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From: "ARS News Service" <issa@ars-grin.gov>
To: "ARS News List" <ars-news@ars-grin.gov>
Subject: New Green Pea Released
Date: Fri, Aug 27, 1999, 4:48 AM
STORY LEAD:
Green Pixie--Not Just Another New Green Pea
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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Hank Becker, (301) 504-1624, hbecker@asrr.arsusda.gov
August 27, 1999
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Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service have released their 12th new
southern pea variety, Green Pixie.
Green Pixie is the first green-cotyledon variety to yield small, delicate,
cream-type green peas. Cotyledons, also known as the leaves of the embryo,
account for most of the embryonic tissue inside the seed. Because of the
green-cotyledon gene, Green Pixie peas can be harvested dry and still retain
their fresh green color.
Richard Fery and ARS colleagues in Charleston, S.C., developed Green Pixie
for the frozen food industry. But the new variety can be grown and picked
fresh by home gardeners in addition to being harvested as near-dry peas for
food-processing uses.
Seed of Green Pixie have been released to 10 commercial seed growers and
food processing companies so they can multiply supplies. The new variety
should be available to growers by fall 2000.
The scientists developed Green Pixie over a nine-year period by
crossbreeding the popular, small, white-colored White Acre peas with the
light-olive colored, but larger Bettergreen peas. The scientists say Green
Pixie can be used either to replace White Acre or to substitute for
Bettergreen when grown to produce a blended pack of Bettergreen and White
Acre peas.
When harvested as dry peas and stored, Green Pixie makes an attractive dry
pack. Dry peas can be restored to their fresh-harvest seed size and green
color by soaking them in water for one hour and then blanching them in
boiling water for three minutes.
Dry pods of Green Pixie produce 16 peas in about 76 days. The dry peas
resemble White Acre--100 weigh about 1/2 ounce--but they're much smaller
than Bettergreen's.
Breeder's seed will be maintained by ARS' U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in
Charleston. Genetic material for developing new cultivars is available
through the National Plant Germplasm System, maintained by ARS, USDA's chief
scientific agency.
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Scientific contact: Richard L. Fery, ARS U.S. Vegetable Laboratory,
Charleston, S.C., phone (843) 556-0840, fax (843) 763-7013, rfery@awod.com.
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This item is one of the news releases and story leads that ARS Information
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* ARS Information Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Room 1-2251, Beltsville MD
20705- 5128, (301) 504-1617, fax 504-1648.
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