Archive Article: 2002/07/24
Looking for a winter wheat that ripens as early as barley and outyields Soissons? Staff at Advanta Seeds believe they have found it in French-bred Isidor, just completing its first year of National List trials. Harvested off sandy loam near the Wash in East Anglia on July 19 from a Sept 27 sowing, the short, stiff, potential bread-maker yields on a par with Malacca, says Paul Hickman. "We took our winter barley trials off the same site only four days earlier." Flour quality means Isidor, which has good brown rust resistance, is not a direct replacement for Soissons – UK tests suggest it is more akin to Malacca and Hereward. For growers with stretched workloads finding it hard to make a profit from winter barley the Unisigma variety could be a useful alternative, he believes.