Seed VarietiesWe grow our own planting seed to ensure West Texas Guar seed is the cleanest and highest quality available. West Texas Guar seed is strictly controlled and tested by the Texas Department of Agriculture to be free of morning glories. Morning glory seed and guar seed are similar in size and weight and difficult to separate if intermixed. West Texas Guar sells four varieties of seed: Kinman, Esser, Lewis, and Santa Cruz. All varieties are glabrous (non-hairy), medium to late maturity, and approximately the same height (about 18 inches) and yield (7 to 9 beans per pod). 
Kinman was released in 1975 by the Texas Agricultural Extension Service (TAEX), the USDA
Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment
Station (OAES). Kinman is a Brooks-Mills cross. It is a fine-branching,
semi-course branching plant. Kinman is a 120-day crop that is highly resistant
to alternaria and bacterial leaf blight. In 41 trials in eight Texas and
Oklahoma locations from 1971 to 1976, Kinman produced 17% more than Brooks
did. 
Esser is also a Brooks-Mills cross that was released in 1975 by the TAEX, the USDA ARS, and
the OAES. Esser plants have a fine-branching, strong stem with fewer lateral branches than Kinman. Esser is highly resistant to alternaria and bacterial leaf blight, and under severe bacterial-blight conditions it demonstrated disease resistance superior to that of Kinman. 
Lewis was released by the TAEX and the USDA ARS in 1986. Lewis plants have few lateral branches and mainly fruit up the stem. The Lewis variety is also highly resistant to alternaria and bacterial leaf blight.
Santa Cruz was
released by the University of Arizona in 1982. It was developed for the high-temperature, low-moisture areas of Arizona. Santa Cruz should respond well to irrigation. We have only conducted one seed trial comparing Santa Cruz with the other varieties. The results were inconclusive due to poor seed germination. |
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