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The guidelines for conducting agricultural VCU testing and variety testing are published by the Federal Plant Variety Office. They are developed in cooperation with the relevant authorities responsible for variety testing in the federal states, as well as breeders and other institutions. The guidelines form the basis for VCU testing conducted within the framework of the national listing process by the Federal Plant Variety Office and for variety testing conducted by the federal state authorities responsible for variety recommendations.

The guidelines provide general guidance on the technical performance of tests as well as instructions for the observation of characteristics and for data transfer.

The 2000 edition can be obtained under ISSN 1431–1089 from:

The current amended edition will be provided.

Complete edition

The guidelines are available to download as a PDF document.

• Guidelines published in 2000 (PDF)

Amendments to the guidelines for conducting agricultural VCU testing and variety testing 2000

The most recent edition of the guidelines was published in 2000. Amendments to this edition are published, which remain valid until a new edition is published:

• Federal Plant Variety Office guidelines for the transfer of results from agricultural VCU testing and variety testing to data storage media (18th February 2003)
• 4.2 Maize (March 2008)
• 4.18 Grass and clover species, including lucerne, sainfoin (April 2008)
• 5.2 Key list for test crops and previous crops (June 2008)
• 1.7 Submission of propagating material (April 2012)
• 5.2 Key list for fertilisers (March 2013)
• 2.8 Harvest and provisions on harvested material (April 2014)
• 4.19 Sorghum (April 2014)
• 4.17 Catch crops (February 2016)
• 4.1 Cereals (February 2016)
• 4.3 Potato (February 2019)
• 4.13 Soybean (March 2021)

The guidelines for VCU testing and variety testing in vegetables published by the Federal Plant Variety Office were developed in cooperation with the relevant authorities in the federal states responsible for testing. They formed the basis for conducting VCU testing in vegetables for compiling the Descriptive Variety Lists published by the Federal Plant Variety Office. The guidelines also serve as the basis for variety testing conducted by the federal states.

The guidelines provide general guidance on the technical performance of tests as well as instructions for the observation of characteristics.

The most recent version of the guidelines was published in 1995. The test guidelines are out of print and can be downloaded as in PDF format.