Have we bred OSR to lose hardiness?

[grommet]

Untreated always gets away first - any difference between conventional or hybrids getting hammered this year? or are they both the sheep / lemmings of the plant world..

 

[shakerator]

Keep seeing fields of osr melt away from me. Its not slugs but its a lack of hardiness and vigour within them.

Plenty of broadleaf weeds can grow but Osr @ 3kg acre is just not able to grow with much joy.

Is the plant too far removed from its ancestors at our expense?

Even the flea beetle rampage makes me wonder. Would wild plants in the same family be similarly hammered?

yes
radish much better

modern canola were bred from sprouted seeds cut in half to check they were low in euricic/ glucs!

 

[quattro]

They don't have any seed treatment is a big clue.
Germination percentage usually quoted pre-treatment.
Did tramline trials many years ago. Untreated appeared in 2-4 days, cruiser 3-5 days and the standard at that time 7-8 days. Percentages including volunteers in the rows 101, 96, 82%.
Try it yourself.
Remember the spring rape problem years ago. It was 2.
too deep too shallow too dry too wet but nobody mentioned too much antagonistic seed dressing.

Probably why volunteer osr grows so well in fields that’s been combined

 

[Brisel]

Tried clear field?
Could be a build up of su chemistry.
Clear field isn't affected.
What's your rotation history?

Clearfield tolerates SUs, it's not immune to them. A spray miss in my Clearfield 2 years ago was a foot taller at harvest, once I've pulled the weeds out by hand.

 

[nick...]

Probably been bred to make us spend more in inputs.very likely the last year here.woukd rather fallow than grow it.looking foreward to a winter of chasing pigeons and having gas guns vandalised and or stolen
Nick...

 

[Badshot]

Clearfield tolerates SUs, it's not immune to them. A spray miss in my Clearfield 2 years ago was a foot taller at harvest, once I've pulled the weeds out by hand.

Correct, but tolerance is much better than standard osr curling it's toes up

 

[SilliamWhale]

The charlock in the field is spotless the rape is a slug hammered curled up barley existing mess.

I hate the stuff

 

[CJS]

IMHO the land is “rape sick”, I think crops would be much more robust if one could find land where OSR had never been grown.

Got some on land that had its only ever rape crop in 2001 hammered like the rest Hardly any left around here in mid Suffolk

 

[Simon Chiles]

The charlock in the field is spotless the rape is a slug hammered curled up barley existing mess.

I hate the stuff

Surely then the answer is simple, don’t bother with it and grow something else.

 

[Brisel]

Surely then the answer is simple, don’t bother with it and grow something else.

Which break crop pays best for you, Simon?

 

[Simon Chiles]

Which break crop pays best for you, Simon?

That’s a difficult one to answer as it can vary year on year. The one conclusion I’ve come to recently is that quite a few break crops benefit from being grown on a wide rotation. For us this year it was linseed. Left over winter, sprayed of with roundup pre drilling, slapped in with the 750, no insecticide, ally and graminicide in crop, 100kgN/ha and Reglone’d off. 30 tonnes off 9.97ha at 8% mc and sold for £355/tonne of the field.

 

[Brisel]

That's a good story. What about your other break crops?

 

[Blaithin]

Put it in your bird feeders and harvest your flower beds next year. I grow amazing crops of volunteer canola there every year and that’s when I weed.

 

[Simon Chiles]

That's a good story. What about your other break crops?

You only asked me which one payed best. The point I was trying to make is a) I didn’t imagine before, or when I was planting the linseed, that it was going to do so well, b) the reason that it did was probably down to the fact that we’ve never grown linseed in that field for as long as I can remember which is somewhere near 25 years and c) you can spread the risk of break crops by having a decent selection especially as you’re never sure which one will come up trumps.
As you asked how our other how our other break crops here is a brief resume. Winter Beans performed averagely with some better on some farms than others. The seed crops of Oats ( if you count that as a break) also did well with 96% germ and 55kg/hl. My lupins this year weren’t special and would just about break even. I knew it wasn’t a good idea to plant them next to a wood that’s full of pigeons but didn’t count on the locals taking great offence to the Helikites. I had complaints on the local Facebook page about how they were dangerous and could cause a car crash and how they were scaring their dogs. As there aren’t footpaths in the field I thought the answer was for them to keep out but they took offence and burnt through the lines so that I lost the kites. As a consequence I then struggled with pigeon control and also suffered a bit with weeds as I didn’t use a pre em because it was so dry. @parker had the same variety this year and I think it was his best year for Lupins. I didn’t have any millet this year ( it did well last year) or Soya ( I have heard of some good yields this year ).

 

[parker]

My Lupins did really well this year averaging 3.5t/ha in the field so was really pleased, I do agree with @Simon Chiles, by growing more breaks it spreads the risk and gives more diversity biology wise, which always makes for a better wheat crop imo.