Special Requirements and Standards

Limitation of Generations

The certification of hybrid pearl millet shall be limited to Foundation (inbred lines) and Certified (commercial hybrid) classes.

General Field Standards

Land History 

Land planted for the production of certified seed shall not have grown or been seeded to another cultivated variety of millet, broomcorn, sorghum, sorghum-sudangrass or sudangrass during the previous year.

Field Inspection

Fields producing certified seed of any class shall be inspected during the bloom stage, preferably full bloom. A second inspection shall be made after the plants begin to mature. Identifiable off-type plants should be removed before blooming occurs.

Unit of Certification

A portion of a field may be accepted for certification if the non-eligible portion does not affect the genetic purity of the certified portion.

Isolation

Fields planted for certified seed production shall have the following minimum isolation distance from fields of any other millet variety or fields of the same variety that do not meet varietal purity requirements for certification:

Specific Field Standards

Pollen Shedding by Sterile Seed Parents

The maximum permitted frequency of female shedders at any one inspection shall be 1:500 in both Foundation increase fields and Certified hybrid production fields.

Pollen shedders in the sterile female rows of Foundation increase fields shall be removed prior to harvest. Shedders remaining in the field at the final inspection will be considered as off-types subject to the field standard for the Foundation class.

Other Varities and Off-types

The maximum permitted frequencies of other varieties and/or off-types in either the seed parent or the pollen parent shall be: