Sepehr, a New High-Yielding Green Bean Cultivar, Suitable for Cold, Temperate and Temperate-Cold Areas

Sepehr cultivar (line KS940144) was selected from common bean germplasm (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and in breeding experiments conducted from 2014 to 2018 was one of the top lines in the green pod yield. In 2014, 302 lines of common beans were studied the presence or absence of string in the pod, the number of pods per plant, and the shape and length of the pod in the research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute (SPII) and line KS940144 along with 24 other desirable and marketable lines were selected for preliminary yield comparison trial. In the summer of 2015, 25 lines were compared with the commercial cultivars Sunray, Valentino and Contander. In the spring of 2016, eight selected lines from the previous year were planted along with the commercial cultivars Sunray, Valentino and Contander. According to the results, all eight lines were selected for adaptability testing. To evaluate the adaptability and yield stability of the selected lines, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in three regions of Karaj, Sari and Zarghan during two years (2017 and 2018). Comparison of the average yield of green pods in the regions over two years showed that the line KS940144 had first rank for the green pod yield (17720 kgha-1). The yield difference of this line compared to Valentino and Sunray cultivars was more than 31% and 36%, respectively. In 2019, the results of yield evaluation of line KS940144 in comparison with Sunray cultivar in the conditions of farmers of Alborz, Mazandaran and Fars provinces showed that the average yield of line KS940144 (16355 kgha-1) was 11.77% higher than Sunray cultivar (14632 kgha-1). In 2020, the reaction of line KS940144 to BCMV virus disease was studied and this line was identified as a resistant line. Due to the high yield, excellent pod marketing and disease resistance to common bean mosaic virus, this line was released as Sepehr and is recommended for cultivation in cold, temperate and temperate-cold regions.