No abstract

Increasing the response to selection in plant breeding programs by reducing the time required to complete a generation of inbreeding can significantly shorten the time to release a cultivar. Recently, ‘speed breeding’ strategies that manage temperature, photoperiod, and micronutrients showed a significant reduction in time to inbreeding in several crops. The goal of this study was to determine if the speed breeding system can be effectively applied to oat (Avena sativa L.) for a single‐seed descent breeding scheme and to determine if seeds can be harvested early with acceptable germination for breeding purposes. Two systems were evaluated using eight genetically diverse oat genotypes under speed breeding (22‐h photoperiod) and normal growing conditions (16 h) in a randomized complete block design with a factorial arrangement of treatments and three replications. Our results indicated a significant reduction in time for all the phenological stages evaluated when speed breeding was used, compared with normal growing conditions. In particular, the reduction in time to flowering date was 11 d (62 vs. 51 d on average). Germination evaluations indicated that by 21 d after flowering, it was possible to obtain acceptable germination levels for all genotypes evaluated. This should be of great importance in breeding systems where single‐seed descent can be used.

No abstract

There is an increased demand for food-grade grains grown sustainably. Hard red winter wheat has comparative advantages for organic farm rotations due to fall soil cover, weed competition, and grain yields. However, limitations of currently available cultivars such as poor disease resistance, winter hardiness, and baking quality, challenges its adoption and use. Our goal was to develop a participatory hard red winter wheat breeding program for the US Upper Midwest involving farmers, millers, and bakers. Specifically, our goals include (1) an evaluation of genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) and genotypic stability for both agronomic and quality traits, and (2) the development of on-farm trials as well as baking and sensory evaluations of genotypes to include farmers, millers, and bakers’ perspectives in the breeding process. Selection in early generations for diseases and protein content was followed by multi-environment evaluations for agronomic, disease, and quality traits in three locations during five years, on-farm evaluations, baking trials, and sensory evaluations. GEI was substantial for most traits, but no repeatable environmental conditions were significant contributors to GEI making selection for stability a critical trait. Breeding lines had similar performance in on-station and on-farm trials compared to commercial checks, but some breeding lines were more stable than the checks for agronomic, quality traits, and baking performance. These results suggest that stable lines can be developed using a participatory breeding approach under organic management. Crop improvement explicitly targeting sustainable agriculture practices for selection with farm to table participatory perspectives are critical to achieve long-term sustainable crop production. Key message We describe a hard red winter wheat breeding program focused on developing genotypes adapted to organic systems in the US Upper Midwest for high-end artisan baking quality using participatory approaches.