Batian

A variety found inside another variety's parent

Sourced

Ruiru 11's male parent is a complex hybrid assembled from many ancestors for resistance and quality. The catalogue records that Batian was created by single-tree selections from the fifth generation of that male parent, in some of the Ruiru 11 progenies. By the fifth generation of selecting and re-sowing, a line has largely stopped varying.

Batian is itself a composite, a mix of three such pure lines. The varieties in the original crosses are listed as SL28, SL34, Rume Sudan, N39, K7, SL4 and the Timor Hybrid. Because the Timor Hybrid is among them, the catalogue files Batian as introgressed, but outside the Catimor and Sarchimor groups: no Caturra or Villa Sarchi is involved, which is why it is tall.

Why tall is the feature

Sourced

Most disease-resistant arabica is compact, because the breeding programmes that produced it were aiming at dense, intensively managed plantings. The catalogue describes Batian's combination as rare: a tall variety with disease resistance and resilience. It says the variety can cope with low management and adverse conditions, and calls it well adapted for smallholders.

A smallholder with a few hundred trees and little money for fertiliser is poorly served by a compact, heavy-bearing plant that is rated high for nutrient demand. Batian's requirement is rated medium, where Ruiru 11's is high.

Set against the other Kenyan varieties

Sourced

• Ruiru 11 — Compact, very high yielding and highly resistant to rust, where Batian is tall, high yielding and of intermediate rust resistance. Batian is rated higher for quality and does not depend on hand-pollinated seed.
• SL28 — One of Batian's ancestors. Rated exceptional against Batian's very good, but low yielding and with no resistance to rust or berry disease.
• SL34 — Also an ancestor and also rated exceptional. Medium yield, and susceptible to both diseases Batian was bred to resist.

Where the resistance stops

Sourced

Batian is rated resistant to coffee berry disease, which is the disease Kenyan breeding was organised around. Against leaf rust the catalogue gives it intermediate resistance, a weaker rating than Ruiru 11's, and it is listed as susceptible to nematodes.

Its yield and rust resistance were evaluated across 23 sites in 15 countries in an international variety trial, and the catalogue attaches the usual warning to the result: local performance depends on which races of rust are present.

Why you seldom see it named on a bag

CoffeeHQ explanation

A variety released in 2010 has had little time to fill a country's farms, and coffee trees stay in the ground for decades. Much Kenyan coffee is also sold as the pooled crop of a cooperative, where several varieties are delivered and processed together and the lot is described by the mix. A label reading 'SL28, SL34, Ruiru 11, Batian' reports what members grow, not proportions.

What to do next

• Ruiru 11 — The variety whose parent lines Batian was selected from.
• Timor Hybrid — One of its ancestors, and the reason the catalogue calls it introgressed.
• Kenya — The farming and marketing system the variety was bred for.
• Become a coffee expert — A structured programme from the plant and its processing to roasting, water and tasting.