The BBCH-scale is used to identify the
phenological
Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation).
Examples include the date of emergence of leaves ...
development stages of plants. BBCH-scales have been developed for a range of
crop
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...
species where similar growth stages of each plant are given the same code.
Phenological development stages of plants are used in a number of scientific disciplines (
crop physiology,
phytopathology
Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungi, oomyc ...
,
entomology
Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...
and
plant breeding
Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. The goals of plant breeding are to produce cro ...
) and in the agriculture industry (
risk assessment of pesticides, timing of pesticide application, fertilization, agricultural insurance). The BBCH-scale uses a decimal code system, which is divided into principal and secondary growth stages, and is based on the cereal code system (
Zadoks scale Cereal growth staging scales attempt to objectively measure the growth of cereals.
BBCH-scale (cereals)
In agronomy, the BBCH-scale for cereals describes the phenological development of cereals using the BBCH-scale.
The phenological growth ...
) developed by
Jan Zadoks
Jan Carel Zadoks (born 6 February 1929) is a Dutch botanist and a professor emeritus of ecological plant pathology at Wageningen University & Research.
Career
Zadoks studied biology at the University of Amsterdam and received his PhD. cum ...
.
[
]
The abbreviation BBCH derives from the names of the originally participating stakeholders: "Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt und CHemische Industrie". Allegedly, the abbreviation is said to unofficially represent the four companies that initially sponsored its development;
Bayer
Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...
,
BASF
BASF Societas Europaea, SE () is a German multinational corporation, multinational chemical company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
The ...
,
Ciba-Geigy
Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...
, and
Hoechst Hoechst, Hochst, or Höchst may refer to:
* Hoechst AG, a former German life-sciences company
* Hoechst stain, one of a family of fluorescent DNA-binding compounds
* Höchst (Frankfurt am Main), a city district of Frankfurt am Main, Germany
** Fra ...
.
Basic principles
* The BBCH-scale provides a framework to develop scales for individual crops.
* Similar growth stages of each plant species are given the same BBCH code.
* Each code has a description and important growth stages have additional drawings included.
* The first digit of the scale refers to the principal growth stage.
* The second digit refers to the secondary growth stage which corresponds to an ordinal number or percentage value.
* Post harvest or storage treatment is coded as 99.
* Seed treatment before planting is coded as 00.
Principal growth stages
* 0: Germination, sprouting, bud development
* 1: Leaf development
* 2: Formation of side shoots, tillering
* 3: Stem elongation or rosette growth, shoot development
* 4: Development of harvestable vegetative plant parts, bolting
* 5: Inflorescence emergence, heading
* 6: Flowering
* 7: Development of fruit
* 8: Ripening or maturity of fruit and seed
* 9: Senescence, beginning of dormancy
See also
BBCH-scales for plants or plant groups:
*
Bean
A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...
*
Beet
The beetroot is the taproot portion of a beet plant, usually known in North America as beets while the vegetable is referred to as beetroot in British English, and also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet ...
*
Bulb vegetable
*
Canola, rapeseed
*
Cereals
A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food en ...
*
Citrus
''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...
*
Coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
*
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
*
Cucurbit
*
Currants
*
Faba bean
''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Varieti ...
*
Grape
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...
*
Hop
A hop is a type of jump.
Hop or hops may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Hop'' (film), a 2011 film
* Hop! Channel, an Israeli TV channel
* ''House of Payne'', or ''HOP'', an American sitcom
* Lindy Hop, a swing dance of the 1920s and ...
*
Leafy vegetables forming heads
*
Leafy vegetables not forming heads
*
Maize, corn
*
Musacea
*
Olive
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...
*
Other brassica vegetables
*
Pea
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...
*
Peanut
The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...
*
Pome fruit
*
Potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
*
Rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
*
Root and stem vegetable
*
Solaneous fruit
*
Stone fruit
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
*
Strawberry
The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...
*
Sunflower
The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...
*
Weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...
{{div col end
References
External links
*A
downloadable versionof the BBCH scales