Patent ID: 8664472

Claim:
A method for producing a sesame crop, comprising the steps of: (a) planting a pygmy sesame seed line as a sesame crop, wherein said pygmy sesame seed line is homozygous for the pygmy allele designated as py/py and has a character selected from the group consisting of non-dehiscence and improved non-dehiscence as compared to a non-pygmy sesame crop, and wherein said pygmy sesame crop has plants with a mature plant height from 52 cm to 110 cm and a first capsule height of at least 15 cm; (b) growing said pygmy sesame plants of step (a) by employing plant spacing of 10 or more plants per linear meter and row spacing of 15 cm to 40 cm and; (c) harvesting said pygmy sesame plants of step (b) by mechanical means comprising a combine harvester; wherein said pygmy sesame plants produced by said method exhibit a greater harvest index on a weight basis than non-pygmy sesame plants, and wherein said pygmy sesame seed line is sesame variety S70, a sample of said sesame variety S70 seed having been deposited under ATCC Accession No. PTA-9272.