A New Light Green Seed Coated Azuli Bean Cultivar, “Yeonkeum” with Middle Seed Size and Good Seed Quality

A new light green seed coat Azuki bean cultivar, “Yeonkeum” was developed at the National Institute of Crop Science (NICS) and the Yeongnam Agricultural Research Institute (YARI) in 2005. Yeonkeum was selected from the cross between Jajasodun and “IT120990”. The preliminary, advanced and regional yield trials for evaluation and selection of this cultivar were carried out from 2001 to 2005. It has a determinate growth habit, yellow flower, green stem color, black pod color, light green seed coat, yellow cotyledon, drum seed shape, oval leaf shape, and middle seed size (12.0 grams per 100 seeds), and it was 2 days earlier in maturity than the check cultivar “Chungjupat”. It also has been identified to have resistance to azuki bean mosaic virus which is the troublesome azuki bean diseases. The average yield of Yeonkeum was 1.90 ton per hectare in the regional yield trials (RYT) carried out in 4 locations of Korea from 2003 to 2005 which was 10 percent higher than the check cultivar Chungjupat.