Background : For ginseng breed development, mostly the pure-line separation method that registers excellent varieties after performing the regional adaptation test with the varieties selected through the preliminary and main productivity tests on selected excellent individuals cultivated in farms or excellent lineages for growing from collected lineages is used. Recently, the quality of ginseng is degrading while the yield decreases by 15 - 20% due to the high-temperature injury, the physiological disorder and/or the diseases caused by the climate warming so that development of disaster tolerant varieties strong against high temperatures, salts and diseases are demanded. For such reason, three lineages showing excellent overground and underground growing were selected from the gene resources collected from 1997 to 2000. And the productivity test has been conducted with these lineages having Chunpoong and Yunpoong, the existing varieties as the reference varieties. For the lineages excellent in growing, the variety registration will be performed after the regional adaptation test.
Methods and Results : The results of productivity tests on the 3 lineages (GS98-3-4, GS00-58 and GS97-69) selected for excellent growing while having Chunpoong and Yunpoong as the reference varieties show that on the 2-years-old dormant roots, all of the selected 3 lineages are better in growing compared to the reference varieties. Especially, GS98-3-4 shows excellent leaf lengths and stem lengths while GS97-69 shows excellent leaf widths. On the overground growing of 3-years-old ones, GS00-58 and GS97-69 lineages are exceedingly more excellent compared to the reference varieties while the selected 3 lineages showing superb underground growing. Especially, GS98-3-4 lineage shows great root weights and diameters.
Conclusion : According to the productivity tests on the 3 lineages selected for excellent growing, the selected lineages are excellent in both overground and underground growing compared to the reference varieties of Chunpoong and Yunpoong. On the 2-years-old ginsengs, GS98-3-4 shows excellent overground growing while GS97-69 shows excellent underground growing. On the 3-years-old ginsengs, GS00-58 and GS97-69 show excellent overground growing while GS98-3-4 shows excellent underground growing.