“It was first identified on a farm south of Winnipeg in 2014, but it has now been identified in many other production regions,” she says.

As a result, very little is known about the disease.

Canola yields were down across the Prairies last year. Cornelsen said much of the yield loss has been attributed to heat stress and drought loss in Saskatchewan and to blackleg in Alberta. But poor yields coincided with a severe outbreak of verticillium in Manitoba, and many farmers and agronomists think the soil-borne disease might be the issue.

Cornelsen says it’s hard to pin down exactly how verticillium affects yield, though.

“There’s nothing to really validate whether those were the primary losses — just anecdotes and field evidence,” she said. “When we look to yield losses for verticillium, we don’t have a good answer.”

The problem is, because it’s so new, very little research has been done in Canada.

“It’s probably only been the last five years that this disease has been taken seriously, where there’s been investment into research and a more focused effort,” she says.

Since research projects can take up to five years, and 2020 was basically a write-off because of COVID, in many cases we’re only seeing the very earliest results from that research now.

While the disease is new to Canada, the brassica-loving species verticillium longisporum that was discovered here in 2014 was first discovered in Germany on horseradish in 1960. Naturally, the hope for Canadian plant pathologists was that they could glean something from European research to help deal with the disease. Unfortunately, the Europeans have been little help.

“They actually kind of try to spin it as a positive,” Cornelsen says. “It’s a kind of a natural drydown product for them, thought to help with harvestability.”

Because it’s a soil-borne disease, fungicides won’t be effective. For the same reason, crop rotation, the go-to for any integrated pest management approach, isn’t all that effective because canola is everywhere, and the disease is wind-borne.

“It’s tough to provide any sort of management practices, but we are working on it,” she says.

A lot of the hope and expectation is for some kind of silver bullet from plant breeders to develop resistant hybrids. Again, though, because the research is in the nascent stage, there are several challenges.

“We’re starting from ground zero, working with this disease,” Cornelsen says. “We have no standardized disease severity scale.”

Companies and researchers are currently using different systems to assess the disease, which complicates field testing, she says. Without a standardized scale, the results can vary depending on disease severity in different locations.

There is also still a poor understanding of how plants defend themselves against the disease — and which specific traits are responsible for these defences.

“My concern is when we come to the marketable product, there’s no consistency in the messaging,” Cornelsen says.

However, she notes, there are some promising products available on the market that show some level of tolerance to verticillium stripe. And again, the ratings for these products can differ widely because companies are at different stages of research and testing.

She emphasizes developing reliable resistant hybrids is a lengthy and complex process and it takes at least six years of research and field trials before a new hybrid can be released for seed production.

Besides, she adds, rushing something to market isn’t always the best idea. She pointed to clubroot. It was discovered in 2003, and within six or seven years, new resistant hybrids came on the market — but within four years, those hybrids were overcome.

“We don’t want to run to the marketplace and not have these issues ironed out,” Cornelsen says. “We want to provide a product that’s going to have some longevity and help solve our answers to verticillium.”

In the meantime, farmers are being asked to go back to the basics.

READ MORE: Don’t be a silly one, scout for verticillium

Breanna Miller-Friesen, an agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada, says as the science is evolving, farmers should implement a strong crop rotation plan, ideally with a three- to four-year rotation to help reduce the buildup of spores in the soil.

“It’s not perfect, but it does potentially help us,” she says.

Miller-Friesen also emphasized the importance of minimizing soil movement. Practices such as no-till farming may not always be feasible depending on soil types, particularly in Manitoba, but reducing unnecessary passes through the field can help prevent the movement of microsclerotia deeper into the soil, where it can remain viable.

Maintaining overall plant health through integrated pest management (IPM) is another key recommendation. This approach focuses on managing all farm diseases collectively, rather than focusing on one issue at a time.

“We are really stressing overall plant health and trying to take full management of other diseases on a farm,” Miller-Friesen says, adding that plants that are already weakened or struggling are more susceptible to verticillium. “They’re infected earlier, they’re shut down sooner, and they’re seeing a bigger yield drop.”

Manitoba agronomists are noticing a relationship between blackleg and verticillium, Miller-Friesen adds. The relationship is not yet well understood — and whether one drives the other is still being explored.

For farmers, it’s really about controlling what is within their power to control.

