Abstract
Canola (Brassica napus L.) has potential to become alternative cash crop (healthy oil for human and meals for animal uses) with tremendous rotational benefits in the Southwestern U.S., a region dominated by cereal-fallow cropping systems. However, information on optimum planting date for its successful production is limited. Field experiments were conducted in 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons under irrigation condition to study the response of canola growth and yield to planting dates at Clovis, NM. Three planting dates (mid-September, late-September and early-October) and four canola varieties (early flowering: DKW41-10 and DKW46-15; medium flowering: Riley and Wichita) are studied. Fall plant stand density is significantly higher for early-October than mid- and late-September plantings. However, a ratio of fall to spring plant stand density indicates a greater reduction in spring plant stand density with early-October (25%) and mid-September (19%) than late-September (7%). Vegetative (by 13 days) and flowering (by 7 days) duration phases are significantly shortened with delay in planting. The decline in aboveground dry matter (DM) due to delayed planting resulted in significant seed yield reduction in both 2011-12 (26%) and in 2012-13 (8%) when early-October and mid-September plantings were compared. There was a positive relationship between final DM and canola seed yield, accounting for 84 and 34% variation for 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, respectively with the 2011-12 environmental conditions being conducive for genetically controlled variation in DM production to be more apparent and strong in explaining the variation in seed yield among varieties. Medium-flowering varieties produced higher DM (9741 vs. 8371 Kg•ha-1) and seed yield (2785 vs. 2035 Kg•ha-1) than early-flowering varieties. In addition to seed yield, DM can be used as an indirect selection criterion for seed yield in variety selection and appropriate planting dates including a guarantee for high crop residues (~75% of the total aboveground biomass) production to make canola a potential alternative cash and rotational break crop in the Southwestern U.S.
Highlights
Canola has become the second largest oil crop after soybean in the world in just two decades [1] [2]
When a ratio of fall to spring plant stand density was compared which was a good indicator of winter survival; a greater reduction in spring plant stand density occurred with early-October and mid-September than the late-September plantings
The shorting of the vegetative duration was the main cause for the decline in above ground dry matter production leading to lower seed yield with delayed planting
Summary
Canola has become the second largest oil crop after soybean in the world in just two decades [1] [2]. Canola’s benefits as a good break/rotational crop are another factor for the increase in canola production in a region with cereal-fallow or continuous cereal based cropping systems [4]-[8]. Grower’s interest in winter canola in the Southern Great Plains of the USA is increasing in part to the benefits mentioned above and the crop’s good fit to the growing conditions and cropping systems of the region. Winter canola production area has increased from about 20,000 in 2009 to over 73,000 ha in 2012 in the Southern Great Plains [8]. There is limited information on optimum planting date for winter canola in this region, the Southwestern U.S in particular
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