Revised September, 2011 WHEAT CULTIVARS FOR CALIFORNIA Lee Jackson, Extension Small Grain Specialist (Retired) Department of Plant Sciences University of California, Davis The following are descriptions of wheat cultivars evaluated in California from 1980 to 2011. The descriptions are based on published cultivar releases and data from the UC Regional Cereal Evaluation Tests conducted each year throughout California. Yield performance data for most of the cultivars can be found in University of California, Davis, Agronomy Progress Reports (No.'s 114, 118, 128, 144, 155, 168, 180, 201, 209, 217, 223, 229, 233, 236, 244, 249, 254, 259, 262, 265, 272, 276, 279, 286, 288, 290, 293, 295, 296, 301, 303, and 304 for 1980-2011, respectively). Reports #262 through #304 also can be seen at http://smallgrains.ucdavis.edu. CURRENT CULTIVARS HARD RED SPRING WHEAT BULLSEYE Bullseye is a hard red spring wheat. It was released by AgriPro of Syngenta Cereals in 2009. It was selected from the cross Klein Dragon/3/Buck Charrua//Buck Patacon/Curaco. Its experimental designation was B02-0081. It is a high yielding white chaffed line with very good test weight and medium maturity (heads ½ day later than Hank). It has short semidwarf height and very good straw strength. It is best adapted to higher rainfall dryland production in eastern Washington, west-central Idaho and northeastern Oregon and irrigated production in the basin of Washington and southern Idaho. Juvenile growth habit is erect. Plant color at boot stage is dark green. Auricle anthocyanin is very pronounced deep purple and auricle hairs are present. Flag leaf at boot stage is recurved and twisted. Waxy bloom is present on the head, stem and flag leaf sheath. Head shape is tapering and heads are awned. Glumes are glabrous, long in length and wide in width, with oblique shoulders and acuminate beaks. Seed shape is ovate. Brush hairs are short in length and occupy a medium area of the seed. Seed cheeks are angular. Seed crease depth is middeep and width is midwide. Embryos are large in size. At the time of release it was moderately resistant to predominant races of stripe rust, had good field tolerance to Fusarium head scab and was resistant to a Kansas population of Hessian fly (but susceptible to Hessian fly biotype L.). It subsequently became susceptible to stripe rust. It was evaluated in the Oregon Spring Wheat Elite Yield Trial conducted in cooperation with the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 2008-present for spring planting in the intermountain region of northern California. (Washington Crop Improvement Association website: http://washingtoncrop.com/seed/varieties.asp) CABERNET Cabernet is a hard red spring wheat. It was released by Syngenta Cereals in 2007. Its experimental designation was 95WV10616. It is adapted to irrigated and higher rainfall areas of the Pacific Northwest. It has erect juvenile plant growth. The plant color at boot is green and the flag leaf is recurved, twisted and waxy. Its maturity (medium) and plant height are very similar to Express. It has god straw strength. It has yellow anthers, green heads at flowering and tan chaffed heads at maturity. Seed is ovate, hard, red, with rounded cheeks and medium uncollared brush. It is moderately resistant to powdery mildew and moderately susceptible to stripe rust. It was evaluated in the Oregon Spring Wheat Elite Yield Trial conducted in cooperation with the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 2007-present for spring planting in the intermountain region of northern California. (Washington Crop Improvement Association website: http://washingtoncrop.com/seed/varieties.asp) CAL ROJO Cal Rojo is hard red spring wheat. It was released by Resource Seeds, Inc. in 2006. It was selected from the cross CMT1171-4//Pfau /Veery #5/3/Bonus. Its experimental designation was RSI 00WB80404. Cal Rojo is medium-early maturing (3 days earlier than Summit) and has excellent straw strength. Plant height is shorter than Blanca Grande by 12 cm and Summit by 8 cm. Foliage is blue-green at boot stage; the flag-leaf is erect and twisted. The stem has a waxy bloom, but no anthocyanin. The last internode of the stem is hairy, and the peduncle is erect. The stem has four nodes, and the internodes are hollow. The spikes are awned, inclined, mid-dense and tapering in shape, with tan 1 glumes that are long and wide, having shoulders that are narrow and elevated, and an acuminate beak. Seed is hard, red, elliptical, with a rounded cheek and medium brush, a crease that is narrow and shallow, and midsize germ. At the time of release it was resistant to stripe rust, leaf rust, and powdery mildew, moderately resistant to Septoria tritici leaf blotch, and moderately susceptible to BYD. It was evaluated as Entry 1478 in the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 2005-present for late fall planting in the Central Valley and surrounding