Along those lines, Cornelsen says straight-cutting, rather than swathing canola, could exacerbate the situation. When canola is straight cut, the pathogen can continue to spread up the stem, causing more infection. The longer those straight-cut acres are left on the field, the more time the pathogen has to colonize and spread.

“If you cut it right through the inoculum source, it’s going to spread over the combine,” she said. “It’s going to go up into the wind. It’s going to blow to your neighbour’s field and cover your entire field.”

Miller-Friesen is confident that new management practices will emerge in the coming years. While challenging, she believes the disease is manageable — it’s just still early in the research cycle.

She is part of the Verticillium Steering Committee, a group that consists of current researchers working on verticillium projects, life science companies working with canola breeding, provincial disease specialists, pathologists and provincial canola grower groups (Manitoba Canola Growers, SaskOilseeds, Alberta Canola).

“We are getting together a couple of times a year to discuss findings from the past season and trying to work on some management practices going forward,” Miller-Friesen says.

Cornelsen, who’s also on the steering committee, says the fact that farmers need more clarity and direction on how they should manage the disease is crystal-clear.

“We know where verticillium is here. It’s widespread; it’s not going anywhere, and we need other management practices to support it,” she says. “The research is happening, and hopefully within another couple of years, we’ll have clear answers.”

The post Researchers scramble to understand verticillium in Canada appeared first on Grainews.

The disease, caused by the Verticillium longisporum pathogen, was first reported in Manitoba in 2014. In 2015, Canadian Food Inspection Agency surveyors found the pathogen in six provinces, including all three Prairie provinces.

The 2021 Manitoba disease survey marked the first year that surveyors had the protocols to accurately identify verticillium stripe. (More on accurate identification later.) In that year, 30 per cent of Manitoba fields had the disease. This is “prevalence.” And, on average, 15 per cent of plants in those fields had obvious symptoms. This is “incidence.”

A year later, Manitoba prevalence rose to 38 per cent and incidence to 23 per cent. These numbers come from the Western Forum on Pest Management oilseed diseases report, based on 116 Manitoba fields surveyed. A 2022 survey, targeted at eastern Saskatchewan areas deemed more likely to have the disease, found symptoms in many fields. Alberta numbers in 2022 were very low.

Verticillium stripe levels were lower in Manitoba in 2023, with prevalence of 29 per cent and incidence of 11 per cent. The forum’s 2023 report notes that the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture ran a verticillium-specific survey targeting 100 fields.

“Preliminary observations seem to suggest that verticillium stripe is no longer a rare disease in Saskatchewan,” the report reads. Alberta surveyors suspected verticillium stripe in three per cent of fields surveyed.

David Kaminski, Manitoba Agriculture field crop pathologist, in talking to reporter Richard Kamchen for a Canola Digest article in 2023, says he’s not sure why Manitoba levels are higher than the rest of the Prairies.

“Clubroot originated in Alberta and made its way east, and some people say blackleg originated in Saskatchewan and made its way east and west, and in that kind of analogy, we could say that verticillium has been more prevalent in Manitoba and seems to be moving westward,” Kaminski says. “But we don’t have full documentation on that.”

The bottom line is that the disease is likely here to stay. Agronomists need to know how to recognize it and make science-driven recommendations for management.

What is verticillium stripe?

The fungal species Verticillium longisporum causes verticillium stripe, a plant disease that leads to stem striping, blockage of the xylem and stunted seed fill in canola.

The Canola Encyclopedia chapter on verticillium stripe cites a study by Inderbitzin et al, printed in PLoS ONE in 2011, showing that V. longisporum is a diploid hybrid of three species, including V. dahliae.

V. dahliae is present in Canada as a pathogen of potato, tomato, sunflower, strawberry, cabbage and maple. Based upon genetic analysis, the researchers showed that V. longisporum originated independently at three different times, involving four different lineages and three different parental species.

Each V. longisporum lineage was genetically homogenous and contained one set of alleles that were identical across lineages. This has a potential effect on screening for resistance genes in Brassica napus and other related species and implications for disease management.

A more recent Canadian study, Verticillium disease etiology and nursery, with principal investigator Dilantha Fernando from the University of Manitoba, looked into the genetic diversity and behaviour of V. longisporum in Western Canada.

Fernando, writing in his final report, noted that “molecular DNA studies of V. longisporum indicated that the pathogen is a diploid hybrid of V. dahliae and two unknown species forming three lineages A1/D1, A1/D2 and A1/D3. V. longisporum lineage A1/D1 is considered the most virulent group across Brassicaceae crops, especially canola, followed by A1/D3 and A1/D2.”

