How to Correctly Determine the Moment for Rapeseed Crop Desiccation Without Yield Loss, an Expert Advises

Published Jul 8, 2025

Tridge summary

It is very important to correctly determine the timing of desiccation of winter rapeseed with diquats, says Alexander Kovalenko, product development manager at DSV-Ukraine. This can be done quickly by examining the plants. If the upper tier of pods is fully ripe and the middle tier is already fully ripe, while the lower tier, which is most shaded, has lemon-colored pods but brown seeds, closer to a dark color, the combine will not physically thresh it and this tier needs to be dried. In other words, diquat treatment should be done when the top 2 tiers are already ripe.

Original content

This year, rapeseed harvesting will be delayed by at least 7 or 10 days. Moreover, due to autumn and spring weather conditions, there are many thinned crops, and non-synchronous flowering is almost a typical phenomenon this year. This was noted by Oleksandr Kovalenko, product development manager at DSV-Ukraine, at the "All-Ukrainian Field Day. Profit Formula" organized by the Ukrainian Bean and Soybean Association (UBSA) and the technological seed agricultural enterprise TVK Seed Agrocompany. "Breeders try to collect the entire pod layer in the upper tier, but there is a part of the pods in the lower tier that can be lost during harvesting by combine, or if we do not correctly determine the phase of desiccant application, we can put the entire pod layer at risk," the specialist emphasized. According to him, in the latter case, one should simply correctly determine the time for desiccation with diquats. This can be done quickly by examining the plants. If the upper pod tier is ...

Source: Superagronom