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NW Washington | If your talking about fall seeded rape it should be in the ground now and it needs moisture to germinate and grow to a rosette stage to successfully get through the winter, especially if you have cold freezing weather. Rape is usually planted with a grain drill, just like you would used for wheat. Planting rate would be around 7 or 8 kg/ha and it should be planted shallow, maybe 15 to 20 mm deep. Fertilizer, about like you would for wheat, would be my guess. Keep the fertilizer away from the seed. Harvesting it can be tough. The seed shatters easily and the plant stalks stay green. Most of the spring canola/rape in Canada is swathed green and then combined with a pickup header. I think most European growers harvest it standing. A special header is made that has the sickle moved forward to catch the shattered seed and they use vertical sickles to cut the harvested crop from the standing crop as the gets all tangled together and does not want to feed into the combine. Pests were mentioned earlier. Flea beetles can be a real problem for spring seeded varieties, then come the weevil and aphids. Birds can be a problem too. Wildlife like deer love the green crop during the winter too. All in all, it is not a fun crop to grow. Yields, well the stuff I am familiar with yields about 2.5 to 3 tonnes/ha, but that going to depend on varieties, weather, soil, ect. The fellow from Germany who goes by "Countryman" grows it. Now to find him. Search the internet and you will find some info on growing rape and canola. Mustard is also very similar. | |
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RAPE