Fernando and his team tested infected canola samples from different locations in Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan. All 14 samples from Manitoba were confirmed as A1/D1, the most virulent group. All three samples from Ontario were confirmed as V. dahliae. And out of six samples collected from Saskatchewan, one each was confirmed as A1/D1, A1/D2 and A1/D3, and the other three were V. dahliae.

Disease cycle

The soil-borne fungus infects roots and travels up the water-transporting xylem in the stem. It will eventually plug the xylem, cutting off the flow of nutrients.

The Canola Encyclopedia provides a detailed description of the verticillium stripe disease cycle and is the source for content in this section of the article. Verticillium stripe is a monocyclic disease, meaning it only goes through one cycle each year. While it is hard to pinpoint a start point in a cycle, the encyclopedia starts with rapid germination of fungal propagules from microsclerotia in the soil. Host plant root exudates trigger this germination, and these propagules infect the canola roots at their most susceptible location — the fast-growing root tip.

The plant is most susceptible to V. longisporum infection when canola starts flowering, according to Zhou et. al. in a report published in Plant Pathology journal in 2006. Zhou found that the fungal hyphae entered the root vascular system through an opening, often a wound. After the hyphae multiply in the root, hyphae and single-cell spores called conidia are produced locally in the xylem and moved through the vascular system of the plant to multiply.

This prevents the regular flow and functionality of water and nutrients to the plant tissues and eventually causes the xylem to plug, turn black, collapse and shrivel, as described in Eastburn and Paul’s verticillium chapter in the 2007 Compendium of Brassica Diseases.

As the plant begins to mature and senesce, the pathogen moves from the xylem into the surrounding non-vascular tissues, where multi-cellular microsclerotia are formed in the dying tissue, as Zhou describes. Likewise, conidia production in the stem base and roots causes the tissues to turn dark grey, then black and can cause the lateral roots to eventually break down, making it easy to pull from the ground.

While the plant begins to show progressively more intense symptoms of the disease, the microsclerotia in the stems cause the stem epidermis (thin outer layer) to peel back. At this point the stem may take on a shredded appearance and the microsclerotia will be released to the soil, where they will rest until stimulated to germinate again. The microsclerotia remain viable in the soil for several years, especially if infected residue is incorporated into the soil after harvest.

Environmental influence

Verticillium stripe tends to be more damaging in hot, dry conditions. These stressful conditions, the Canola Encyclopedia notes, tend to reduce root and xylem function, while excess moisture makes the disease less of an issue. Plants with damaged roots also make it easier for the disease to enter the vascular system, note Heale and Karapapa in the Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology, 1999.

Verticillium stripe can use weedy host species such as wild mustard and others outside the Brassicaceae family as host species. The Canola Encyclopedia again cites Eastburn and Paul, who report that V. longisporum can affect several annual and perennial plant species in both temperate and subtropical zones.

The pathogen is also present in oilseed rape in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, France, Czechia, Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Japan, and can infect many crops including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, horseradish, radish and wild mustard.

Symptoms

Infection can occur in a few scattered plants, in small areas or across the whole field. Symptoms are not typically noticed until plants are near maturity.

The Canola Encyclopedia provides a detailed description of symptoms:

• Verticillium stripe’s restriction of water and nutrient uptake leads to stunting and premature senescence.
• Faint black striping on the stems can appear darker and more obvious when rubbed.
• By peeling back the epidermis and outer cortex of the stem, observers can find blackening on the inside of the stem and microsclerotia later in the growing season.
• Striping can be more obvious closer to harvest.
• At the end of ripening, microsclerotia can germinate and produce conidia spores, giving the stems a powdery look.

I also wrote a 2022 Country Guide article with a few more details. Early infection can show up as grey or tan diseased stripes up one half of the stem — hence the “stripe” name. As verticillium infection progresses, the epidermis will peel away from weakened stems to reveal tiny specks called microsclerotia underneath. Eventually, verticillium infection blocks the transfer of water and nutrients, weakening the stem and killing the plant.

Canola Council of Canada staff note in the Country Guide article that, “because we’re letting canola stand longer, either for straight combining or later swathing, we may be noticing the disease more than we used to.”

Country Guide also included observations from Manitoba farmer Brad Crammond. In 2020, he had stems breaking off and toppling, making it look from a distance like a case of severe lodging.

