Yield components of winter oilseed rape regard to plant population

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the yield components of winter oilseed rape depending on the plant population in 2017/2018 growing season. Three plant populatios were considered in the study: 20, 40 and 60 plants m-2. At harvest several yield components were determined: plant height (cm), plant mass (g), height of the first fertile branch (cm), number of fertile lateral branches, number of pods per plant, length of the pod (cm), number of seeds per pod, mass of seeds per pod (g), number of seeds per plant, 1000 grain mass (g) and yield of seeds per plant (g). At the plant population of 40 plants m-2 the plants were the highest (153.4 cm), with the highest plant mass (295.3 g) and the number of lateral fertile branches (5.6 branches per plant). Furthermore, the plants from 40 plants m^-2 had the highest number of pods per plant (716 pieces), the longest pods (6.5 cm) with the largest number of seeds per pod (21.0) and the number of seeds per plant (15 036 seeds). The highest and significant correlation coeficient was found between number of pods per plant and plant mass (r=0.890***) and than between the number of lateral branches and number of pods per plant (r=0.850***). Linear regression showed that for every centimeter increment of pod length the number of seeds increase for 4.8 seeds at 20 and 40 plants m^-2 and for 5.5 seeds per pod at 60 plants m^-2. Furthermore, regression analysis showed that for every centimeter pod length increment the seeds mass per pod increase on average of all plant population for 0.02 g.