They will be entered in replicated yield trials in comparison with commercial varieties at Suffolk and an off-station site. Here again major emphasis will be placed on pod characteristics as well as yield when determining if testing beyond 1998 is merited. The selection process also involves other desirable characteristics. The proper distribution of jumbo and fancy pod sizes within each potential new variety is very important as is ELK percentage. Total kernel content, SMK, and milling quality are all important to the grower as well as the sheller.
Pest resistance is very important as growers try to cut pesticide usage.
Some advanced breeding lines appear to be less susceptible to sclerotinia blight than some of our current varieties, although certainly not totally resistant. However, if they give higher dollar return per acre without fungicide treatment than our current varieties, we can acknowledge some benefit by their release as a new variety. The Virginia Peanut Breeding Program is also cooperating with the North Carolina program in work to introduce the high oleic gene for longer shelf life into some of the Virginia lines. This is not a quick fix but will take a number of years to accomplish. Overall, some potentially good material exist in the Virginia program but lots of selection and testing needs to be done to obtain the desired varieties needed by the peanut producer of the nineties.