Pod Shatter

Oilseed rape can be a difficult crop to grow. Significant yield losses just prior to harvest - when time, care and money have been expended to grow it - can be devastating for growers who experience pod shatter in their crops. 

Pod shatter resistance reduces harvest losses and helps to insure against premature pod shatter. It is an essential trait when selecting a hybrid variety, and the LG breeding programme ensures it is available in all our fully loaded hybrid WOSR varieties.

• A natural process that enables seed dispersion

• Tensions on the pod caused by repeated wetting and drying during wet harvests can cause pods to shatter

• Pod shatter can be quantified as the force required to break a ripe pod

• Random and untimely pod shatter in a commercial crop results in high seed losses

• The pod shatter (POSH) resistance trait was introduced into OSR together with the restorer gene from radish

• Not all Ogura restored hybrids have POSH resistance, but the LG breeding programme ensures it is in all our fully loaded hybrids

• As with all of our traits; LG is continually monitoring the efficacy of our pod shatter resistance against other commercial varieties

• Reduce harvest losses, due to;

- Hailstorms or adverse weather causing damage

- Combine passing through crop

• Security around delayed harvest

• Crop more resilient to repeated drying and wetting if rain occurs during harvest

• Reduce volunteers in the following crop