Breeding sunflower cultivars for the northern latitudes

Authors

• Walter Dedio Agriculture Canada Research Station, Box 3001, Morden, Manitoba, Canada. ROG IJO

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72297

Abstract

Development of short season sunflower hybrids has been the main objective of the Canadian sunflower breeding program. A gene pool created with 50 lines extracted from USSR open-pollinated varieties provided a good source of early inbred lines. The gene pool produced the lines CM447, CM469 and CM497 which were the basis for the superior early parental lines. Another early line, CM594, was extracted from Armavirec. CM447 and CM594 were converted to the cytoplasmic male sterile (cms) form, while CM469 and CM497 were used in the development of fertility-restorer lines. Hybrids from these lines and in combination with HA3O1, HA232, and NS39 resulted in up to 15 days earlier maturity than the standard hybrids, with good oil content, disease resistance and lodging resistance. An early dwarf hybrid. Sunwheat, developed by SeedTec shows good performance in late seeded tests, but it requires higher plant population and a narrow row spacing.