Wilt and Cold Resistance of Self-Fertilized Lines of Alfalfas

Authors

George L. Peltier
H. M. Tysdal

Date of this Version

9-1934

Document Type

Article

Citation

Peltier, George L. and Tysdal, H.M. (1934) Wilt and cold resistance of self-fertilized lines of alfalfas (Research Bulletin: Bulletin of the Agricultural Experiment Station of Nebraska No. 76)

Comments

ISSN 0097-1407

Abstract

The relative reactions to cold and wilt of self-fertilized lines of alfalfa through to the fifth generation are reported. Some of the reasons for undertaking a breeding program are given as well as methods used in the controlled cold and wilt determinations. Preliminary studies showed that reinoculating healthy individuals which had already resisted one wilt infection test served to eliminate additional plants, but the percentage healthy was much higher after the reinoculation than after the first inoculation. The foundation materials from which selections were made consisted of selected plants from a number of old Nebraska fields and a large collection of seed lots assembled by H. L. Westover from many of the alfalfa-growing regions of the world. Some plants from the old fields yielded seed, the seedlings from which had a high degree of resistance to both cold and wilt, whereas others proved to be quite susceptible to either wilt or cold or to both. The latter were usually promptly discarded.