Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

J. VOLLMANN and P. RUCKENBAUER:

Agronomie performance and oil quality of crambe as affected by genotype and environment

Summary

Crambe (Crambe abyssinica Hochst, Ex. R. E. Fries) is a new industrial oilseed crop with a high content of erucic acid and a considerable agronomie potential. A set of eleven accessions of crambe was subjeeted to field trials from 1988 to 1991 at Gross Enzersdorf and from 1990 to 1991 at Gleisdorf, Austria. Both the agronomic performance as well as seed composition were investigated as influenced by genetic and environmental factors, Seed yields in the broad range of 972 to 3328 kg/ha were observed across all genotypes and environments. Variation in seed yield was predominantly due to environmental effects whereas broad sense heritability estimated among genetic entries was low. Oil content of pods (seed + pericarp) was in the range of 22.6 to 38.4 % of pod dry matter and erucic acid content made up 53.9 to 63.1 % of seed oil Erucic acid content was significantly affected by genotype and location, highest contents of erucic acid were found in BGRC 34311 and BelAnn. Generally, variation in erucic acid content was lower than in other fatty acids such as oleic, linoleic or linolenie acid, which were significantly influenced by temperature during the period of seed development. Key-words: Crambe abyssinica, yield, oil composition, erucic acid.