Merrit

Wednesday, 30 September 2009 13:19

Merrit is a large-seeded yellow-cotyledon lentil developed by the USDA-ARS in cooperation with the Washington Agricultural Research Center, Pullman, WA, the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, Moscow, ID, and the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, Fargo, ND, and released in 2003. Merrit has large seed size, slight seed coat mottling an upright plant habit, and high yield. Merrit originated as an F5 selection from the cross Brewer*2/LC760336/‘Palouse’ made in 1990. Brewer was developed and released in 1984 as a large-seeded, slightly mottled, yellow-cotyledon, high-yielding cultivar (Muehlbauer, 1987). Palouse has larger seeds when compared with Brewer and has an absence of seed coat mottling (Muehlbauer, 1992). LC760336 is a selection from a bulk population from the cross between two breeding lines (GH107 and GH101) of unknown pedigrees made by V.E. Wilson. The cross that led to the selection of Merrit was advanced by the bulk method to the F5 and single plant selections were made in 1993. The F5 selection was grown in a single plant row in 1994. Preliminary screening for yield and plant traits were conducted in 1995 and Merrit was entered in the preliminary yield trial at Pullman in 1996. Merrit was tested in advanced yield trials at three locations each year from 1997 to 2000. Merrit was entered in Western Regional Yield Trials from 1998 to 2000. Thus in 25 site-years from 1997 to 2000, Merrit averaged 5% higher yield when compared with Brewer. In the Palouse region of eastern Washington and northern Idaho, the yield advantage was 6%. Compared with Brewer, Merrit averaged 2 cm taller, flowered an average of 1 d later, and matured 1 d later. Merrit has an upright plant habit with basal branches that imparts a bushy structure and enables the canopy to remain somewhat erect during the growing season. Seed size of Merrit is larger and averages 6.4 g per 100 seeds compared with 5.7 g for Brewer. The large slightly mottled seeds of Merrit have yellow cotyledons. The large seed size and the presence of seed coat mottling are traits that should permit the replacement of Brewer by Merrit as a predominant lentil type in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Both Merrit and Brewer required 21 min for cooking. Merrit had lower scores for virus infection, mainly pea enation mosaic, when compared with Brewer. Scores for resistance to Aphanomyces root rot (caused by Aphanomyces eutieches Drechs.) were the same as for Brewer. Go to table of lentil varieties