New Paper Released About Perennial Wheat

Perennial grains--one of the largest innovations in the 10,000 year history of agriculture--could be here in the next two decades, according to scientists from Washington State University and other institutions writing in the current issue of Science. The crops, which reestablish themselves every growing season, can be raised with less fertilizer, herbicide, fuel, and erosion than grains planted annually. They're particularly promising as half the world's growing population lives off marginal land at risk of being degraded by annual grain production.

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[redtitan23]

@josephdupont As far as I know, there are currently no perennial wheat varieties for sale. Tim Peters, a seed breeder in Oregon, had some for sale, but his business is no longer running as of last year, I believe. Once place you can get seed is from GRIN, a germplasm network in the U.S. who will give seed out for research purposes to scientists and researchers. If you want to study how it does in your area and report back how it does, there are two varieties available there.

[redtitan23]

@similarlysituated We currently have perennial wheat that will come back each year, though there is some improvement that can be done with frost tolerance. The main improvement that needs to be done with perennial wheat is increasing the yield and quality of the grain. Modern wheat cultivars have had decades of breeding to get where their at - perennial wheat was created by a cross of a modern wheat cultivar and a wild species, so the 'wild' needs to be bred out, so to speak.

[similarlysituated]

The guy in the video says he believes that with 20 more years of research wee can have perrenial wheat. There must be something wrong with the perennial wheat we have now. What's wrong with it, and why must we wait 20 years?

[SalopUK]

I would love to trial this under UK farm conditions, does anybody know how to get hold of a few lines?

[josephdupont]

where can I buy seeds???

[PistolTeacher]

Quadrotriticale (pronounced "quádro-trítĭ-kay-lee") is a high-yield, perennial, four-lobed grain, genetically engineered hybrid of wheat and rye with a bluish color. The root grain, triticale, can trace its ancestry back to 20th century Canada. Pavel Chekov, however, claimed that "it [was] a Russian invention." As of 2269 it was the only Earth grain able to grow on Sherman's Planet.

[redtitan23]

@nja2015 The longer roots would actually mean it would need less water, since there is more surface area in root mass to absorb water. Really no negatives - there just needs to be more funding to develop perennial wheat and other perennial grains and legumes.

[nja2015]

Wow, seems alot going for it, what are the negatives if any ??

longer roots, does this mean that perennial grains would require higher amounts of water ??

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