<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Crop yield per area is the product of plant density and productivity of an individual plant. Plant density and the time of winter oilseed rape sowing influences yield components (parameters of individual plant productivity), such as pod number per plant, seed number per pod, plant productivity, seed weight, and plant branching. The aim of this three-year (2008–2010) study was to investigate winter oilseed rape yield components depending on sowing date (five sowing dates) and sowing rate (four sowing rates for each variety) as initial cause of plant density at harvest for two type winter oilseed rape varieties (open pollinated ‘Californium’ and hybrid ‘Excalibur’). Field trials were carried out at the Research and Study Farm “Vecauce” of the Latvia University of Agriculture. Winter oilseed rape yield components (pod number per plant and seed number per pod, plant productivity (seed number per plant and plant productivity in g) as well as the number of primary branches per plant) were affected (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) by sowing date and rate for both varieties. In general, no significant effect of sowing rate on 1000-seed weight was observed (<italic>p</italic> > 0.05), but sowing date influenced this component significantly (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05). A yield compensation mechanism was demonstrated by significant (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) negative correlations between plant density at harvest and parameters of individual plant productivity.</p></abstract>

Crop yield per area is the product of plant density and productivity of an individual plant. Plant density and the time of winter oilseed rape sowing influences yield components (parameters of individual plant productivity), such as pod number per plant, seed number per pod, plant productivity, seed weight, and plant branching. The aim of this three-year (2008–2010) study was to investigate winter oilseed rape yield components depending on sowing date (five sowing dates) and sowing rate (four sowing rates for each variety) as initial cause of plant density at harvest for two type winter oilseed rape varieties (open pollinated ‘Californium’ and hybrid ‘Excalibur’). Field trials were carried out at the Research and Study Farm “Vecauce” of the Latvia University of Agriculture. Winter oilseed rape yield components (pod number per plant and seed number per pod, plant productivity (seed number per plant and plant productivity in g) as well as the number of primary branches per plant) were affected (p < 0.05) by sowing date and rate for both varieties. In general, no significant effect of sowing rate on 1000-seed weight was observed (p > 0.05), but sowing date influenced this component significantly (p < 0.05). A yield compensation mechanism was demonstrated by significant (p < 0.05) negative correlations between plant density at harvest and parameters of individual plant productivity.

Sowing Date and Rate Effect on Winter Oilseed Rape (<italic>Brassica napus</italic> L.) Yield Components’ Formation

Faculty of Agriculture, Latvia University of Agriculture, Lielā iela 2, Jelgava, LV-3001,

Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Section B. Natural, Exact, and Applied Sciences.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Sowing Date and Rate Effect on Winter Oilseed Rape ( L.) Yield Components’ Formation

Crop yield per area is the product of plant density and productivity of an individual plant. Plant density and the time of winter oilseed rape sowing influences yield components (parameters of individual plant productivity), such as pod number per plant, seed number per pod, plant productivity, seed weight, and plant branching. The aim of this three-year (2008–2010) study was to investigate winter oilseed rape yield components depending on sowing date (five sowing dates) and sowing rate (four sowing rates for each variety) as initial cause of plant density at harvest for two type winter oilseed rape varieties (open pollinated ‘Californium’ and hybrid ‘Excalibur’). Field trials were carried out at the Research and Study Farm “Vecauce” of the Latvia University of Agriculture. Winter oilseed rape yield components (pod number per plant and seed number per pod, plant productivity (seed number per plant and plant productivity in g) as well as the number of primary branches per plant) were affected (p  0.05), but sowing date influenced this component significantly (p < 0.05). A yield compensation mechanism was demonstrated by significant (p < 0.05) negative correlations between plant density at harvest and parameters of individual plant productivity.

Crop yield per area is the product of plant density and productivity of an individual plant. Plant density and the time of winter oilseed rape sowing...

Sowing Date and Rate Effect on Winter Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) Yield Components’ Formation

Published Online: Mar 01, 2017

Page range: 384 - 392

Received: Mar 20, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/prolas-2016-0058

Keywords
winter oilseed rape, sowing date and rate, final plant density, yield components

© 2016 Oskars Balodis et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Sowing Date and Rate Effect on Winter Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) Yield Components’ Formation

Published Online: Mar 01, 2017

Page range: 384 - 392

Received: Mar 20, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/prolas-2016-0058

Keywordswinter oilseed rape, sowing date and rate, final plant density, yield components

© 2016 Oskars Balodis et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
winter oilseed rape, sowing date and rate, final plant density, yield components