Anti-stress technology of winter oilseed rape production. Number of pods and branches at oilseed rape- an appropriate parameter for predicting the yields?

The structure of winter oilseed rape hybrid varieties stands in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany is fundamentally different. The number of plants is in all countries around 25-35 per 1 m2 in direct relation to the standard sowing rate of about 50 seeds / m2. Czech and Slovak oilseed rape has at almost the same stand density only about 49.3 % pods per 1 m2 in comparison to MVP / Germany. Oilseed rape has about 15 % of pods on 2nd order branches in Mecklenburg Vorpommern (MVP), but only 10.8 % in Czech and Slovak Republics. The number of pods at the top of oilseed rape plants (at terminal) amounted to 53 in Germany, but 42 in CR / SR. The structure of the stand has improved when the seed rate increased from 50 to 80 seeds per 1 m2 and after application of about 46 kg/ha N in late October and early November and seed yield increased by 5.5 % (250 kg/ha) in CR/SR.