Narrative
LUCERNE
Medicago sativa
'Flairdale'
Application No: 1994/086 Accepted: 29 Apr 1994.
Applicant: EE & MR Lehmann, Keith, SA.
Agent: Raymond Christinat, Crop Monitoring Services Pty Ltd, Keith, SA.
Description see table of comparisons
'Flairdale' is a semi-erect lucerne of medium height and is semi-winter active. It establishes well in the year of sowing with a high number of plants per m2. Foliage of 'Flairdale' is dark green in colour with predominantly very dark blue flowers. It is an early flowering variety (120 days to 75% from sowing) and a prolific seed producer with resistance to the blue green aphid and the spotted alfalfa aphid. The qualified person considers that 'Flairdale' is stable and uniform for most of the observed characters.
Adaptation
Most lucerne areas. For best results at establishment at least 300mm annual rainfall or irrigation is recommended.
Origin
'Flairdale' arose from the open pollination of five commercially available lines sown in winter 1983 under dryland conditions: 'Hunter River' (33.3%), 'Wakefield' (16.7%), 'Springfield' (16.7%), 'Pioneer 581' (16.7%) and 'Cuf 101' (16.7%). After three years of natural field selection pressure including grazing and no pest or disease control, seed was harvested (summer 1989) and sown down for a further three years of natural selection including insect pest control as required. The owner and breeder is EE & MR Lehmann, Keith, SA and the variety was developed as Keith, SA. This variety exhibited strong persistence in the field even after several years. Commercial stocks of seed will be available from maintained 'Flairdale' plantings.
Comparative Trial
Comparators: The trial included two generations of 'Flairdale', six commercial lucerne varieties including parents of 'Flairdale' and the variety 'Hunterfield' considered to morphologically similar to 'Flairdale'. The parent 'Wakefield' was not included because this variety is no longer in commercial production and was not considered to be a close comparator to 'Flairdale'. The closest comparators to 'Flairdale' are 'Hunter River' and 'Aurora'. Location: The trial was conducted on a commercial lucerne property, 25km west of Keith, SA. Sowing date was 11 Aug 1995. Seed for each variety in the trial was sown with a 5 row small seed plot that had been developed by Crop Monitoring Services for this purpose. Conditions: The trial site was situated alongside a fence line within a commercial canola crop. The soil type at the site was sand over limestone and had good drainage. The paddock had been laser leveled in 1990. Once the lucerne trial was established, there was an obvious area of extreme compaction (as a result of repetitive heavy machinery movement during the laser leveling process). This affected the growth of some plots, but analysis of all data and a subset of data showed no effect on the comparison results. Chemical and mechanical weed control and chemical insect control was required at establishment of the trial. No chemical weed control was applied during the second year so as not to influence growth. Insecticides were applied as per growth practices to control pests during flower production. The trial was flood irrigated as required. Trial design: Plots 2m x 8m (16m2) in size, were arranged in a randomized complete block design of three replicates. Measurements: were taken from the same 60 plants in three replicates (20 plants per replicate) except plant population ( number of plants per m2) that was determined by destructively harvesting 2.1m2 of each plot in the first year (4 Oct 1995) and using 0.5 m2 quadrat in the second year (7 Apr 1997) and time of beginning of flowering that was determined on 120 plants. The outer two rows of each plot were treated as buffer rows and were not sampled. Plants were selected from the same row and the same starting point with each plot at each measurement. Natural height (cm) two weeks after equinox in first year equinox in first year (cut 2 weeks before equinox) was determined for all varieties in the trial on 8 Oct 1996, only six weeks outside the first year. This trial was established late winter 1995 (11 Aug 1995) and spring growth was minimal which is characteristic of lucerne seedling development. Natural height was also determined after the autumn equinox on 4 Apr 1996 for both generations of 'Flairdale'. The trial was cut on 6 Mar 1996 i.e. two weeks before equinox. Winter activity: Stem height was measured seven times from 1 Jun 1996 to 26 Jul 1996 to determine winter activity of each variety. Dates were 1,11,18,25 of Jun and 2,11,26 of Jul. Winter activity or productivity is rated as 9 = highly winter active, 1 = winter dormant. For the purpose of this comparison, data for two dates one month apart, are presented 25 Jun 1996 and 26 Jul 1996. 'Springfield' is reported in the marketing literature to have winter activity of 9 similar to 'Cuf 101' but in this trial it rated only 6. Flowering assessments: Flower colour was determined on 200 plants of each generation of 'Flairdale' on 7 Feb 1996. Flowers were rated as violet, variegated or white. The percentage of violet flowers found was 99% and 97% for generations 1 and 2 respectively. The percentage of variegated flowers was 1% and 3%. No white flowers were found. Fishers exact test was used to determine whether flower colour was independent of the variety or generation in this case. The test of independence between colour and variety was not significant at the 1% level. 'Flairdale' was the earliest variety to flower after sowing and both generations reached 50% flowering by 4 Dec 1995, 75% by 11 Dec 1995 and 90% by 19 Dec 1995. Beginning to flower is defined as when either 3 heads per plant are flowering or when 10% of the stems have at least one flower. This is commercially known as and visually appears as, full flowering or 80% flowering. Plants were assessed to be flowering when they had either 3 heads flowering or 10% of stems had at least one flower. The number of plants flowering was counted at four weekly visits (28 Nov, 1995; 4, 11 , 19 Dec 1995) on 120 plants and the percentage determined. 'Flairdale' was the earliest flowering variety and had reached an average of 63.8% (range 40% -75%) flowering by 4 Dec 1995. The results are presented for three dates as 'Percentage of plants flowering when the earliest variety had reached 50%, 75% and 90% flowering. Pathogen resistance results: Pathogen screening tests were conducted by Mr Geoff Auricht, Senior Research Scientist, Lucerne Improvement, SARDI for the blue green aphid (BGA) and the spotted alfalfa aphid (SAA). 'Flairdale' was rated as highly resistant (1) to BGA and moderately resistant (3) to SAA. The tests were conducted in glasshouses at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) Plant Research Centre, Waite Campus and involved 4 replicates of at least 20 plants of each cultivar. The methods used are standard procedures for testing lucerne breeding populations by SARDI and similar to those outlined in 'Standard Tests to Characterise Pest Resistance in Alfalfa Cultivars' (USDA, 1984). Classifications are based on the US system where 1 = highly resistant (>50% resistant plants), 5 = susceptible (<6% resistant plants).