“We had some big winds in August that year and a lot of talk on Twitter was about crops going down and making harvest difficult,” he says. “In retrospect, the cause for many of these cases may have been verticillium stripe.”

Symptoms may be hard to notice in less severe cases, especially since mild cases will look like regular senescence. The encyclopedia adds that hail or physical damage can also cause lesions similar to verticillium stripe, but these lesions will not have microsclerotia beneath the epidermis.

Because symptoms continue to develop right up to harvest, the late season is a good time to scout for verticillium stripe. That is when scouters are most likely to see the bleached and brittle stems, the peeling epidermis and the microsclerotia underneath that peeled skin. At that time, stem cross sections will also show a starburst-like pattern as conidia build up.

The bigger challenge, perhaps, is to distinguish verticillium stripe from other common diseases, especially blackleg and sclerotinia stem rot.

Other diseases

This section describes how to distinguish verticillium stripe from other common canola diseases. Below are the four major symptoms of verticillium stripe, each with similarities to symptoms of blackleg or sclerotinia stem rot.

Stem striping. When the crop is full height but still green, canola plants infected with verticillium stripe will often have a two-toned stem — half healthy and green and half discoloured and drying down. This half-stem senescing is where the “stripe” name comes from.

You will not see half-stem senescing with blackleg or sclerotinia stem rot. Sclerotinia will cause stem discolouration, but it will not stripe half the stem. The only other disease to cause similar symptoms is fusarium wilt, but current canola cultivars all have resistance to that pathogen.

Stem cross-section discolouration. Verticillium stripe infects roots and enters the plant’s vascular system. Verticillium hyphae and conidia fill up the vascular system, restricting the passage of water and nutrients throughout the plant. This gives the stem cross-section a greyish colour that is easily confused with blackleg.

There are two tips to distinguish the pathogens:

• With blackleg, stem tissue infection tends to be darker and causes distinct black wedge shapes. Verticillium is a lighter grey, more general throughout the cross-section and can present in more of a starburst pattern.
• Blackleg stem discolouration is confined to the crown area at the base of the stem. Verticillium darkening can extend well up the stem.

“Verticillium will present some general discolouration, generally in a starburst-like pattern. Blackleg will present itself in a distinct solid black wedge covering a percentage of the stem,” says Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist Courtney Ross.

Stem peeling and weakening. Peeling stem skin is a symptom of verticillium stripe. Under that peeled outer layer will be the microsclerotia, often taking the shape of faint black vertical striping. Severely diseased stems may break off and can be confused with lodging. Sclerotinia stem rot will also cause weakened, brittle stems, but sclerotinia will not have the stripy, speckly microsclerotia. Sclerotinia stem rot will cause the entire stem tissue to shred, not just the outer layer.

“The shredding of the stem symptom is comparable to sclerotinia. However, the hollowing of the stem and larger sclerotia bodies from sclerotinia are different from the smaller microsclerotia present from verticillium stripe,” Ross says.

Black specks. As verticillium infection advances, microsclerotia will form on the underside of peeling stem skin. These can be found all the way up the stem. Verticillium specks may seem similar to blackleg pycnidia, but they’re much smaller — more like powdery pepper. In some cases, blackleg pycnidia will have a purple-pinkish ooze of pycnidiospores around them.

Blackleg pycnidia are also confined to a lesion no more than a couple of centimetres in size. If you see pink and specks confined to a lesion, it’s blackleg.

Yield loss

If infected plants ripen prematurely, they can show significant yield reduction.

Verticillium longisporum could cause significant yield damage in canola, but only when disease severity and infection are high, states the Canola Encyclopedia, citing Heale and Karapapa. As disease onset is late in the growing season, verticillium stripe is less damaging than other diseases such as blackleg or sclerotinia stem rot.

However, Dunker et al, in a 2008 article in the Journal of Phytopathology, reported on European research showing significant rapeseed yield loss when infection establishes early. They report yield loss in this situation at 10 to 50 per cent. A big factor in yield loss is smaller seed size.

In 2016, Jasper Depotter, a plant pathology researcher at the University of Cologne, published results from field trials in the United Kingdom. His study showed yield loss as high as 34 per cent, with differences among cultivars.

“In a bad year on a susceptible cultivar, the estimates of Dunker seem realistic,” Depotter was quoted as saying in the Country Guide article.

There is no rating scale for the severity of verticillium stripe, and thus no way to quantify yield loss. Ross notes that research is underway to uncover yield implications in Western Canada.

