CASTOR (Ricinus communis L.) HYBRIDS
I. Application and Amplification of General Seed Certification Standards
The General Seed Certification Standards are basic and together with the following specific standards constitute the standards for certification of hybrid castor seed.
II. Land requirements
Land to be used for seed production of hybrid castor shall be free from volunteer plants.
III. Field Inspection
A minimum of four inspections shall be made as follows:
(1) the first inspection shall be made before flowering in order to determine isolation, volunteer plants, outcrosses, planting ratio, errors in planting, internodal length, stem colour, type of leaves and other relevant factors.
(2) the second and third inspections shall be made during flowering to cheek isolation, offtypes, nature of bloom, petiole, leaves, raceme, sex expressivity, number of nodes to flower and other relevant factors.
(3) the fourth inspection shall be made prior to harvesting after the seed has attained maturity so that true nature of plant can be verified.
IV. Field Standards
A. General requirements
1. Isolation
(a) Seed fields shall be isolated from the contaminants shown in the column 1 of the Table below by the distances specified in columns 2 and 3 of the said Table:
Contaminants Minimum distance (meters)
Foundation Certified
1 2 3
Fields of other varieties including commercial
hybrid of the same variety 300 150
Fields of the same hybrid (code designation) not conforming
to the varietal purity requirements for certification 300 150
(b) Differential blooming dates for modifying isolation distances are not permitted.
B. Specific requirements
Factor Maximum permitted (%)*
Foundation Certified
**Offtypes including plants found to flower
over the main stem 0.50 1.00
Male variants (three secondary rachis from base and above
possessing only male flowers are considered as mostly male) 1.00 2.00
***Female variants (in certain cases all sex variants of
dominant females, females with inter-spersed staminate
flowers mostly male raceme spectra involved) 1.00 2.00
Monoecious plants and the racemes reverted to
monoecism of female plants before anthesis **** 2.0
* Maximum permitted at any inspection at and flowering.
** One node less than the minimum node specified for different combiners and female lines is considered within the range. For example VP 1 (Female) -12 to 20 nodes, VI 9 (Male) -12 to 18 nodes.
*** Late opening male flowers in the female plants could be removed without removing the entire raceme.
**** In case of female, at least 25 % monoecious plants are required for pollen source.
V. A. Seed standards
Factor Standards for each class
Foundation Certified
Pure seed (minimum) 98.0% 98.0%
Inert matter (maximum) 2.0% 2.0%
Other crop seeds (maximum) None None
Weed seeds (maximum) None None
Other distinguishable varieties (maximum) 5/kg 10/kg
Germination including hard seeds (minimum) 70% 70%
Moisture (maximum) 8.0% 8.0%
For vapour-proof containers (maximum) 5.0% 5.0%
B. All seed lots shall be subjected to grow-out test and shall conform to the following genetic purity requirements.
Class Genetic purity (%) (minimum)
Foundation 95.0
Certified 85.0
The observations for grow-out test shall be recorded at 30 days crop growth stage or as per the recommendations of originating breeder/institute. The minimum population size of 400 plants shall be maintained in two replicates of 200 each or four of 100 each throughout the test and each plant shall be examined individually. The reject number shall be as under:
Class Genetic purity (%) Reject number
(minimum)
Foundation 95.0 (5 in 100) 24
Certified 85.0 (15 in 100) 64