CONNELL SPRING WHEAT – 2005 WSU VARIETY TESTING DATA 

1. Spring wheat average yields from the WSU Variety Testing nursery at the Connell location averaged about 30% lower than the 3-year average yields.  Most of this is associated with dry soil conditions and extremely dry conditions during March/April 2005.  Spring emergence was slow and the nursery location missed many of the key rainstorms. Plant height is a fairly good indicator of poor crop development (this was similar at the Horse Heaven location).  For example, Louise, SWH averaged 24 inches plant height in 2005 compared to 28.7 inches in the 2004 nursery; Otis HDWH averaged 24 inches in 2005 compared to 32.3 in 2004 and Scarlet HRS averaged 23 inches plant height in 2005 compared to 29 inches plant height in the 2004 nursery.
2. STRIPE RUST was prevalent in the nursery with 50%-60%% infection noted on 2 June 2005 in the most susceptible varieties.  Stripe rust susceptible varieties, particularly in the soft white and hard white market classes generally had the lowest yields having about 50% lower yields than the highest yielding variety in the trial.  TEST WEIGHT values were also lower in stripe rust susceptible varieties which were expected.
3. CEREAL LEAF BEETLE (CLB) damage was also observed in the 2005 nursery but damage was minimal.  One observation was that CLB appeared to favor varieties with wider leaves that also had leaves that drooped over – this would favor feeding by the CLB larvae – NOTE:  this is strictly a preliminary field observation.
4.  HEADING DATE was similar (about 25 May) to previous years.