Australia Release New Red Lentil Varieties
SYDNEY - Sep 17/10 - SNS -- Pulse Breeding Australia (PBA) unveiled two new high yielding red lentil varieties this week. Called PBA Blitz and PBA Jumbo, they provide growers with more options to manage and optimize production and meet market requirements.
"Lucrative prices for lentils in 2009 have encouraged growers in Victoria and SA (South Australia) to expand their acreage of lentils by 37% this year," PBA said in a press statement.
Lentil breeder and leader of the PBA Lentil Breeding Program, Dr Michael Materne (DPI Victoria), says release of the two new varieties will support this expansion even further.
PBA agronomist Larn McMurray (SA Research and Development Institute) says the attributes of the new varieties, such as improved disease resistance and yield reliability, are expected to lead to an expansion in the lentil sowing area.
Blitz is Medium Red
McMurray says PBA Blitz is a medium sized red lentil which can be grown in all current lentil areas. "However, it is particularly suited to shorter season areas where its combination of early to mid flowering, early maturity, high yield, and good disease resistance will improve lentil reliability and economics of production," he said.
"This creates opportunities for production by growers in some of the shorter season environments previously unsuitable for lentil production. PBA Blitz is the earliest maturing lentil variety and the best option where crop topping and/or delayed sowing are practised. It has improved early vigour over all other red lentil varieties and is an erect plant type.
"In trials, it has demonstrated it is well suited to no-till and inter-row sowing into standing residue. The seed of PBA Blitz is larger and slightly rounder than Nugget and also has improved milling characteristics over this variety."
Large Seeded Replacement for Aldinga
PBA Jumbo is the highest yielding large seeded red lentil and is a direct replacement for the previous large seeded variety, Aldinga. It is suited to most current lentil growing areas where it has consistently yielded around 15% higher than Aldinga.
"PBA Jumbo is resistant to foliar and seed infection from ascochyta blight and in this regard is a vast improvement over Aldinga," McMurray said. "Botrytis grey mould (BGM) will need to be managed on this variety in high rainfall areas."
Trials have shown that PBA Jumbo is well suited to no-till, inter-row sowing into standing residue. It has a seed size and shape similar to Aldinga (20% larger than Nugget ) with a grey seed coat.
PBSeeds Commercial Manager Janine Sounness said the size and shape of PBA Blitz was ideal for international markets as its splitting characteristics were sought by millers. "This variety will boost Australias competitiveness in these quality markets," Ms Sounness said.
"PBA Jumbo has also been bred to target high quality markets. This lentil is large in size with excellent milling quality and is the preferred lentil type in premium lentil markets, such as Sri Lanka. Potential buyers from this country have already endorsed this variety during market consultations which occur prior to release," she said.
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