Varieties tolerant to clubroot are getting better and better

Odmiany z tolerancją na kiłę kapusty są coraz lepsze

Cultivars with tolerance to clubroot must respond to the evolution of pathogens contributing to the development of the disease.
If we cannot take a break from growing rapeseed, resistant varieties are the only option to sow rapeseed in places where clubroot may occur.

The potential of "kilkiki" is already high

The introduction of kylototolerant varieties revolutionized the rapeseed market. Initially, varieties tolerant to clubroot had lower yield potential, making it a last resort for many growers. Of course, such varieties were sown only on those plantations where the probability of clubroot was very high. In this respect, not much has changed – there is no point in sowing "spiders" in places where this disease should not appear. In fact, such action is not recommended. The key thing now is that when sowing a variety tolerant to clubroot, you no longer have to choose between good yield potential and the possibility of sowing rapeseed. And initially it was like that – varieties with resistance to clubroot usually did not allow for high yields, but they made it possible to sow rapeseed. Currently, these varieties can produce no worse than the leading hybrid varieties.

Breeding has an important task – varieties respond to new challenges

Clubroot is a disease that evolves, i.e. it adapts to changing conditions. This is how all pathogens work, not only those responsible for the development of this disease. Therefore, a very important task is faced by breeding, which periodically introduces varieties with genes supporting tolerance to new and specific breeds of clubroot to the market. In this context, it is worth using new varieties or those introduced to the market in recent years. These have quite high yield potential, and at the same time are able to cope with clubroot races that have already developed some resistance.

A larger share of rapeseed and mustard increased the risk of infection

Why does the problem of clubroot occur in Poland? Just a dozen or so years ago, this disease was not such a big problem in our country, it was more local (in regions with the highest density of rapeseed cultivation). Please note, however, that the rapeseed area has increased significantly. His share in crop rotation has increased over the years. Moreover, catch crops have been regularly appearing in many fields for several years. These in themselves have a very important role in enriching the soil, although many farms sowed mustard as a catch crop – although it was a relatively cheap catch crop, it unfortunately appeared very often in rotation with rapeseed. Meanwhile, introducing mustard in crop rotation with rapeseed is a "suicide goal" because it significantly increases the risk of clubroot infection.

VOC varieties and new items in the register

This year alone, three new varieties have been entered into the national register that are very resistant to clubroot – these are the LG Tarantula, Create and Cromputer varieties. Additionally, the list of recommended varieties includes three more varieties with resistance to clubroot (LG Scorpion, LG Anarion, LG Alltamira).

Varieties with tolerance to cabbage clubroot are usually slightly more expensive, but if we cannot sow another plant on a given plantation (i.e. a break in rapeseed cultivation), it is worth choosing such a proposition. It is worth doing this especially in a situation where rapeseed has appeared on the plantation very often in recent years (or e.g. mustard has often appeared in catch crops), especially since the potential of the best varieties in this segment does not differ from the leading classic hybrid proposals.