Project Description
Two seed lots of short statured flax were developed by the CDC Flax Breeding program through the selection of short flax varieties identified from grow outs of the World Collection and subsequent seed increases in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Both increases were rogued for tall plants in 2019, plants were characterized by having 4 to 6 seeds per boll and hard to thresh bolls. The seed harvested in 2019 was cleaned, weighed and tested for germination by the CDC and was provided to SaskFlax in the spring of 2020 for the purpose of seeding a strip trial to determine if: 1) it is possible to harvest short statured flax using standard sized commercial harvesting equipment, 2) if the straw produced from a short flax crop chops better than that of a current commercial variety, and 3) if the bolls produced by short statured flax are produced high enough off the ground to allow for adequate pick up using standard commercial harvest equipment.
The two seed lots were seeded in a flax field on May 15 on Shane Stokke’s farm in Watrous, Saskatchewan. The strips were seeded at 48 lb/ac, with 10-inch row spacing and were 5.5 to 6 acres in size. The strip trial was subjected to the same commercial practices as the adjacent commercial flax crop. The trial was rolled with a land roller at the same time as the adjacent flax field when the flax was 2 to 4” tall to push in rocks and dirt clumps for ease of harvest.
The first rain was not received until June 6 and emergence was low and variable due in part to this and the low germination rate of the seed lots (~72-74%). The plants that did emerge established well but weeds, especially volunteer canola and wild oats, predominated later in the season. The trial was desiccated with Reglone (diquat). The Lot 1 plants were shorter and more uniform than the Lot 2 plants and both contained a mixture of blue and white flowered plants.
The plots were harvested on October 13 with a Case IH 8450 combine with a straight cut header at a speed of 5 miles per hour using both rigid and flex header modes. The plants of both strip plots fed into the header well and did not get hung up on the cutter bar. Despite the heavy weed infestation, there were a few small sections in each plot where the density of short statured plants was high and these combined just as well as other sections of the plots. Inspection of the ground after combining determined that there was no noticeable straw on the ground compared to the adjacent flax crop where small clumps of flax straw were present. Harvesting using the rigid mode left behind a few bolls on the plants and more bolls than the flax mode. No harvest issues were encountered. The seed harvested was of good visual quality and was predominantly yellow in colour. Videos of combining and cleaning were made.
The 2020 strip trial was a success and gave an indication that short statured flax is capable of being harvested by commercial harvesting equipment, but the low flax plant population and high weed population of the trial made it difficult to come to a definitive conclusion. A repeat of the same trial in 2021 using the seed harvested from the 2020 trial to perform another evaluation of the harvest potential of short statured flax under more typical cropping conditions would be useful.