Prior Applications and Sales Nil.
Description: Pam Strange, Scholefield Robinson Horticultural Services Pty Ltd, Torrens Park, SA.
Comparison of Medicago varieties
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'Flairdale' *'Hunter *'Aurora' *'Pioneer *'Hunter- *'Spring- *'Cuf 101'
River' 581' field' field'
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NATURAL PLANT HEIGHT SCORE (1 = very short; 9 = very long)
*Stage 1 7 5 6 7 5 7 8
*Stage 2 6 5 5 5 5 6 7
*Stage 3 6 5 6 5 6 6 9
*Stage 4 6 4.5 6 5 6 6 9
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NATURAL PLANT HEIGHT (cm) - *Stage 1
mean 28.5 26.9 27.4 28.3 26.7 28.7 32.8
std deviation 3.5 6.1 4.6 3.9 5.2 4.8 5.3
LSD/sig 7.5 ns ns ns ns ns ns
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NATURAL PLANT HEIGHT (cm) - *Stage 2
mean 22.5 17.8 18.7 17.9 20.6 21.9 29.5
std deviation 3.7 5.0 5.1 4.2 5.6 5.1 6.0
LSD/sig 6.6 ns ns ns ns ns P�0.01
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NATURAL PLANT HEIGHT (cm) - *Stage 3
mean 13.0 8.1 11.4 8.9 12.2 12.4 17.4
std deviation 3.0 3.0 3.0 2.7 3.4 3.2 4.5
LSD/sig 3.1 P�0.01 ns P�0.01 ns ns P�0.01
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PLANT
growth habit semi-erect medium medium medium semi-erect erect erect
foliage green colour
dark dark dark dark dark dark light
time of beginning of flowering
early late late late mid early late
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PLANT POPULATION IN THE FIRST YEAR (4 Dec 1995) - number of plants per m2
mean 126.3 81.9 119.0 91.0 36.2 64.9 97.3
std deviation 51.5 20.5 20.7 11.6 3.1 6.7 41.6
LSD/sig 70.3 ns ns ns P�0.01 ns ns
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PLANT POPULATION IN THE SECOND YEAR (7 Apr 1997) -number of plants per m2
mean 82.0 59.3 93.3 64.7 47.3 20.0 76.7
std deviation 19.1 9.5 18.5 5.0 13.3 5.3 22.5
LSD/sig 37.3 ns ns ns ns P�0.01 ns
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PERCENTAGE OF PLANTS FLOWERING - when the earliest variety is at 50% flowering (4 Dec 1995)
mean 57.5 26.7 35.0 26.7 51.2 46.7 28.3
std deviation 13.7 15.7 26.1 13.3 28.1 17.2 5.2
LSD/sig 26.1 P�0.01 ns P�0.01 ns ns P�0.01
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PERCENTAGE OF PLANTS FLOWERING - when the earliest variety is at 75% flowering (11 Dec 1995)
mean 75.8 53.9 50.0 38.3 60.6 65.8 57.5
std deviation 13.2 21.6 31.0 16.3 28.2 11.1 10.8
LSD/sig 28.9 ns ns P�0.01 ns ns ns
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PERCENTAGE OF PLANTS FLOWERING - when the earliest variety is at 90% flowering ( 19 Dec 1995)
mean 89.2 58.3 67.5 47.5 73.1 77.5 61.7
std deviation 8.0 10.8 25.5 10.4 13.1 7.6 11.7
LSD/sig 19.8 P�0.01 P�0.01 P�0.01 ns ns P�0.01
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SEED YIELD (g) - per m2
mean 20.0 4.2 10.1 - 8.6 8.0 -
std deviation 6.2 3.9 6.9 - 5.6 2.9
LSD/sig 12.1 P�0.01 ns - ns ns -
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*-Stage 1 - 2 weeks after equinox in first year ( cut 2 weeks before equinox)
-Stage 2 - at spring time
-Stage 3 - in early winter of 2nd year ( 25 Jun 1996)
-Stage 4 - in mid winter of 2nd year (26 Jul 1996)