Winter Turnip Rape (Brassica rapa L. subsp. campestris) is an annual plant of the Brassicaceae family intended for seed production, fodder, and early nectar production. The variety belongs to type 00, which means the absence of erucic acid and low glucosinolate content, as well as a diploid structure. It grows quickly, reaching a height of 69 to 146 cm depending on growing conditions, and has erect stems with medium-length, lobed, light-green leaves.
The vegetative period of turnip rape is approximately 292–316 days. Flowering is early, allowing its use as a cover crop in off-season plantings and obtaining a seed yield of 18–19 c/ha with fat content of about 44–45%. The plant is distinguished by good resistance to various pathogens: weak infection with alternaria, fusarium, bacterial root rot, phoma, and downy mildew. Moreover, turnip rape tolerates cold (winter hardiness 3.8–8 points) and moderate drought well.
Turnip rape has a number of agronomic advantages: it requires practically no care, quickly loosens the soil, displaces weeds with dense green mass, enriches soils with nitrogen and biohumus. Thanks to these properties, the plant reduces the incidence of blight, scab, rhizoctonia, and fusarium, and also reduces the population of wireworms. The variety is suitable for growing on practically any soils, but it is not recommended to plant it in fields where other brassica crops were previously grown if the interval between sowings is less than five years.
Thus, winter turnip rape type 00 represents a universal and reliable crop, suitable both for seed and fodder production and for improving soil structure and reducing pathogen load in agroecosystems.
