New confectionary sunflower variety Desert

The confectionary sunflower variety Desert was developed at the Siberian Experimental Station – a branch of V.S. Pustovoit AllRussian Research Institute of Oil Crops by the method of artificial selfpollination of the varietal population Sibirsky 12 with subsequent selection of early maturing biotypes in a nursery of directed crosspollination with free flowering in an isolated area. The advantage of the variety is the combination of early maturation and seed size. Its stem is erect, not branched, 121–185 cm high. The head is half turned downwards with a curved stem, flat at maturity, 15–23 cm in diameter. Seeds are narrowly ovate, black with gray stripes along the edges. Thousandseed weight at plant density of 40 thousand pcs/ha is 97.7–112.1 g, huskness is 24.0–26.4 %. According to the data of competitive variety trials of 2021–2024, the variety Desert (el. No. 1028) has a period from germination to physiological maturity of about 93 days, which is shorter than the standard (parental) variety Sibirsky 12 by five days. The average thousandseed weight amounted to 100.1 g (+14.0 g). Potential yield (3.11 t/ha), oil content of seeds (49.2%) and oil yield (1.38 t/ha) did not differ significantly from the standard. In 2024, the variety Desert was submitted to the State Variety Trial in the Russian Federation, the proposed regions of release are West Siberian (10) and Ural (9).