Bigger: but is it better?

摘要

Hybrid wheats have a bad reputation to shake off. Perhaps your previous experience of a hybrid wheat was seeing it in trial plots plastered in yellow rust. You might also recall concerns about the chemical used in the hybridisation process. Then there's the issue o f not being able to home-save the seed. It's no wonder the industry has tended to give wheat hybrids a bit of a wide berth. Meanwhile DuPont Hybrinova has been working on some new varieties with a new chemical hybridisation system. Thesehave been commercially available in France for a few years and small-scale commercial plantings have been carried out here this year, with more seed due to be available for the UK market this autumn. Uptake by growers will very much depend on their disease robustness, however. Have these hybrids beaten the yellow rust legacy?