The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture has released two southernpea varieties and two spinach varieties for home garden and commercial use.

The new southernpeas, Elegance and Ark 95-348, are well suited for the canning industry, as well as home gardens and fresh markets, said Dr. Teddy Morelock, UA vegetable breeder.

“Southernpeas are a popular vegetable in the southeastern United States and are widely grown for home gardens, fresh market and processing,” Morelock said. “The University of Arkansas has been involved in varietal development with this crop for more than 50 years.”

Morelock said southernpeas are widely known by the many different horticultural types, including blackeye, pinkeye, purple hull, cream and crowder.

Elegance is a cream pea that performed well in the southern cooperative trial. It has an upright bush habit with concentrated pod set and is resistant to root knot nematode. The seeds are medium-sized and produce a high quality canned product in addition to being an excellent fresh market type, Morelock said.
 
“Elegance is unique in that it is a purple hull cream with the pods turning from dark green to purple when the seeds reach the green mature stage,” Morelock said.

Ark 95-348 is a hybrid out of Chinese Red and also performed well in the southern cooperative trials. In trials at the University of Arkansas Vegetable Substation at Kibler, it produced a 30 percent higher yield than industry standard varieties.

Dr. Teddy Morelock, second from right, shows spinach variety test plots to participants in the National Spinach Conference during a tour of the Vegetable Substation at Kibler Nov. 17. Two new spinach varieties, “Evergreen” and “F415,” are being released from Morelock’s breeding program. From left are Hironubo Hayashi of the Takii Seed Co. in Hokkaido, Japan; Jose Solorzano of American Takii Seed Co., Yuma, Ariz.; Morelock; and Jan Dijkstra of Nunhems Zaden BV, Haelen, the Netherlands.

The two new spinach varieties, Evergreen and F415, are the latest developments of a breeding program aimed at producing marketable crops with resistance white rust, a severe disease endemic to states east of the Rocky Mountains, Morelock said.

“Spinach is highly nutritious and is increasing in popularity more rapidly than any other salad crop,” Morelock said. “White rust can cause serious economic loss to growers, shippers and processors. A combination of genetic resistance and fungicides is the most effective defense to insure production stability of a high quality product.”

Evergreen is a slow growing, dark green, semi Savoy (crinkly texture) spinach that exhibits a good level of white rust resistance, Morelock said. It is not long standing and should not be used for spring production in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

F415 is an upright, dark green, flat leaf spinach that has a good level of white rust resistance. It is a processing type well suited to the Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas production areas.

“Because of its better color and more upright growth habit it should replace Ark F380, which has been widely used in that region,” Morelock said.