ON HARVEST INDEXES OF WINTER OILSEED RAPE (BRASSICA-NAPUS L)

Ten quite different European winter rapeseed cultivars were grown in a 3-year field trial at one location. The traits grain yield and biomass were measured based on single plant measurements (first year) or on plot basis (second and third year). Individual harvest indices were calculated. Besides a general discussion of the experimental results for this collection of winter rapeseed cultivars the main aim of the present investigations was an examination whether these experimental results are in agreement with the theoretical conclusions on harvest indices which have been published in this journal in three preceding publications. Hence the investigations of this paper are divided into the three chapters: 1) Calculation of mean harvest indices, 2) Variability of harvest indices and 3) Correlations among harvest index, grain yield and biomass. In all three chapters the agreement between the empirically obtained and the theoretically expected values is quite good.