Developing a rapid method to evaluate pod-drop in canola

The Challenge

With pod drop contributing 35% (±16%) to yield loss on hybrid canola, further testing is required to support the ‘Pod Resistant Retention’ (PRR) method for quantitative results.

The Project

Further explore the PRR method to validate this potentially fast and inexpensive method to estimate pod-drop in canola across several genotypes and environments.

The Results

Important variance components that contribute to PRR, pod drop, and pod shatter were separated from minor variance components which allowed for refinement of a method that can be used to measure PRR in Brassica napus.

Grower Benefits

Significant relationship between average specific pod-retention resistant and total pod drop was identified. This will be useful to breeders for the development of varieties with decreased harvest losses (increase pod retention).