Adaptation and quality of naked oat(Avena nuda L.) cultivars in Korea

The naked oat varieties are promising for human diet and for feed of race horse if they adapt well in Korea. We investigated adaptability of oat cultivars, Avena nuda L. obtained from U. K., USA and Canada etc. The naked oats were generally shorter than the Korean hulled oats, therefore, naked oat cultivars were tolerant to lodging. In fall sowing, naked oat cultivars, Pendragon and Kynon showed about 81% and 69% of winter survival rates, respectively, while no hulled oat cultivars survived through the winter. Grain yield was higher in fall sowing than in spring sowing. Grain yields per unit area of Pendragon and Kynon were rather decreased by the polyethylene plastic mulching culture, compared to non mulching culture. Thus, mulching was unnecessary for cultivation of those cultivars in Korea. Grain yield of naked oats were higher than that of hulled oats after removing hull. The contents of crude protein and essential amino acids in naked oat cultivars were higher than that of hulled oat. The content of beta-glucan as an index of dietary fiber amount in the naked oat grain were also higher than that of hulled oat grain. These results indicated that naked oats were superior to hulled oats in aspects such as winter survival rate, kernel yield, and grain quality, and could be introduced successfully in Korea.