Plant pathologist Ieuan Evans looks at still-circulating miconceptions about pine and spruce trees, shelterbelts, salt, dog food, bison, milk and more.
Common mistakes and misinformation
Practical Research: A compendium of miscellaneous misconceptions now floating around farm country
‘Sustainable’ versus ‘regenerative’ agriculture
Practical Research: Defining these terms in a farming context can be confusing to each and all of us
It seems there is confusion between the terms “sustainable” and “regenerative” as applied to agriculture. Both are even perceived, in some instances, as forms of organic farming.
Why crops lodge: a crop-by-crop discussion
Practical Research: Stormy summer weather is one thing, but lodging in a moist, calm growing season is something else
Why would we have lodging of seemingly well-growing crops during grain formation in good moist growing seasons, in the absence of significant winds, but little or no lodging in dry or drought conditions?
For wheat, aster yellows can be a disaster
Practical Research: This destructive disease isn’t just a canola thing
If you or your agronomist detect aster yellows in a canola crop, you’ll be sure to find it also in an adjacent wheat crop, Ieuan Evans warns.
Corn’s amazing nature
Practical Research: The fusarium we see in small cereal grains is the anamorph of the pink mould seen in corn
Consider that if you grow corn after wheat or vice versa and have a wet summer or fall, be prepared for possible outbreaks of pink mould/fusarium head blight in either crop in such a rotation.
Potatoes Prairie-wide
Practical Research: How Prairie researchers uncovered a serious potato disease’s hiding place
As a consequence of cleaning up potato diseases, the most recent yields in Prairie potatoes, as of 2024, are 20 tons per acre for Alberta and 18 for Manitoba.
In disease resistance, sunflowers don’t shine
Practical Research: Insects don’t often hit economic thresholds, but sclerotinia and other diseases do damage
The known insect pests of sunflowers don’t often hit economic thresholds in those crops, but certain diseases can do significant damage.
A compendium on molybdenum
Practical Research: Let’s look at a key micronutrient we may all be taking for granted
This micronutrient is needed by crop plants in such small quantities that we may take for granted it is unlikely to ever be deficient.
Adding wood ash to soil both practical and cost-effective
Practical Research: Too often headed for the landfill, ash can reduce soils’ acidity and enhance cropland fertility
Here’s a perfectly good organic source of lime, with plant macro- and micronutrients, being taken from the woodlands and virtually thrown away. Wood ash is an excellent source of magnesium, calcium, potassium, phosphate and micronutrients, which can very effectively raise up acid soil pH levels.
Liming and soil acidity
A limed acre will maintain a pH increase lasting 10-15 years, maybe more
A limed acre of Prairie soil will maintain a pH increase lasting 10-15 years — maybe more.
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