In Country Guide, Crammond says he noticed, on Aug. 10, 2020, some sudden and premature die-off in a seemingly healthy field of canola.

“We’ve had issues with blackleg in the past and I could tell this was something different,” said the farmer from Austin, Man.

So, he called his Canola Council of Canada agronomy specialist to take a look. Samples sent to Manitoba’s PSI Lab confirmed the diagnosis: advanced verticillium stripe.

Unlike other diseases, it can be more severe in dry conditions, which could explain why the disease reached new heights in 2021.

Management

Scouting. Accurate identification will be easier with experience. Verticillium stripe is easiest to scout just before or just after harvest when symptoms are most obvious. Accurate identification is an important step in disease management.

Blackleg and sclerotinia stem rot, if those are present, are more manageable through genetic resistance, crop rotation and fungicides. Verticillium stripe has few proven management steps.

Test plant tissue. If scouters find symptoms that look like verticillium stripe, they could use lab tests for confirmation. Labs in Canada that provide this service include:

• 20/20 Seed Labs, 507-11th Ave., Nisku, AB T9E 7N5. Phone: 780-955-3435. Web:
• Discovery Seed Labs, 450 Melville St., Saskatoon, SK S7J 4M2. Phone: 306-249-4484.
• Pest Surveillance Initiative (PSI), 5A-1325 Markham Rd., Winnipeg, MB R3T 4J6. Phone: 204-813-2171.

Contact labs for their sampling protocols.

Reduce soil movement. Verticillium microsclerotia are soil-borne, so steps to keep soil in place could reduce spread somewhat. The outlines a few biosecurity measures. As V. longisporum is a soil-borne pathogen, biosecurity practices can help mitigate the spread of this disease, on- and off-farm. These include equipment and tool sanitation, controlling off-farm traffic, monitoring seed, feed and fertilizer sources, and developing an on-farm biosecurity plan.

Extend the break between canola crops. Two- or three-year breaks between canola crops are good disease management in general. However, verticillium microsclerotia can persist 10 to 15 years in the soil, as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist Hossein Borhan notes in a Canola Research Hub report.

Despite that persistence, Crammond’s on-farm experience, as described in Country Guide, shows that rotation could work. One of his canola fields in 2020 was on a half section with a mixed cropping history. Eighty acres in the middle had quinoa, soybeans and wheat over the previous five years and no canola.

The rest had been in a wheat-canola rotation for “quite some time,” he says. While the rest of the field turned brown prematurely due to verticillium stripe, the 80 acres with a longer break between canola crops stayed green and healthy. It was all the same cultivar.

The Canola Encyclopedia notes that in northern Europe, where this disease has been an important issue for more than 30 years, researchers recommend that growers leave three years between canola crops. This allows pathogen populations in the soil to naturally decline.

But, due to the long-lived microsclerotia, rotation alone is not enough to manage this problem effectively.

Ask about genetic resistance. Seed companies, if asked, might be able to shed some light on differences. Crammond’s on-farm experience shows differences between cultivars do exist. In 2021, he ran out of seed in one field and finished the final eight acres with a different cultivar. While most of the field was at risk of shelling out due to high levels of verticillium stripe, the eight acres of a different variety had no issues, he says.

Dilantha Fernando, a professor in the department of plant science at the University of Manitoba, tested germplasm from international sources and dozens of lines supplied by Canadian seed companies. He says some have superior levels of resistance, but lines supplied to him were not identified so he doesn’t know if any were commercial cultivars.

Hossein Borhan leads a new study that will provide an understanding of genetic resistance to verticillium stripe. He and other researchers on the project identified two locations within B. napus DNA that seem to convey resistance to V. longisporum. Borhan also screened 50 B. napus lines within the AAFC nested association mapping program to compare their verticillium stripe resistance. Some lines are very resistant and some are very susceptible, he says.

Papers from Eynck et. al., in the Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection, 2009, as well as Heale and Karapapa, show that other Brassica species, namely B. carinata and B. oleraceae, have low susceptibility to verticillium and show almost no resulting yield loss. This adds further evidence to the potential for breeding solutions to manage this disease.

No treatments. No fungicide or soil amendment is known to be effective on verticillium stripe. As part of Borhan’s study, researchers found a microorganism that could potentially protect against V. longisporum. If proven to work and if it can be effectively mass-produced and applied to the soil or roots, it could provide growers with a biological control product.

