Breeding Bigger Sunflower Seeds

Breeding Bigger Sunflower Seeds 28-2-9 If you like to eat sunflower seeds, you've got a real friend in Ray Meuchel. For the past 30 years, the Salem, Ore. man has been trying to breed a bigger confectionery seed. "I grew up eating them in North Dakota, but when I moved to Oregon, there just weren't any," explains Meuchel. "I started growing them to eat and began breeding them as a hobby. They kept getting bigger, but so did the problems with them." Now retired from a career as a UPS driver, Meuchel is breeding sunflowers full time and getting closer to what he says is the perfect seed. In 1991 he got his first seed over an inch long, nearly twice the length of commercial seeds. In 1997 he got his first kernels over an inch long. The problem since then has been to make sure the kernals inside the large shells are always large. His goal is a 1 1/2-in. seed with a 1-in. kernel. "Its been my feeling from the start that you can only fool the customer so many times before he wises up," he says, about large shells that sometimes have small seeds inside. He notes that confectionery sunflowers are not a big market in this country. However, in Spain, Turkey and China, the consumers will come running for a larger seed, he adds. Meuchel has come a long way from backyard breeding. Today he is working with University researchers from Oregon and North Dakota and a major seed company. They are searching for chromosome markers for the large kernel/large seed. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ray Meuchel, 1135 Clearlake Rd. NE, Salem, Ore. 97303 (ph 503 390-1371; email: karaym@juno.com).

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