Conditions identity material for DUS testing

Go directly to general submission conditions

Germinating power with seed propagated crops

The germinating power of an identity sample for the purpose of DUS testing must generally comply with the demands applied by the inspection services for certified or in the case of vegetable varieties for standard seed. Samples do not need to be accompanied by a certificate of germinating power.

Health and treatment

At the time of receipt, material must be free of pests and diseases, in good condition, suitable for testing or storage as identity material and must not have been subjected to any chemical or other treatment, unless this is specifically permitted or required.

This results in the fact that seed may not be pelleted or primed and may not be treated with insecticides or fungicides (e.g. Thiram), as these treatments can mask the characteristics of the seed, can influence the germinating power and therefore subsequently the crop development, can influence the storability of the seed and can influence (a part of) the DUS test, as may be the case with resistance tests. This also means that the material must not show any after effects of a treatment with growth regulators that are used during cultivation and propagation, as this can influence the external appearance. If growing the material in several cycles is necessary to eradicate the disruptive influence of such treatments, the costs involved will be charged for.

Identity samples submitted for the test that on receipt do not visually comply with the demands stated will be considered not to have been received.

Treatments of seed that are specifically required due to phytosanitairy guidelines, such as the treatment of tomato seed with NaCl, HCl or NaOCl, are allowed.

With crops in which virus diseases can occur that have such an influence on the habit of growth (external appearance of a plant) of the plants that it is unclear if the habit of growth is determined by the genetic predisposition (genotype) of the plant or by the virus, the testing institute routinely tests material at the beginning of the test. The set standards must not be exceeded. The overview of submission conditions lists these standards for the crops concerned. If a negative test result is obtained, the test will be aborted. However the fees due for the test must still be paid. If, at a later stage during cultivation, material appears not to be virus free or has undergone an undesirable treatment, this may result in the application being rejected.

With crops that are susceptible to quarantine diseases, the material to be tested must be free of such diseases. The applicant must therefore only submit material which has been demonstrably proven to be free of quarantine diseases (for example, with a PD declaration). Material which is not shown to comply with the demands in the way stated above, will be considered not to have been received.

Certain additional conditions may be placed per crop, as indicated in the overview.

Potatoes

In addition to the general conditions placed on health stated above, certain special demands relating to virus diseases apply to potatoes. If virus diseases lead to clear symptoms in the plants to be tested, the presence of the virus can have negative consequences for identity determination. Each plot of 40 plants must contain no more than 2 clearly virus infected plants. If a higher number of plants are infected with a virus, all the material that has been planted out will be destroyed, after the applicant has been granted the opportunity to inspect the test. A too high number of plants infected with a virus will lead to the rejection of the application.

All submitted samples must be free of brown rot, ring rot and other quarantine diseases (Potato spindle tuber viroid, South-American viruses and non-European strains of indigenous viruses). The identity material to be submitted must therefore be accompanied by a phytosanitary declaration (NAK-certificate or plant passport) stating that the material is free of quarantine diseases.

Material that is not accompanied by a NAK-certificate or plant passport will not be accepted and the application will be considered to have been withdrawn.

General submission conditions

1. An application for the granting of Plant Breeders' Rights or listing on the national list can be submitted at any time. However, in many cases a final submission date is shown in the overview of submission conditions. This means that it is not possible to guarantee that the variety will be included in the next growing cycle for applications if received after the date mentioned.
2. The submission conditions per crop shown in the overview should be considered to be a general guideline. Naktuinbouw reserves the right to change the amount or quality required of identity material and to change the indicated dates or location where material must be submitted to.
3. Material must be supplied to the location listed in the overview and addressed to the correct person or department; material supplied elsewhere can be considered not be have been received.
4. Material must be labelled clearly, stating at least the following: crop name, provisional denomination as stated on the application form and assigned application number. The assigned application number must be stated unless the sample is sent together with the application form. This is only possible if the documentation and the sample are to be sent to an identical address (see overview). The label must be securely attached to the packaging or the details printed onto the packaging.
5. The packaging must be suitable for the nature and quantity of the identity material and must be closed in such a way that nothing can be added or removed from the contents without damaging the seal or the packaging.
6. Identity material must be dispatched free of costs (such as transport, postage and customs costs) for the addressee. When identity material is sent from and to counties outside the Netherlands all customs and phytosanitary formalities must be completed.
7. With flowering crops, the material must not be in bloom or must not have bloomed, unless stated otherwise.
8. Young plants supplied must be plants that are suitable to exhibit all the characteristics in the first year of the test. 
9. Material destined for outdoor cultivation must be suitable for planting outdoors immediately; material that does not meet this requirement will be considered not to have been received.
10. Unless stated otherwise, pot plants must not be supplied with more than one plant per pot, even if this is usual, standard practice. Only supply single plants per pot. If several plants are still supplied in a single pot, a number of pots equal to the number of plants must also be supplied.