We grew Brundage wheat as part of a cover crop last fall. We’re considering saving some seed from this mix - - the grasses (Brundage wheat and Fridge triticale) were the the top performers in the cover crop by far, and there were several other similarly represented and cold-hardy components.
But I’d like to know if Brundage is descended from Norin 10. It’s a winter wheat, and I believe a recent panel of winter wheats showed 63% had green revolution genes. I’m guessing the number is higher for spring wheats.
In my mind, ideally we would not contaminate a wheat landrace with green revolution genetics. In addition to the general health concerns surrounding green revolution wheat and the challenges posed by growing these shallow-rooted plants unirrigated and unfertilized, my wife and I both react adversely to it, whereas for me older wheats are both edible and enjoyable. While I’m very curious if the green revolution damage to this crop is reversible, the best thing for us would be to just not introduce the problematic genes to begin with.
Is there a publicly accessible database of wheat genetics out there, or some other way to easily get this information? If so I’m happy to move this thread to resources
It appears Brundage was developed by the U of Idaho’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center back in the day. Perhaps you’d be able to contact them directly to ask its parentage.
How to read the grandparents? Yikes. The numbers mean nothing to me without a database to plug them into. I considered myself lucky to get a response and don’t want to push for answers, but unless I’m missing something this doesn’t seem to tell me what I’m looking for.
Then there’s the matter of the triticale - - I’m not sure I need to worry about durum genetics but I assume so until I can rule it out.
Am I missing something? A cursory parent search didn’t seem to yield much
Parent varieties of Brundage are:
Stephens [and] Geneva
Parent varieties of Stephens are:
Nord Desprez [and] Pullman Sel. 101, CI 13438
Parent varieties of Geneva are:
Ross wheat (Heine’s VII)/3/(NY5207aB-2B-34) Burt [and] Genesee/CI 12658/4/Genesee
That’s my guess. You may not be able to find all the names if they only exist as a population at a certain college or company. Like trying to find out what the parent varieties of vegetable F1 hybrid seed. If they let out the secret who the parents are then who’d just make their own instead of buying their seed.
Right, that part of it is clear enough, it’s unpacking the numbers and following the lineage from the grandparents on that’s giving me trouble.
What’s the three and four, ploidy?
What the heck are CI 13438 and 12658? I’m sure they must be germplasm designation numbers or something, but how to know what they are to follow the lineage from the grandparents on up?
The Brundage wheat seems to have turned out to be an awnless shallow-rooted dwarf wheat. Sounds like green revolution genetics to me. Even if not, the shallow roots and aggressive energy of the heads (tough to explain but palpable) are a dealbreaker. Cover crop it is.
The fridge triticale is a lot closer to what I’d want, but also feels a little funny relative to the other ryes I’ve got growing. I think it might feel funny even if I didn’t have the other ryes to compare to. I don’t have any non-Brundage wheat plants around to see if I just don’t like wheat, though given how much I like eating khorasan and einkorn, seems that might not be the case. I’ve terminated most of the fridge as well and am mulling over whether to save any. It threw some pollen into my grand prairie composite rye but I’m thinking/hoping that won’t yield any result.
I know I don’t dislike all wheat heads as I find khorasan wheat and others very inviting. But the brundage heads just look wrong to me - - the first words that came to my mind were that it looks like wheat that doesn’t give a s*** about anything. I was driving through Indiana and recognized a whole field of it (or similar enough variety) today. It was not a pretty sight.
Interestingly enough, I found what I think is wheat from a commercial birdseed mix growing under our silver maple and I don’t like it. Interesting because I guess I assumed this was likely to be wild wheat, I usually like the wild ancestors of domestic plants I like, and I would also assume that nobody’s been sufficiently incentivized to breed the genetic material of Norin 10 or its descendants into the wild wheat in birdseed mixes. It’s got awned very sparse heads. Maybe pic to follow when I get the chance.
