Browsing by Author "Grönroos, Sanna"

Organic agriculture is growing steadily in Europe. Demand for organic products and pressure from policy changes in the EU have created a need for organic seed material. One of the limiting factors is the lack of organic variety testing. Currently no official organic Value of Cultivation and Use (VCU) trials or standards for organic variety testing excist in the EU. Plant breeding companies like Boreal Plant Breeding want to offer varieties for organic farmers but they lack information on the performance of their varieties in organic conditions. The main objective of this experiment was to determine the most important variety traits in organic agriculture in Finland and which of the Boreal Plant Breeding oat varieties exhibit the most favourable traits for organic growing conditions. Relationships between observed traits were also examined. A wide range of observations and measurements were performed from the trial throughout the growing season. Quality analysis of the yield were performed after harvest. The objects of examination during growing season included growth development, leaf area index (LAI), nutrient status with SPAD (Soil and Plant Analysis Development) measurements, plant height and yield components. Plant height and LAI appeared to be the best indicators for evaluation of performance potential of oat in organic conditions. SPAD value wasn’t found to have a connection to oat yield nor was it an indicator for oat LAI. High LAI increased oat height, yield and yield component shoots/m2 but effected negatively on the yield component panicles/m2 during the end of stem elongation. Plant height was a good indicator of yield level. The number of weeds and LAI value didn’t have a connection in this experiment and neither did weed number and yield. The early and late varieties varied in their reaction to the low-input growing conditions. Early varieties had generally lower yield but better yield quality than the late varieties. ‘Nella’ showed potential to be a variety with good yield quality and high yield in low-input conditions in Southern Finland. Area of cultivation and the end use of the oat are important factors in variety selection.