Narrative
Botany
V16-0524 has a determinate growth habit, purple flowers, gray pubescence, tan pod wall, and yellow hila. It has a relative maturity of 5.6 with an average of 129 days to harvest; which is about eight days later than UA Kirksey. It is about 90.9 cm tall, which is 113% of the height of UA Kirksey, and has a dry seed size of 21.7 g/100 seeds.
Agronomic Performance and Pod Characteristics
V16-0524 had an average fresh yield of 18,111 kg/ha across two years by hand harvest, and yielded 102% of the yield of UA Kirksey.
V16-0524 also had a higher average emergence rate (74.9%) than that of UA Kirksey (68.1%) in 2019. Ten pods weight was almost identical between V16-0524 and UA Kirksey, while V16-0524 had slightly more single-bean pods out of 10 randomly selected pods (15%) than UA Kirksey (11 %). For pod traits, V16-0524 had relatively thicker, but significantly shorter, pods than UA Kirksey. The average pod length, width, and thickness of V16-0524 were 40.4 mm, 11.4 mm, and 7.6 mm, respectively, as compared to UA Kirksey that was 47.8mm, 11.5mm and 7.2mm.
V16-0524 also had significantly less pubescence density on its pods (359 hairs per 2.4 cm2) than UA Kirksey (700 hairs per 2.4 cm2); which bodes well for its consumer acceptance and usability in fresh packing operations.
Pest Evaluation and Consumer Acceptance
Cumulative densities (recorded as insect days) of each of the most abundant insect pests, soybean aphids Aphis glycines Matsumura, potato leafhopper Empoasca fabae, and Mexican bean beetle, Epilachna varivestis, were not significantly different between V16-0524 and UA Kirksey. The percentage of pods with chewing insect damage was comparable between V16-0524 and UA Kirksey, but stink bugs might prefer UA Kirksey more than V16-0524. For downy mildew, UA Kirksey exhibited 100% infected leaves, but V16-0524 only had 53% infected leaves. They also showed similar bacterial blight severity and similar incidence of diseased pods. In addition, V16-0524 and UA Kirks