Manage blackleg. Alberta research shows an interaction between blackleg and verticillium stripe pathogens. So, while growers have limited tools to manage verticillium stripe at this time, steps to manage blackleg could ultimately reduce yield loss from verticillium stripe.

University of Alberta researchers Yixiao Wang, Stephen Strelkov and Sheau-Fang Hwang, in an article published in the journal Plants in 2023, report on their assessment of L. maculans/V. longisporum interactions under field and greenhouse conditions.

Their conclusion, as written in the article: “When L. maculans was co-inoculated with V. longisporum, blackleg severity and yield losses increased. In some cases, verticillium stripe caused greater yield losses than blackleg. The results suggest that the interaction between L. maculans/V. longisporum may cause more severe losses in canola, highlighting the need for proactive disease management strategies.”

While many treatments could potentially work, all we know for certain is that there seems to be a connection to blackleg. Verticillium stripe has few proven management steps.

For now, look for the disease. If identified and if it’s causing yield loss, consider, at a minimum, the time-honoured disease management strategy — longer breaks between canola crops.

To take the CEU quiz for this article, click here.

The post A crash course on verticillium stripe appeared first on Grainews.

That’s why Clint Jurke, agronomy director with the Canola Council of Canada, is waiting until survey data is published this month before answering “Has 2024 been a bad year for blackleg?”

“It’s not until the official canola disease survey data comes out at the end of October that we have a sense for ‘Well, was this year worse than last year?’

“We try to avoid speculating until we actually have some data in hand.”

The council has previously noted the wet spring and subsequent hot and dry stretch on much of the Prairies this year were “ideal” for the disease to develop.

Past that, visual inspections and farmer reports have made their case.

“We’re getting reports from from all parts of the Prairies in Manitoba, central Alberta, southern Alberta, Peace River, all parts of Saskatchewan — blackleg is ubiquitous,” Jurke says.

That’s not necessarily unusual, though. Blackleg’s high degree of variability tends to that, he says.

“It’s never that you’re going to see whole regions where every field has infection. It’s going to be ‘This field is infected’ and then the three neighbours around it are not. And then it’s another couple fields here and there.

“So it really just depends upon what’s happening within a given field.”

READ MORE: Machine learning may help get a leg up on blackleg

For producers who suspect they have blackleg in their fields, probably the best course of action this time to year is to send samples to a lab to find out if it actually is blackleg (verticillium stripe appears similar to blackleg).

This lab testing is also an opportunity to identify the race of the blackleg — a growing method of matching blackleg-resistant canola genes to the right blackleg target.

“So with that, then you can take your blackleg, your blackleg diagnosis, and then you can look for varieties that will manage that particular race,” Jurke says.

This is a time of year when farmers can scout stubble and look for signs of the disease in stubble, for example, he says.

This will put you in a good position to manage the disease next growing season. In that case, Jurke recommends an array of integrated pest management (IPM) methods.

“You can’t just rely on resistance to manage the disease,” he says. “We are lucky that with blackleg we’ve got quite a few tools that we can use as part of that integrated pest management approach.”

And if you guessed crop rotation would be one of those methods, you’d be right.

“Crop rotation is definitely one of the most effective tools,” Jurke says.

“The pathogen survives in a field on old canola stubble. When that old canola stubble is gone then the pathogen is gone. So if you can remain out of canola in a rotation for at least two years, then the majority of that old canola residue will be gone.

“And so your risk for blackleg really goes down. You still might get a little bit that blows in from a neighbour’s field, but it doesn’t really go that far.”

Fungicides are another option but timing is key. Jurke pointed to new seed treatments that work in the early days of a canola crop’s life, such as the cotyledon through two-leaf stages.

“If you can protect the canola crop during that cotyledon into two-leaf stage, that seems to be the critical period of infections. If you get blackleg infection then it’s usually going to be bad.

“So if you can protect the crop up to that stage, then that really reduces the amount of disease.”

Foliar fungicides are another option, he says.

“In those high-risk situations where you think that your resistance isn’t going to be working (and you’re) seeing a lot of lesions on seedlings, then a foliar fungicide will clear that up.”

Blackleg samples can be sent to any accredited seed lab. Trevor Blois, a disease diagnostician with 20/20 Seed Labs at Nisku, Alta., walks farmers through the process of submitting samples to that lab in the likely event they have to send it a long distance.

