Rice Variety Profile for L-208
RES Rice Varieties
Variety: L-208
- Former ID: 14Y1006
- Year: 2020
Pedigree and Breeding
The regular long grain rice variety L-208, with former designation of 14Y1006, was a product of a cross made in the summer of 2006 at the Rice Experiment Station in Biggs, CA, designated as R33132. Detailed pedigree information of L-208 is ‘F1R32425 (05P3310/02Y516)/99Y529’. The female parent was an F1 plant from the cross R32425. The 05P3310 was an experimental designation for an Indica germplasm that was introduced from China in 1996, by USDA-ARS, as PI614958. 02Y516 was a high yielding intermediate height selection from RES. The male parent, 99Y529, was an early maturing selection with high grain and milling yield, developed at RES.
Agronomic Characteristics
The overall grain yield of L-208 across 41 experiments in the SW test averaged 10,340 lbs./acre compared to 10,000 and 9,190 lbs./acre for L-207 and L-206, respectively. Overall yield advantage was 3.4% and 13% over L-207 and L-206, respectively. L-208 is comparable to L-207 and L-206 in terms of overall seedling vigor and lodging scores. It reaches 50% heading about 81 days, 4 days earlier than L-207 and 2 days earlier than L-206. L-208 is 9 cm shorter than L-207 and 4 cm taller than L-206.
Milling and Quality
L-208 paddy rice is slightly shorter (10.07 mm) and narrower (2.36 mm) than both L-207 (10.48 mm/2.41 mm) and L-206 (10.12 mm/2.46 mm). The 1000-grain weight of L-208 milled rice is 20.61 g which is lighter than L-207 (21.63 g) and heavier than L-206 (19.89 g). The length/width ratio of milled rice of L-208 (3.56) is like L-207 (3.57) but higher than L-206 (3.40). Overall, the L-208 grain is relatively smaller and narrower than L-207 and L-206.
Milling characteristics is an important component of the overall quality of a rice variety. The head rice yield of L-208 when harvested at 18-22% moisture was 62/69 (head/total) compared to 62/69 and 58/67 for L-207 and L-206, respectively. The percentage of total rice of L-208 appeared to be equal or slightly higher than L-207 and distinctly higher than L-206. Overall, in all three-moisture range, the L-208 performed better than both L-207 and L207 (Table 4). USDA FGIS milling evaluation of L-208 in 2019 is 72/74 Head/Total compared to 69/73 and 72/74 for L-206 and L-207, respectively.
RVA and Quality Evaluation
The mean apparent amylose content of L-208 is 23.94% compared to 24.25 and 22.16% for L-207 and L-206, respectively. Having moderately high amylose content and intermediate gel type like L-207 and L-206, L-208 cooks similar compared to conventional long grain L-207 and L-206.
L-208 was characterized by having slightly higher peak viscosity, trough, breakdown values, final viscosity value, lower negative setback and equal pasting time compared to L-207. Internal and external cooking and tasting evaluations confirmed the acceptability of L-208 as regular long grains for the market.
Blanking and Disease Screening Test
L-208 had an average blanking percentage of 3% compared to 3% and 4% for L-207 and L-206 respectively, in San Joaquin cold location. Given the general sensitivity of the long grains to cold temperatures compared to short and medium grains, L-208 is recommended only in warmer areas or in those areas where the long grain L-207 or L-206 performed well.
L-208 showed moderate to susceptible stem rot reaction like L-207 and L-206. For blast disease, L-208, L-207 and L-206 showed similar moderately susceptible blast response.
Area of Adaptation
L-208 provides California rice growers an adapted regular long grain rice to grow rice for long grain market. It is competitive in yield, maturity, and milling quality with other adapted RES long grains. It is not recommended in the cool or cold rice producing environments.