The Stellenbosch University Plant Breeding Laboratory (SU-PBL), situated on Welgevallen experimental farm, focuses on the overall crop improvement of small grains via conventional breeding methods. As part of this, the group has a wheat pre-breeding programme and a semi-commercial triticale breeding programme.
Wheat and Triticale breeding programme:
Since 2002, a marker-assisted recurrent selection (MS-MARS) scheme has been used to enrich a local wheat base population with novel genes. These genes are pyramided to breed wheat lines that have a broad-spectrum resistance to common wheat pathogens, including wheat rusts. These advanced breeding lines are released annually as wheat rust resistance nurseries and can be utilised by South African wheat breeding programmes as crossing parents.
Apart from the wheat pre-breeding programme, SU-PBL has released 14 commercial cultivars as part of their semi-commercial Triticale breeding programme. Most of the Triticale currently planted in the Western Cape has been bred at SU-PBL. This man-made hybrid is a cross between wheat and rye and can thrive under marginal conditions.
