Canola and Camelina Variety Yields and Pathogen Susceptibility
Project Investigators: Scot Hulbert, WSU; David Huggins, ARS
January, 2008 Progress Report
What is known:
Winter Brassicas have higher yield potential than spring cultivars but are very difficult to get stands established after legumes or cereals are harvested; the late plantings are still seedlings when winter weather starts, resulting in winter kill.
What is not known:
It is not known whether canola cultivars exist that are well adapted to rapid fall growth after late fall plantings, or winter survival as small seedlings. Planting methods that enhance winter survival of small seedlings are also not known. Experimental lines of winter camelina have been developed, but their performance in the high rainfall regions of eastern WA has not been tested.
Experimental design and preliminary observations:
We planted replicated trials of 64 winter canola varieties at the Palouse Conservation Field Station on September 20. The site was planted directly into spring wheat stubble with a direct seed drill. The ground was extremely dry, and sufficient rainfall to germinate the seeds was not achieved until October 4. As a result, the seedlings were still at the cotyledon stage when the first frost came three weeks later. The temperatures dropped to roughly 20oF which killed the vast majority of the seedlings in all cultivars. We will not know if some varieties are slightly better able to survive these conditions until early spring. The fall rains are not typically quite this late, and it is clearly not advisable to plant winter canola in a situation where the crop does not germinate until October. The second Reardon planting (planted September 17) may be a better test of whether some canola varieties are able to stand winter conditions as small plants. Most of these seedlings were only ~ one inch across in mid October.
Winter and spring camelina lines were planted adjacent to the winter canola trial at the PCFS. These were also planted with a direct seed drill, but the seed was placed near the soil surface. These were also only at the cotyledon stage when the first frost hit. Both the spring and winter types appeared to be unaffected by this first frost. This planting should be a good test of their winter survivability after very late fall plantings. We will plant spring types adjacent to these plantings in the spring, to compare the yield potential of the spring and winter types and the spring types at the two different planting dates.
We also examined the resistance/susceptibility of canola and other crucifer oilseed crops to two taxa of Rhizoctonia solani. One of the R. solani species causes root rot of wheat and can be particularly bad in direct seed systems. The other R. solani is known to be particularly severe in Brassica crops. All of the species and varieties we examined were susceptible to the fungi, including camelina, as well as yellow, brown and Ethiopian mustards. The hybrid cultivars Flash and Sitro, from the German company DSV, and the open-pollinated DeKalb variety CWH688 showed the most tolerance to the two Rhizoctonia strains in greenhouse tests, but these tests need to be repeated. Several fungicidal seed treatments were also tested, but were ineffective in reducing damping-off.
Heading using the h3tag
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