Early maturing rice cultivars grown in plain areas have an undesirable appearance due to high temperatures during the grain-filling stage. Therefore, developing early maturing rice cultivars with desirable appearance traits in plain areas is the primary goal of rice breeding programs. This study aimed to develop an early maturing rice cultivar adaptable to early transplanting cultivation in the Chungnam plain area. To develop “Yeoreumi,” two breeding materials were used, good-quality “Joami” from the Chungnam plain area and “Hokuto” having the fastest heading date among the genetic resources and originating from Japan. These two resources were crossed in 2010 to develop the “Yeoreumi” cultivar using the pedigree method. A yield trial was conducted in 2015-2016, and a local adaptability test was conducted in 2017-2019. The heading date of “Yeoreumi” was July 10, when it was transplanted early in the Chungnam plain area, and it could be harvested at August end, which was sufficient to produce a fresh stock of rice before “Chuseok, which is the Korean Thanksgiving Day.” The yield of milled rice was approximately 5.29 MT/ha in the local adaptability test, which was 0.47 MT/ha higher than that of “Jinbuolbyeo.” Additionally, its grain quality was good, with 89.9% head rice and 67.6 glossiness of cooked rice. Overall, the results of this study indicated that “Yeoreumi” was suitable for early transplanting cultivation in the Chungnam plain area for “Chuseok,” and could be used as a representative early maturing rice cultivar in Chungcheongnam-do (Registration No. 8597).

‘Bbareumi’ is an extremely early maturing rice cultivar with the fastest harvesting time in Korea. To develop ‘Bbareumi’, ‘Joami’ with good quality in Chungnam plain area and ‘Hokuto’ originating from Japan with the fastest heading date among genetic resources were used as breeding materials. After crossing them in 2010, the ‘Bbareumi’ cultivar was developed using the pedigree method. A yield trial was conducted from 2015 to 2016, and a local adaptability test was conducted from 2016 to 2018. The heading date of ‘Bbareumi’ was seven days earlier than ‘Jinbuolbyeo’, showing an average of June 23^rd, and it could be harvested from the end of July to the beginning of August when transplanted early in Chungnam plain area. ‘Bbareumi’ had a short culm length of 63.3 cm and panicle length of 19.3 cm. Milled rice yield was approximately 4.87 MT/ha and the percentage of head rice was 89.2% under normal fertilizer condition. ‘Bbareumi’ will be used as a premium rice brand with newly harvested rice before ‘Chooseok’, Korean Thanksgiving Day and is expected to contribute to the revitalization of double-cropping in the Chungnam plain area (Registration No. 8130).

Molecular markers of doubled-haploid (DH) and long spike Korean wheat cultivar populations were evaluated to improve the yield potential of Korean wheat breeding programs by improving the tiller numbers. In Korean wheat cultivars, the tiller number was affected more by vernalization (Vrn) and photoperiod (Ppd) than by tiller inhibition gene (tin) and fertile tiller inhibition gene (ftin). Also, it was negatively correlated with the yield. In DH lines, the tiller number was significantly affected by neither the tiller inhibition genes nor Vrn and Ppd. Additionally, it was not significantly correlated with the yield. However, the adaptability of both SSR markers, Xgpw2206 and Xgwm247, was higher in the DH lines than in the other populations. In the long spike population, the tiller number differed according to the Ppd-D1 allele, affecting the yield. In this study, genes and molecular markers related to the tiller number, as described in previous studies, might be difficult to use to evaluate the tiller number and yield of the Korean wheat population. Hence, continuous study is necessary to develop molecular markers suitable for improving the tiller number and yield of Korean wheat cultivars.