areas, the south-central coast, and the southern desert regions of California. HANK Hank is a hard red spring wheat. It was released by Western Plant Breeders (Westbred LLC) in 2000. It was selected from the cross Westbred 926/Westbred 936. It has medium-early maturity, averages 38 inches is plant height, and has excellent straw strength. It has very good milling and baking characteristics. At the time of release it was resistant to stripe rust, leaf rust, and powdery mildew and tolerant to Hessian fly. It subsequently became susceptible to stripe rust. It was evaluated as Entry 1229 in the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 1999-2006 and in the Oregon Spring Wheat Elite Yield Trial conducted in cooperation with the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 2007-2010 for spring planting in the intermountain region of northern California.. JOAQUIN Joaquin is a hard red spring wheat. It was released by Westbred LLC in 2006. It was selected from the cross Eldon/YU994-199. Its experimental designation was YU999-178. It has medium-early maturity, averages 40 inches in plant height (the same as Anza and 3 inches taller than Yecora Rojo) and has fair straw strength. At the time of release it was moderately resistant to stripe rust, moderately susceptible to leaf rust, and susceptible to Septoria tritici leaf blotch and BYD. It subsequently became susceptible to stripe rust and powdery mildew. It was evaluated as Entry 1424 in the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 2004-2011 for late fall planting in the Central Valley, surrounding areas, the south-central coast region, and southern desert areas of California. KELSE Kelse is a hard red spring wheat. It was developed by the Agricultural Research Center of Washington State University in cooperation with the AES’s of the University of Idaho and Oregon State University, and USDA-ARS. It was released in 2009. It was derived from the cross WestBred 906R//PI520542//Scholar. Its experimental designations were WA007954, H0100092, and HR98036. It was released based on its resistance to the Hessian fly, high-temperature, adult- plant resistance to stripe rust, high grain protein content, superior baking quality, and grain yield potential in the intermediate to high rainfall, non-irrigated wheat production regions of Washington. Kelse is an intermediate height, semidwarf with lax, tapering, erect curvature inflorescence with tan awns and glumes that are long in length, wide in width and have medium, oblique shoulders, and narrow, acuminate beaks. It has oval kernels that are red, hard, and vitreous. Seed has a large germ with a medium depth crease, angular cheeks and a short, non-collared brush. It lacks anthocyanin pigmentation in the coleoptile, displays a semi-erect juvenile plant growth habit, the flag leaf is green in color, recurved, twisted, and waxy at Feekes growth stage 10.0. The stem has three nodes, lacks anthocyanin pigmentation, a waxy bloom is present, the last internode of the rachis is semi-solid, the auricle is pigmented, pubescence is absent, and the peduncle is erect. Kelse had medium maturity and heads about 3 days later than Hank, and 5 days later than WestBred 926 and Tara 2002. Plant height (average 80 cm) is taller then WestBred 926 and Hank, and equal to Tara 2002. Lodging when grown under irrigation is similar to Hank and lower than WestBred 926 and Tara 2002. At the time of release it was moderately resistant to powdery mildew and moderately susceptible to stripe rust. It subsequently became susceptible to stripe rust. It was evaluated in the Oregon Spring Wheat Elite Yield Trial conducted in cooperation with the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 2008-present for spring planting in the intermountain region of northern California. (Washington Crop Improvement Association website: http://washingtoncrop.com/seed/varieties.asp) LARIAT Lariat is a hard red spring wheat. It was released by Resource Seeds, Inc in 2007. It was selected from the cross Cleo/2Inia//W444/3/DWL5046/2*Celaya/4/UCSR/PB775/5/Stander. Its experimental designation was RSI 02W50076R. It has medium maturity, averages about 38 inches in plant height, and has excellent straw strength. At the time of release it was resistant to stripe rust, leaf rust, Septoria tritici leaf blotch and powdery mildew, and moderately resistant to BYD. It was evaluated as Entry 1555 in the UC Regional Cereal Testing program from 2007-2010 for late fall planting in the Central Valley, surrounding areas, the south-central coast region, and southern desert areas of California. 2 LASSIK Lassik is a hard red spring wheat. It was developed by the University of California, Davis and released in 2007. Lassik was derived from the University of California HRS cultivar Anza. Three independent backcrossing programs were used to introgress several genes into Anza that were then combined into Lassik.