Blois recommends collecting between 12 and 20 samples per field. Rather than taking a traditional random sample using the “W” formation, he suggests looking for the most severe infections and cutting the stems just above the soil line.

There are a few ways to package the samples, Blois says, but he recommends a Ziploc bag or an imitation brand. Label it with the information you want to know from the samples, including race if that’s a priority.

Blois also suggests using a courier service like Purolator or Canada Post to ship the sample. 20/20 will accept samples sent by regular mail but he warns it will likely be slow.

“Usually that’s going to be your seed samples and that’s OK, but with plant specimens it’s much better to send by courier.”

The post Back to blackleg appeared first on Grainews.

Canola area continues to be the leader in Western Canada, with a total of 21.9 million acres sown this year according to Statistics Canada. This is over 3.2 million acres higher than spring wheat, which is the second most popular crop grown in the Prairies. Although canola is still weighted to the northern and central growing areas of the Prairies, improving drought resistance has resulted in canola becoming a crop grown universally across the region.

Many studies have examined the changes to the climate in Western Canada over the past couple of decades. A review of the research on climate change in the agricultural growing regions in Canada was conducted by Mapfumo et al. in the Canadian Journal in Plant Science in 2023. The authors examined the research to date of the parameters that are important to producing crops.

Of the factors examined the in the review, the three most critical parameters for canola production are growing season precipitation; growing season length; and air temperatures during the growing season. The research indicates changes in all three parameters have occurred over the past 100 years.

Oil and water

Every farmer knows precipitation is the critical element for producing crops on the Prairies. The weather during the past two growing seasons certainly proves the point that “rain makes grain.” Research indicates that growing season precipitation has increased since 1900. In Alberta’s agricultural region it has increased by 18 mm over the period beginning in 1900. In another study, Prairie rainfall has increased by 39.2 mm over the growing season in the period from 1956 to 1995. The increase in precipitation is welcome news for canola production in the coming years. Canola yields are generally directly related to the amount of moisture received during the growing season.

The increase in moisture during the growing season may increase disease pressure on canola. Insect pressure may also increase with the wetter growing conditions and increased temperatures. Insect pressure may also be increased by warmer winter weather and decreasing snow cover.

The western window

Growing season length is the second most critical factor in producing crops in Western Canada. This is particularly true for canola, which still has significant acreage in northern growing regions. Western Canada has seen the growing season increase by between three and 12 days, using data from 1920 to 2020.

Frost dates have also changed in Western Canada with the median spring frost earlier by 11.1 days and the fall frost dates were later by 9.4 days. A longer growing season adds yield potential for canola. The extension of the frost dates in the fall should also improve crop quality.

Growing by degrees

The heat experienced over the past two growing seasons has certainly brought temperatures to the forefront in terms of risk to crops. The maximum air temperatures have been increasing by between 2.4 and 3.6 C during the period from 1950 to 2010. The increase in maximum temperatures is probably the largest concern for canola production in the future. Although the temperatures during the growing season are expected to be higher than current levels, canola yields are not likely to be significantly impacted by the higher temperatures.

In conclusion, climate change is expected to have a mostly positive impact on canola production in Western Canada during the coming years. The net benefit of increased moisture and longer growing season will more than offset any negative impacts from increased disease and insect pressure.

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It is likely this disease could have been present for many years in both Canada and the U.S. Verticillium stripe is a disease of very many cruciferous crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, radish and wild mustard among others. It was first discovered on Brussels sprouts in the U.K. in 1957 and on horseradish in Germany in 1961, when it was initially called Verticillium dahliae var. longisporum, but later became V. longisporum.

Unfortunately, like most disease organisms, it comes in several strains or types. There are hybrids of V. longisporum, classified as A1/D1, A1/D2 and A1/D3 and perhaps others. I first thought, since horseradish is widely grown in Canada and propagated by tuberous roots, that this may be the culprit that introduced V. longisporum on canola. Not so, since the fungal strains found on canola are A1/D1 and the strains found on horseradish are A1/D2. There goes my theory.

It is likely the stripe disease came to Western Canada via cabbage, broccoli or other family seedlings from Eastern Canada, and Ontario in particular with its wide range of Chinese and European brassicas. North Dakota found its first verticillium stripe disease on canola in 2021. In that state they took many diagnostic procedures to absolutely confirm they were dealing with V. longisporum. This could mean this fungus (microsclerotia) may not be spread by birds, such as ducks or geese, as theorized; it affirms the likely spread is by mud or crop residue on farm equipment from field to field.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) considered making V. longisporum a quarantine pest, but surveys following the 2014 discovery of this disease banished the thought. It was found in all six central and western provinces and was also known to be present in many areas in the U.S.

