The Processors and Growers Research Organisation (PGRO) has today added three new varieties – Rivoli, Carrington and Pantani – to its 2022 Descriptive Lists (DL) for pulse crops.

Combinable pea Carrington, bred by LS Plant Breeding, joins the list as the highest yielding variety in 2022 after returning a yield of 117% and and Senova’s new yellow pea, Rivoli, has scored 8 for resistance to downy mildew, making it the best downy mildew rating in this group.

Winter bean Pantani from LS Plant Breeding is an early, short-strawed variety with similar yields (93%) to Honey (95%).

Winter bean Vespa, from Senova, continues to perform well in trials with top yields of 108% and is closely followed by Vincent, from Senova, at 106%.

In spring beans, Lynx, from LS Plant Breeding, is now ahead of its competitors with a yield of 106% after being second place on the 2021 List, with Ghengis and Stella following at 105%.

The move from a Recommended List to a Descriptive List last year means information on yield and resistance to prominent diseases is presented in line with modern grower requirements.

PGRO Principal Technical Officer Stephen Belcher said: “Farming is often at the sharp end of unpredictable weather events so having varieties that can provide growers with agronomic performance and still serve the market requirements will gradually come to the fore and be grown in sufficient quantities to serve those markets,” said Stephen Belcher, PGRO Principal Technical Officer.

“Since changing to a Descriptive List model in 2020, we are in a transitional phase. However, there were no changes to the sites this year and we are still using a five-year data set, with no changes to the rigour or quality of data. The changes we have made mean that varieties can be viewed in terms of consistency of performance, helping growers to make informed decisions when it comes to making decisions on seed for the next season.

“Varietal resistance to downy mildew can vary depending on the races present in the soil but several varieties on the Descriptive List this year are showing very good resistance to the disease. Powdery mildew, which was a significant problem in 2020, was much less so in 2021.

“Spring beans had a good year with all but one trial taken through to harvest. As with peas, the difference in maturity between early and later maturing varieties was more pronounced in 2021.”

Combining peas

• Carrington, as well as being the top yielding variety at 117%, has a very good rating for downy mildew (8).
• Kameleon from Senova (115%) and Orchestra (111%) move to year five status and maintain a very high yield potential.
• New to the list for 2022 is Rivoli (Senova) which, although lower yielding, has the best downy mildew rating in this group.
• Bluetime, Mikka, Greenway, Kactus, Blueman and LG Aviator have also scored 8 for downy mildew resistance and both Blueman and LG Aviator also have high resistance to powdery mildew.
• Mantara and Rose returned to trials in 2021, with both showing very good resistance to downy mildew (8).
• Akooma (96%) maintained a 11% yield advantage over Sakura and has a very large seed size.
• Octavia and Banshee also continued into year five of trials.

Winter beans

• The top-yielding variety Vespa is closely followed by Vincent at 106%.
• Pantani from LSPB, an early, short-strawed variety with similar yields (93%) to Honey (95%), is new to the list for 2022.
• Variety choice remains similar, with Vincent and Norton being added to the 2021 list previously.

Spring beans

• There were no new additions to the Descriptive List for 2022 but Lynx returns to the top of the yield rankings, scoring 106%.
• Lynx is closely followed by Ghengis and Stella, scoring 105%, and Capri and Macho, scoring 103%.
• Low vicine/convicine types Bolivia and Allison were subsequently added to the 2021 DL and continue to year four with yields a little below those of Victus. Yukon (8) and Maris Bead (8) show very good resistance to downy mildew and Lynx (7) is just one point lower.
• Yukon continues to show early maturity, and, in some trials, LG Viper was particularly late to mature.