen as a bit of a nuisance. It imposes a 'last safe sowing date', meaning that seed sown in the spring will not produce grains.

However, if the vernalisation requirement is very low or non-existant, early autumn sown crops are vulnerable to precocious ear development and frost damage as seen in the ICARDA-bred barley below.  October sowing of this variety has been OK in the past, but September 20 was too early, especially with the very mild autumn we had in 2013.

Fortunately the variety bred at Harper Adams from a UK x ICARDA cross (on the left) looks better (ICARDA on the right).  Best ear I have found in this population so far is a 6-row with 18 triplets on each side = 18 x 3 x 2 = 108 grains per ear! Hope we get enough sun to fill all those grains.

   

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...