Preliminary Evaluations of Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) Varieties and Populations for Grain Yield in the Pacific Northwest USA.

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) is a pseudocereal domesticated in western South America with unique nutritional properties and potential adaptability to a wide diversity of environments. Because of these properties, interest has developed in introducing quinoa production to new regions around the globe to diversify food and agricultural systems. This includes introducing quinoa production to the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States where a cool temperate climate may be particularly well suited to quinoa production. Agronomic evaluations of quinoa grain yield production in the PNW are very limited, thus we evaluated 36 currently available quinoa varieties and populations in 9 location x year combinations in the PNW from 2014 through 2016. Three of these environments failed to produce measurable yield of any entry, possibly due to a combination of abiotic and nutrient stresses. Grain yields of the remaining environments when averaged across entries ranged from 1120.94 kg/ha to 88.92 kg/ha and averaged 502.1 kg/ha. Grain yields of the entries averaged across the environments ranged from 1079.2 kg/ha to 206.3 kg/ha and averaged 523.5 kg/ha. It should be noted that no external inputs were added to these trials. Analyses of genotype x environment (GxE) interactions and entry stability parameters identified significant GxE interactions and divergent stability levels among the entries. Future PNW quinoa research will need to further characterize and consider the management of GxE patterns. Our results also suggest an urgent need to develop agronomic management recommendations for quinoa specific to PNW agriculture to ensure consistently viable yield performance.