Categories: Canola; Agronomy; Oil Quality

ECODA project number: B.2.2 and B.2.3

Principal investigator: Balakrishnan Prithiviraj

Executive summary

Marine bio-products have been known to induce plant responses such as altered fatty acid biosynthesis, induce plant defense to pathogens, improve crop growth under unfavourable environments and increase seed yield under limiting growth conditions.

A number of products were tested in this project. Seed germination at 10 and 15°C was not affected by treatments. However, a considerable increase in germination was observed at 25°C with treatments, particularly seaweed extract (3g/l), λ -carrageenan (3g/l) and chitosan (0.05g/l). Plants with SW, λ -carrageenan and chitosan were also taller than control plants at 25°C. To some extent, the fatty acid contents, particularly C18:1, C18:3 and C24:0 were altered in greenhouse experiment whereas C18:1 and C18:3 were altered in the field experiments, suggesting further detailed experiments are needed to determine this effect. Treatments also showed an increase in oil content that ranged from 0.5-2.0 %, indicating for a need of further scientific exploration. Seaweed extract (2g/l) lowered the percentage of sterility in canola at 25°C in the greenhouse, indicating potential of bioactive treatments to reduce sterility and increase seed yield. Overall, there were improvements in agronomic parameters in the field, but without statistical significance.

  • Sub-activity B.2.2: Testability of marine bio-products to alleviate temperature stress in the field, greenhouse and growth chamber
  • Sub-activity B.2.3: Evaluate effects of marine bio-products on oil content and fatty acid composition of oil in greenhouse and field studies

Access the research project’s final report.

Evaluation of natural products on agronomic features of canola: Effect of treatments on crop germination, growth, fatty acid profile and yield of canola in Eastern Canada