Influence of crop management on formation of yield components of winter oilseed rape

Abstract

The habitus of oilseed rape and its yield component values can be strongly affected by the structure of its stand. Field experiments took place in Central Bohemia in years 2013–2015 aiming at determining the influence of row-spacing (12.5, 25, 35 and 45 cm) on the yield components. Chosen parameters (the number of plants per unit area, the number of pods per plant, the number of seeds per pod and yield) were evaluated at the monitored stands (30 seeds/m<sup>2</sup> sowing rate, cv. DK Exquisite). The study confirmed the statistical significance of the influence of row-spacing on some winter oilseed rape yield components. Widening of the row-spacing has led to a decrease in the number of pods per plant and the number of plants per unit area and an increase in the number of seeds per pod parameter. 1000 seed weight was not affected. This study did not confirm a positive effect of sowing oilseed rape in rows wider than 12.5 cm. Therefore, such an agronomical decision cannot be recommended as a way to achieve higher seed yield.

Effect of fungicide treatment and nitrogen fertilisation on the yield of two breeding types of winter oilseed rape cultivars

“…These results are consistent with those of Budzyński (2010), who in intensive technologies for excessive compaction for hybrid cultivars in spring recognised 60 plants⋅m⁻ 2 . Despite the documented possibility of reducing the amount of seeds sown to 20-40 pure live seeds⋅m⁻ 2 (Krček et al, 2014;Kwiatkowski, 2012;Śmiatacz, 2013), the presented results force taking into account the humidity conditions when determining the seeding rate, especially in the areas characterised by higher probability of precipitation shortage. In addition, the results lead to a hypothesis that under the conditions of predicted global warming, which will result in greater weather variability, the role of the amount of seeds sown, a basic element of rapeseed agrotechnology, in yielding will increase.…”

“…The dependence of humidity conditions of the oilseed rape canopy on the plant density derived from the number of seeds sown explains the research into the effectiveness of protection against pathogens at different sowing rates. The inconclusive results of research on the effect number amount of sowing seeds on the yield level presented so far (Jankowski et al, 2016, Wójtowicz et al, 2017, Krček et al, 2014Kwiatkowski, 2012;Śmiatacz, 2013), and the constant increase of importance of chemical protection against pathogens in the technology of oilseed rape (West et al, 2001) indicate the needs for further study on this subject.…”

Phenotypic plasticity in oilseed rape in response to resource availability

“…Some studies in oilseed rape have evaluated the sensitivity of these yield components to N supply and plant population density, observing a high variation in the number of siliques per plant and in the number of seeds per silique, while the average seed weight was very stable (Habekotté, 1993;Krček et al, 2019;. But there are situations where seed weight becomes an important source of variation in seed yield, namely: when source/sink relations were manipulated, for example through defoliation, plant thinning, seed removal or shading during the reproductive stage (Acreche and Slafer, 2006;Borras et al, 2004;Calderini and Reynolds, 2000;.…”