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Story Posted: January 05, 2011 Canola Watch: Know your green count, Clubroot tips In This Issue: Know your options for high-green canola, Clubroot: Management steps for infested land, Clubroot: Management steps for non-infested land in an infested region, Clubroot: Prevention steps for non-infested regions, Winners of the Canola Watch survey draw, Coming events, Questions and contacts. Know your options for high-green canola
What to do with high green canola Know your green count. For growers with high-green canola in the bin, it helps to know what you've got before you make marketing decisions. When shopping around for buyers, make sure your sample represents the canola you'll deliver. Loads have been rejected because the canola delivered didn't meet the specifications indicated in the original sample. Get more than one opinion. Remember that "distinctly green" is a subjective analysis, requiring graders to decide whether marginal lime green seeds count as "distinctly green" or not. This can make a big difference in price and marketability of canola if one grader counts 15% green (No.3) and another counts 25% (Sample) when analyzing the same sample. Growers unsure of what they've got can send samples to the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC), which provides a free grade as part of its Harvest Sample Program. The program ends January 31. Click here for more details. The CGC will also resolve disputed grades. Green analysis could change to a less subjective test in the future. Crushers want less than 25 milligrams of chlorophyll per kg of seed for No.1 canola, and the CGC has a quick test that measures actual chlorophyll content. But until that machine is available at elevators, distinctly green seed counts remain the grading factor. Look for buyers. Click here for a list of companies that buy high-green canola. Don't add water to bins hoping to reduce green. If canola in the swath gets rain and warm conditions, enzyme activity may restart and some of the green seeds can be reduced. But this doesn't work as effectively on green locked in by frost, and it is very unlikely that sufficient water and heat can be added to canola in storage to safely recreate these conditions. Given the lack of research to support this practice, the spoilage risk almost certainly outweighs any potential benefit in terms of lowering green counts.
Clubroot: Management steps for infested land Clubroot has been found in 18 Alberta counties and it spreads every year. See the 2010 clubroot map at the bottom of this article. Growers have clubroot-resistant varieties to choose from, but this resistance could be lost quickly if not supported by a combination of the following practices: 1. Use resistant varieties. Six clubroot-resistant hybrids are on the market for 2011. They are D3152 from DuPont, Dekalb 73-67 and 73-77 from Monsanto, Proven 9558C from Viterra, 1960 from Canterra, and 45H29 from Pioneer Hi-Bred. While these varieties can provide a significant drop in clubroot infection and severity, growers using them can expect some clubroot infection in the field. Host canola plants will most likely be susceptible volunteers in the field and susceptible off-types from the seed bag. 2. Use a minimum four-year rotation. Clubroot resting spores are long lived. Four years is considered a minimum rotation between canola in fields known to have the disease. 3. Rotate between resistant varieties. Because resistance likely comes from a single gene, that resistance can fail if used frequently on the same field. Rotating varieties may help, but we don't know if current resistant hybrids have the same resistance gene. 4. Minimize traffic in and out of infested fields. Once clubroot is found in a field, the goal is to prevent the introduction of the long-lived resting spores into new fields. Minimize all equipment traffic into infested fields. Service and nurse trucks, for example, should remain on the road and field equipment should be brought to them. Equipment leaving an infested field should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Click here for tips on how to clean machinery. 5. Limit tillage. Whenever practical, do not work infested fields when they are wet because more mud will stick to equipment and could be transported to clean fields. Reduced tillage or direct seeding also may help combat a clubroot infestation by reducing the movement of contaminated soil. 6. Control weeds. Volunteer canola and susceptible weeds (mustard family, dock, and hoary cress) must be controlled in the rotational crops. These volunteers and weeds host clubroot in non-canola years, reducing the effectiveness of rotation as a management tool. 7. Scout. When using resistant varieties, continue to scout for gall formation on plant roots. Low-level infection is normal for these hybrids, as noted in point No.1 above. Higher incidence levels could signal the start of a breakdown of resistance. No fungicides. Some Group-14 fungicides are registered to control clubroot in other brassica vegetable crops, but they are not registered for use on canola. Do not use non-registered products on canola. Residues of unregistered products found on exported seed could jeopardize canola markets. Click here for more details on the clubroot situation in Western Canada.
