09/27/07 Four new dry bean varieties

The dry bean industry has been waiting for some new varieties and they now have them. Kathy Stewart Williams of the University of Idaho Foundation Seed Program says four new varieties were developed at Kimberly by Doctor Shree Singh. STEWART-WILLIAMS "Two Great Northerns, Hungerford and Sawtooth and two Pintos, Shoshone and Kimberly. He looks you know as we all do for incredible yields first and then he's got some really nice disease resistance packages included in all of these." All four varieties exhibit moderate to high levels of heat resistance, water stress and drought which should allow them to perform well in Idaho and the West. She's encouraging growers and dealers interested in these varieties to contact her. Many already have. STEWART-WILLIAMS "We've just put the first breeder seed into the ground this year and are harvesting foundation and I expect that we are already sold out on those but we'll see how it comes when we get them in the box." Kimberly is a light colored full season pinto that out-yielded all other beans last year in the US-Canadian dry bean nursery, plus it has recessive resistance to bean common mosaic virus, beet curly top virus and rust. Shoshone is similar to Kimberly and is even slower to darken. Hungerford, a Great Northern with exceptionally large seed size should be of interest to European markets. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott