Spring Baby, Spring Gem and Autumn Red--the newest peaches from ARS treefruit breeders in California--should give growers and shoppers a wider choice among delicious, high-quality fruit for late spring and late summer. In California, Spring Baby peaches ripen around the first week of May, and Spring Gem fruit is ready at the end of the month. Both have pleasantly firm flesh when ripe, an advantage over many other early-season peaches, which often are soft and difficult to ship without bruising. These two peaches are the product of a technique known as embryo rescue. Scientists carefully excise the tiny embryo from the immature fruit's developing pit, then nurture it on a gel- like bed of nutrients until it forms a healthy plant. In nature, embryos from early-season parents are usually too small to survive. The third new variety, Autumn Red, is ready to harvest by the third week of August. A large peach, it helps meet the increasing demand for superb, fully blushed types: yellow-skinned fruit tinted with an attractive dark-red overcolor. Cuttings of all three varieties have been available to growers for at least one growing season, meaning consumers might see them in markets within about five years. California is the nation's largest producer of peaches.
Horticultural Crops Research Laboratory, Fresno, CA
David W. Ramming, (209) 453-3061, dramm@qnis.net

A new white-fleshed peach, White Robin, offers Southeastern Coastal Plain growers an alternative to traditional yellow-fleshed peaches. White Robin fruit are medium-sized, averaging about 2 3/8 inches in diameter. They're semi-freestone and rarely display split pits. The high-quality melting flesh is exceptionally firm and white with a few streaks of red. Skin color at maturity is about 60 to 70 percent red with a pale yellow to white background color. Ripening 87 to 90 days from full bloom (typically mid- to late-May, similar to Junegold), White Robin has no other white-fleshed competitors. It requires about 500 hours of chilling below 45o F. to break the winter rest period. It is best adapted to areas where Junegold and Flordaking, both popular yellow-fleshed varieties, are well adapted. White Robin trees will be available from Tennessee nurseries in the fall of 1998. Virus-indexed budwood is available from the Inter-regional Project No. 2 (IR-2) in Prosser, WA. Genetic material from this variety is available for research, variety development and commercialization from the National Plant Germplasm System.
Fruit and Tree Nut Research Lab, Byron, GA
Thomas Beckman, (912) 956-6436, a03tbeckman@attmail.com

Three new lines of grain sorghum that withstand fall armyworms and sorghum midges are now available to plant breeders. They can use the new lines, dubbed GT-IR 6, 7 and 8, to develop new commercial hybrids with better resistance than the hybrids now popular with farmers. The new hybrids might also cut growers' need for insecticides like chlorpyrifos. ARS and University of Georgia scientists developed, tested and released the new sorghum lines. They don't know exactly why the new lines fare better against the insects. But in field tests, yields from the new lines averaged 10 percent higher than from other previously released types of resistant sorghum. Researchers rated the lines' insect resistance from 1 to 5 to denote least to greatest feeding damage. All three new lines earned a 1.5 rating against fall armyworms; other varieties were rated 1.9. Only GT- IR7 showed midge resistance, scoring 1.7. U.S. farmers grow sorghum primarily for livestock feed. The nutritious grain can also be ground into flour for baked goods and other foods. Unfortunately, insects also like sorghum. Unchecked, midge larvae devour the grain as it matures inside the plant's seed head, causing yield losses of more than 50 percent. Armyworms chew on the entire plant, and, left unchecked, can decimate the sorghum crop.
Insect Biology and Population Management Research Laboratory, Tifton, GA
Neil W. Widstrom, (912) 387-2320, ibpmrl@tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu

A new soybean germplasm line naturally resists several leaf-eating insects, including velvetbean caterpillar and soybean looper. The new line, Plant Introduction (PI) 417061, will give breeders more options for developing insect-resistant, high-protein soybean varieties for farmers. ARS researchers identified the line among the agency's soybean germplasm collection located at the University of Illinois, Urbana. Besides insect resistance, the new line contains 44 percent protein. Previously, the most widely used source of insect resistance, PI 229358, offered only 38 percent. Soybean breeders interested in developing insect- resistant, high-protein cultivars will now have a more desirable parent. Another benefit: The new soybean line also grows more upright. This is an advantage because plants of many other germplasm lines tend to fall over, making them difficult to harvest. Soybean breeders and researchers may obtain germplasm by contacting Randall Nelson.
ARS Soybean Research Unit, Stoneville, MS
Thomas Kilen,(601) 686-3125, kilent@ars.usda.gov
ARS Plant Physiology and Genetics Research Unit, Urbana, IL
Randall Nelson,(217) 244-4346, rlnelson@uiuc.edu

A new bermudagrass called TifEagle can be mowed down to a mere 3 millimeters. That should make TifEagle an ideal turfgrass for putting greens at golf courses because it can maintain lush, dense growth despite frequent mowing. In studies, TifEagle outperformed the commercial cultivar Tifdwarf on both experimental fields and several golf courses from California to North Carolina. Compared to Tifdwarf, the new turfgrass doesn't produce seed heads. These reproductive structures are undesirable because they make a putting green's surface uneven. ARS scientists and collaborators at the University of Georgia in Tifton developed the grass. They will license sprigs of TiftEagle to qualified turf growers under an exclusive agreement aimed at ensuring the cultivar's genetic purity.
Forage and Turf Unit, Tifton, GA
Wayne Hanna, (912) 386-3177, whanna@tifton.cpes.peachnet.edu

Commercial peanut cultivars can now be bred from a new, resistant germplasm line, called VG P11, that makes corn rootworms go hungry. In the Southeast, corn rootworms are among the most destructive pests of peanuts. Unchecked, they can cause yield losses up to 40 percent. Growers use insecticides like chlorpyrifos to kill the pests. The rootworms devour peanut pegs--special runners linking the peanut to the plant--depriving the peanut of nutrients. But VG P11 peanut plants apparently have a natural chemical defense that make them unappealing and even deadly to the pest. In lab studies, up to 89 percent of rootworms died after eating a diet of VG P11 peg tissue. In field trials, VG P11 produced higher yields than NC 6, an older, resistant cultivar grown in Virginia and North Carolina. VG P11 produces large pods with high-quality oil. And this peanut's thin pink skin comes off easily, a boon for processing. ARS and Virginia Experiment Station researchers developed, tested and released the new peanut.
Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit, Griffin, GA
Roy Pittman/Terry Cofelt, (770) 228-7254, rpittma@gaes.griffin.peachnet.edu

Pelican and Winona, the newest strawberries developed by ARS scientists, are now available at nurseries. Pelican--resistant to the major diseases anthracnose and red stele--grows well in the southern United States. It produces large, long, wedge-shaped fruit with glossy, red-orange berries. Ideal for fall planting for harvests in late winter to early spring, Pelican was developed with help from the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, North Carolina Agricultural Research Service and the ARS Small Fruits Research Station in Poplarville, MS. The other new variety, Winona, is adapted to the north-central U.S. It is the result of 15 years of collaborative research between ARS and the University of Minnesota. In field tests, this winter-hardy, red-stele-resistant strawberry grew well with minimal use of chemicals to control pests and diseases. It consistently produced large, bountiful fruit in Minnesota tests. Winona may replace Blomidon, a variety popular in Minnesota that succumbed to the plant disease called June Yellows. The University of Minnesota is seeking patent protection for Winona. (Patent 700,297)
Fruit Laboratory, Beltsville, MD
Gene J. Galletta, (301) 504-5652

Last Updated: February 18, 1998
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