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Story Posted: June 23, 2010 Canola Watch 9: Sclerotinia watch begins for earliest canola In This Issue: Meet these crop insurance deadlines, Still time for a fertilizer topdress, Lygus watch starts in Peace, How late can you spray?, Low expectations for volunteer canola crop, Questions and contacts. Issues of the week Crop and weather update Alberta: Flooding in Medicine Hat made national headlines, but moisture is just right for many areas north of Highway 3. In many parts of central Alberta, canola shows signs of moisture shortage in afternoon heat. With early season wet periods, plants have poorly developed roots and can be easily stressed. Read the Alberta crop report. Saskatchewan: Heavy rains fell south of the South Saskatchewan River, including 10" for the week around Maple Creek. In general, another 2" to 4" fell throughout the south and east. Accumulations were lower northwest, but Lloydminster and area did get rain yesterday. Staging across the province varies widely from just seeded to pre-bolt. Read the Saskatchewan crop report. Manitoba: Rain in the past week ranged from 1"-2" in the northwest to several inches along the U.S. border. Gretna got 5" on Monday alone. Crop stages are highly variable ranging from cotyledon to early flowering, including lots of variability within fields in some cases. Read the Manitoba crop report. Quick Hitters Cutworms are still feeding and damage is the most widespread we've ever seen. "There is serious spraying going on," says Doug Moisey (click to email Doug). One farmer around Rycroft, Alta., sprayed 1,500 acres for cutworms in the past week. Remember: Look for blank areas in the field as well as cut canola plants. Both can be signs of cutworm damage. For more on cutworms as well as weeds and other insects, listen to Doug Moisey on ACPC radio. Look for apothecia as an early sign of sclerotinia threat. Sclerotinia stem rot prevention requires a fungicide application on the petals at 20% to 50% flower, and the tiny mushroom-like apothecia (pictured below) are a sign of sclerotinia to come. Use the CCC's Canola Disease Scouting & Risk Assessment Card to help determine whether a spray is warranted.
Give yellow canola time to recover. Rather than spend any money to save yellow canola, leave it be until the ground dries up and the crop starts growing again. When that happens, look for white healthy roots as a sign the crop can recover. Brown decaying roots mean a dead crop that isn't worth further investment. Tank mix tip: Before tank mixing herbicides and insecticides, make sure the timing is right for all target pests. Note that for cutworm in particular, the best time to spray is later in the evening when they've moved up to the surface. Liberty, which works better in the heat of day and full sunlight, will provide optimal performance with a separate application. With glyphosate, the evening application will generally not interfere will weed control. Also cutworms are not usually general across the whole field, so spot spraying is often the best practice. Coming event: The Alberta Canola Producers Commission is hosting a canola research tour Wednesday, June 30 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m at the AAFC's research centre in Lacombe. Pre-registration is required. Lunch is included. Click here for more information and to register. Coming event: Southern Applied Research Association at Lethbridge offers its one-day Diagnostic Field School July 6, 7 and 8. The agenda includes CCC senior agronomy specialist Jim Bessel explaining how to minimize combine losses. For more information, call 403-381-5118 or email sara.research@connectcomm.ca Coming Event: The Crop Diagnostic School in Carman, Manitoba will run July 6 to 9 and July 12 to 16. Attendance for a number of those days is already full. Click here for more information and to register. Coming event: BCGPA will hold its Annual Field Crop Tour and BBQ July 14 starting 4:00 p.m. at the Fort St. John research farm. Meet these crop insurance deadlines For Saskatchewan growers, the SCIC deadline to file seeded acres reports and submit unseeded acreage claims without penalty is June 25. SCIC reminds growers that they can get an establishment benefit on acres that were seeded and not established due to flooding. In this situation, if the crop could not be reseeded by June 20 growers may be eligible for an unseeded acreage benefit. For Manitoba growers, the MASC deadline to file their excess moisture insurance claims was June 22, but growers can still file up to June 30 with a late filing fee. The deadline for filing seeded acreage reports is June 30. We remind growers to call their insurance provider to get an assessment before turning under any crop or reseeding it to greenfeed.
Still time for a fertilizer topdress The strategy: Dribble band liquid nitrogen or broadcast ammonium sulphate at 20 to 30 pounds of actual N per acre on the better areas. Results from a recent split application study found that in 2005, a wet year, the best yielding canola at two sites came from a split application of nitrogen fertilizer. Of the total 60 pounds applied in the trial, half was applied as a pre-seed band and half as a urea broadcast at bolting. This strategy could work this year for many canola crops, especially those that recover well after weeks of wet weather. Rain will have leached a lot of applied and reserve nitrogen, and if the crop has good yield potential, nitrogen topdressing can make a difference. Lygus watch starts in Peace Click here to download the CCC's Canola Scouting and Sweep Net Insect Identification Card for tips on scouting for lygus bugs and other canola pests.
How late can you spray? The question at late-application stages is whether weed control trumps crop damage. Spraying when the earliest plants are at the bud stage or beyond can sometimes lead to bud blasting, pod blanking, as well as delayed maturity and stunted height for those earliest plants, particularly if the plants are already suffering from other stress. And it may already be too late to prevent yield losses from weed competition. "By the time the crop reaches the point where it is beyond the tolerance of the herbicide, most of the yield damage has already been done and any weed control is now directed at managing harvest," says Clark Brenzil, weed control specialist with Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture. The key is to accurately assess crop staging. While some plants may be bolting, at what stage is the bulk of the crop? That is what you use to make weed control decisions and to assess yield potential. Low expectations for volunteer canola crop This crop has no seed treatment, no fertilizer (unless you top up) and if from hybrid seed, only 80-90% of plants will have the herbicide tolerance gene. This will not be a top crop, but Murray Hartman, oilseed specialist for Alberta Agriculture, says plant stands with a minimum of 0.5 to 1 plant per square foot, on average outside the chaff row, could be "medium yielding" under the right conditions. Tiffany Martinka (click to email Tiffany), CCC agronomy specialist, says some volunteer canola stands in her region of southeast Saskatchewan are "surprisingly uniform." A company-approved volunteer canola crop may mature early, offering an opportunity to set up for seeding winter wheat. Another option may be to use the volunteer canola to pull some moisture from the soil and then turn it under as green manure mulch.
Questions and contacts If you have questions on regional issues, contact one of the following Canola Council of Canada regional agronomists or provincial oilseed specialists:
This report is supported by each of the provincial canola grower associations. For more information on some of their activities, check out the following links:
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