A NEW BLACK BEAN ..............
Zorro is a new upright black dry bean variety from Michigan State University. Zorro is a high-yielding, midseason-maturing variety with an upright, short-vine growth habit and excellent canning quality. Zorro is resistant to strains of bean anthracnose, rust and bean common mosaic virus in Michigan and is partially resistant to common bacterial blight. Zorro most closely resembles Jaguar in plant appearance but is more vigorous and higher yielding and has good canning quality and enhanced disease resistance to common bacterial blight.
Agronomic Information:
• High-yielding, upright black bean variety with resistance to lodging.
• Erect, short-vine growth habit suitable for direct harvest.
• Matures in 95 days, four days earlier than Shania and Black Velvet.
• Uniform maturity and excellent dry-down.
• Only black bean variety with moderate resistance to common bacterial blight.
• Resistant to strains of anthracnose, rust and mosaic virus.
• Similar in seed size and shape to T-39.
• Good canning quality and color retention after cooking.
• Better resistance to lodging (<2) than T-39 .
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Plants average 21 inches in height.
Zorro has been tested for five years (2004-08) over 35 locations by MSU in Michigan, New York and Ontario. Over all 35 locations, Zorro yielded 27.8 hundredweight (cwt)/acre and significantly exceeded the yield of all other entries at the locations tested. Yield ranged from a high of 44.4 cwt/acre in Brussels, Ontario, in 2008 to a low of 17.3 cwt/acre in Tuscola County in 2006. Over the locations tested, Zorro significantly outyielded all the commercial check varieties: Jaguar (92 percent), Condor (91 percent), T-39 (87 percent), Eclipse (89 percent) and Domino (92 percent). With narrow row width (20 inches) and direct harvest in Saginaw, Zorro yielded from 39 to 41cwt/acre in 2005 and 2006 and appears well-suited to this increasingly popular management system. In similar direct harvest, narrow-row trials at Brussels and Kippen, Ontario, in 2008, Zorro yielded the highest. In comparative trials over 14 locations in 2008, Zorro yielded 28.3 cwt/acre compared with 27.8 cwt/acre for the full-season black bean Shania.
Quality Characteristics:
Zorro has a typical small, opaque black bean seed averaging 21 grams per 100 seeds. Size ranges from 19 to 24 grams per 100 seeds.
The seed is equivalent to T-39 in size, shape and color.
Pricing:
Michigan Certified Zorro Black Bean Seed is available from Schmidt Farms of Auburn
® for 2012 planting. All seed is precision processed and treated with Cruiser Maxx® and Streptomycin®. Seed is currently priced at $90.00 per cwt ($45.00 per 50# unit).