Clubroot: Management steps for non-infested land in an infested region Follow these steps for land that doesn't have clubroot but is within an area with reported cases: 1. Use a resistant variety. This can keep undetected levels of clubroot from increasing to economically-significant levels. Six clubroot-resistant hybrids on the market for 2011 are D3152 from DuPont, Dekalb 73-67 and 73-77 from Monsanto, Proven 9558C from Viterra, 1960 from Canterra, and 45H29 from Pioneer Hi-Bred. 2. Use a four-year rotation. This is the preferred rotation for disease management in general. 3. Practice good sanitation. Clubroot is spread mainly by movement of soil that contains clubroot spores. Almost all new infestations begin near the field access, according to Alberta surveys, indicating that equipment contaminated with clubroot-infested soil is the key mechanism for spread of the disease. Click here for tips on how to clean machinery. 4. Control weeds. If clubroot spores are introduced, these spores have nothing to infect if host weeds and canola volunteers are controlled. With nothing to infect, clubroot cannot reproduce and increase its inoculum levels. 5. Learn to identify the disease. Roots of infected plants become malformed due to increased cell division and growth. Clubroot galls tie up nutrients, and severely infected roots can't transport adequate water and nutrients to aboveground plant tissues. Patches of prematurely ripening canola due to clubroot infection could be confused with other diseases such as sclerotinia or blackleg. The best time to scout for clubroot symptoms on roots is late in the season, approximately two weeks before swathing, when root galls should be easy to identify. Click here for more information on how to identify clubroot. Click here for more details on the clubroot situation in Western Canada.
Clubroot: Prevention steps for non-infested regions Growers should also become familiar with the disease and what it looks like so they can take steps to limit its spread if it does arrive. Spend some time at www.clubroot.ca or take in a trade show presentation on clubroot. Finally, growing clubroot resistant varieties is a risk management option for growers outside known clubroot zones. If the clubroot pathogen does arrive, resistant varieties will prevent it from increasing in the field and may reduce the risk of establishment. Click here for more detail on the clubroot situation in Western Canada.
Winners of the Canola Watch survey draw
Coming Events Combine Performance Clinic is January 11 and 13 at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon. Choose one day. The clinic runs 8:00 am to noon. Les Hill from PAMI and reps from five combine companies will provide tips on how to reduce combine losses. The $50 fee includes lunch and a free pass to Crop Production Week. For more information and the registration form, visit cropproductiononline.com, call 306-931-7149 or email lcates@saskatoonex.com SaskCanola's Crop Week Conference and AGM is Wednesday, January 12 at the Saskatoon Inn. Clint Jurke, Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist, will speak about canola production in China. Please pre-register by noon on January 7. Click here for the registration page. Manitoba AgDays is January 18-20 at the Keystone Centre in Brandon. Click here for more information. Manitoba Canola Growers Association will host its Canola Days presentations the morning of January 18. Derwyn Hammond, Canola Council of Canada resource manager, crop production, will start off the presentations at 9 a.m. Alberta's Agronomy Update 2011 is January 18-19 in Lethbridge. Troy Prosofsky, Clint Jurke and Denise Maurice, all from the Canola Council of Canada, will make presentations. Click here for more information and to register. FarmTech 2011 is January 26-28 at the Maryfield Inn & Suites in Edmonton. Canola Council of Canada president JoAnne Buth and CCC agronomy specialist Doug Moisey are on the agenda. Alberta Canola Producers Commission will hold its AGM January 26. Register by January 7 to get the early bird rate. Call 1-866-327-6832 or click here for more information. B.C. Grain Producers Association's AGM is February 8 at the Best Western in Dawson Creek. For more information, call Janet Banman at the BC GPA office at 250-785-5774.
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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