Rapeseed is a very popular crop. It comes in two spring and winter varieties and can be an annual or biennial plant.

Rapeseed is primarily an oil plant from which rapeseed oil, popular in cooking, is produced, but it is also used in other industries.

In Poland, mainly winter rapeseed varieties are grown. They constitute as much as 90% of all oil crops grown in our country. The largest European producers of rapeseed are France and Germany.

The use of rapeseed - not only edible oil

Rapeseed is very popular because rapeseed seeds have a very wide range of uses. First of all, it is used in the food industry, mainly for the production of oil, as well as other cooking fats and margarine.

Rapeseed can also be used to produce nutritious animal feed. Increasingly, the plant is also used as fuel for steam boilers and as a component of biodiesel fuel used in diesel engines.

Rapeseed is also used to produce varnish, fiberboards and beekeeping products. As you can see, this plant is very versatile.

Biodiesel is produced from rapeseed oil, i.e. diesel oil for diesel engines, and is used as fuel for steam boilers.

Which seeds to sow rapeseed?

When choosing rapeseed seeds for sowing rapeseed, it is worth considering their high quality. The better the grain, the higher the yield you can get. In the case of winter rapeseed seeds, it is worth paying attention to their winter hardiness and high yield.

The variety's resistance to diseases caused by pests, weeds and fungi is also important. Spring rapeseed is not very popular in Poland, but interest in it is constantly growing. This is due to the fact that it is more resistant to weeds and fungi, which reduces the costs of herbicide and fungicide protection.

Common rapeseed diseases

The quality and quantity of rapeseed harvests may be significantly reduced due to the presence of weeds and pathogens. Currently, Polish farmers are facing new challenges in this area, including the turnip yellows virus and cabbage clubroot virus transmitted by aphids.

Winter varieties are particularly susceptible to both of these diseases. Turnip yellows is a disease that appears in autumn, and its most characteristic symptom is red, purple or yellow discoloration visible on the leaves.

Turnip yellows infection leads to rapeseed losing leaves, and in spring to stunted growth and reduced yield by reducing the number of side shoots. Cabbage clubroot is one of the most dangerous rapeseed diseases.

It attacks the roots of the plant, leading to the formation of growths on it that make it difficult to absorb nutrients from the soil. As a result, the growth of rapeseed is inhibited, which is first manifested by changes in color and then by the plant wilting or even dying.

Due to the emergence of new diseases, it is worth monitoring the rapeseed grain market and investing in new varieties that are characterized by increasingly higher resistance to pathogenic factors.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the wide range of rapeseed seeds available in our store. If you have any questions or doubts, we are here to help.

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