New BBCH growth stage keys
The BBCH* growth stage keys aim to provide a standard and uniform description of the visible growth stages of plants, using a two-digit decimal code. This system has been developed for many important crops, such as cereals, rice, maize, oilseed rape, potato, fruit trees, small fruits, vegetables (see EPPO RS 2016/204). In 1997, the BBCH growth stage keys were recommended by the EPPO Working Party on Plant Protection Products and by the EPPO Council for use in EPPO countries, thus replacing the previously recommended EPPO growth stage keys. New BBCH scales have recently been published to describe the growth stages of the following plants:
- Anacardium occidentale (cashew tree) (Adiga et al., 2019)
- Garcinia mangostana (mangosteen) (Chandrakant et al., 2020)
- Maranta arundinacea (arrowroot) (Brito et al., 2019)
- Medicago polymorpha, Trifolium alexandrinum, Trifolium subterraneum, Vicia benghalensis (Mediterranean forage crops) (Enriquez-Hidalgo et al., 2020)
- Pachyrhizus erosus (yam bean) (Pati et al., 2020)
- Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean) (Cavalcante et al., 2020)
- Stevia rebaudiana (stevia) (Le Bihan et al., 2020)
- Zizania palustris (northern wild rice) (Duquette and Kimball, 2020)
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* The abbreviation BBCH derives from the first letters of the German names of Biologische Bundesanstalt (Federal Biological Research Centre), Bundessortenamt (Federal Plant Variety Office) and Chemical industry.
Sources
Adiga JD, Muralidhara BM, Preethi P, Savad, S (2019) Phenological growth stages of the cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale L.) according to the extended BBCH scale. Annals of Applied Biology 175(2), 246–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12526
Awachare CM, Upreti KK (2020) Phenological growth stages in mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) according to the extended BBCH scale. Annals of Applied Biology 176(1), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12552
Brito V, Godoy‐Casagrande V, Narcisa‐Oliveira J, Tomielis I, Cereda M, Steinfort U, Costa R (2019) Phenological stages of arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea L.) according to the Biologische Bundesanstalt Bundessortenamt und Chemische Industrie scale. Annals of Applied Biology 175(1), 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12509
Cavalcante AG, Lemos LB, Meirelles FC, Cavalcante ACP, de Aquino LA (2020) Thermal sum and phenological descriptions of growth stages of the common bean according to the BBCH scale. Annals of Applied Biology 176(3), 342–349. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12571
Duquette J, Kimball JA (2020) Phenological stages of cultivated northern wild rice according to the BBCH scale. Annals of Applied Biology 176(3), 350–356. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12588
Enriquez‐Hidalgo D, Cruz T, Teixeira DL, Steinfort U (2020) Phenological stages of Mediterranean forage legumes, based on the BBCH scale. Annals of Applied Biology 176(3), 357–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12578
Le Bihan Z, Cosson P, Rolin D, Schurdi‐Levraud V (2020) Phenological growth stages of stevia (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) according to the Biologische Bundesanstalt Bundessortenamt and Chemical Industry (BBCH) scale. Annals of Applied Biology 177(3), 404–416. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12626
Pati K, Kaliyappan R, Chauhan VBS, Bansode V, Nedunchezhiyan M, Hedge V, Koundinya AVV (2020) Phenological growth stages of underutilised crop yam bean (Pachyrhizus erosus L. Urban) according to the extended BBCH scale. Annals of Applied Biology 177(3), 417–423. https://doi.org/10.1111/aab.12637