Verticillium stripe is a soil-borne disease, similar in some ways to clubroot. Tiny black, pepperlike sclerotia are widespread on infected canola stem tissue. These black tiny propagules can persist in the soil for up to 10 years, perhaps longer. It’s called “stripe” since the fungus really damages the outer parts of the canola stems and they appear very obviously striped. You can actually peel back the stems and see the black stippling — quite like the tiny black pycnidia of the blackleg fungus.

If you have any recognition doubts, any of the seed testing laboratories in Western Canada can do a positive DNA diagnosis in short order.

READ MORE: Don’t be a silly one, scout for verticillium

The verticillium stripe fungus is said to cause losses in Europe of 10 to 50 per cent of winter canola crops. Perhaps damage will be less on our shorter spring crops. Soil temperatures in the 60s (F) seem to favour disease development, and field damage in Europe on their rapeseed usually occurs in patches. The disease goes through only one cycle a year.

In Manitoba it appears almost 40 per cent or more canola crops were found to be infected with this disease in 2022. This could mean the disease may have been present there well prior to 2014 — as was the case with clubroot, which was found in Alberta in 2003 but was likely present much earlier in the Edmonton area.

Detection

I will avoid a detailed description of verticillium stripe since there are lots of excellent descriptions and photographs of symptoms provided by Manitoba and Canola Council publications. Check out “How to identify verticillium stripe” on the council’s Canola Watch website.

“A stitch in time saves nine.” If canola growers can slow down or perhaps control the spread of this disease, it will buy time for plant breeders to work on and hopefully come up with stripe-resistant or -tolerant canola crops.

So, verticillium wilt is here to stay. What can we do to keep it off our canola cropland — or to keep it under control if it’s been diagnosed on one or more of your canola fields?

Prevention

Preventing verticillium stripe from getting onto your cropland would be very similar to clubroot or pea root rot control. Your biggest disease spreaders are:

• Farm equipment, going from a known infested field to a field that has never shown up with this disease. We know it’s equipment, since in the case of clubroot, for example, the disease invariably shows up first on the field entrance.
• Custom seeding equipment, going from farm to farm without cleaning and hosing down mud on the seeders, fertilizer wagons and herbicide application equipment.
• Bale wagons that move from muddy field to muddy field in the fall or early spring. Verticillium stripe spores last like clubroot spores, for up to 10 years or more.
• Under very dry conditions, the verticillium stripe’s tiny black sclerotia could blow from field to field — especially from a field worked up the previous fall.
• In Alberta, in particular, it can be oilfield equipment moving from site to site during muddy weather. Some oilfield companies take their access rights-of-way very seriously and keep pathways clear of weeds all season. Negligent companies can be easily spotted by the noxious weeds such as scentless chamomile, foxtail barley and leafy spurge as well as the volunteer canola that allowed clubroot to build up at these sites, so why not verticillium stripe introduction?

Disease control

In infested fields, the tiny black sclerotia germinate in response to the root exudates from the canola plant. These sclerotia then infest the canola plant roots before moving up the stem. Perhaps the disease impact of the stripe fungus on our spring canola will be less than that of the longer-growing winter canola in Europe.

This fungus actually grows into the canola’s plumbing and clogs it up with single-celled spores (conidia). As the canola plant ages, the stem, or part of the stem, dies and the tiny black sclerotia are formed ready for next season — or they may persist for many years down the road, depending on the crop rotation. Damage by this fungus may be confused with blackleg or even sclerotinia. There are no foliar or seed treatment fungicides currently available for disease control. It is very unlikely the fungus is seedborne, if at all. In the northern part of Europe, where the disease is most prevalent, growers follow a three-year rotation between canola crops which supposedly allows the fungus micro-sclerotia to decline — but it does not rid the soil of this long-lived canola crop-damaging fungus.

The post Keep verticillium stripe in focus this year appeared first on Grainews.

While the disease has potential to cripple western Canadian canola production, it is not a doomsday scenario, says Autumn Barnes, southern Alberta agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada. However, it is critical that producers apply proper agronomic and management practices, now, she says. “I don’t talk about management practices in terms of ‘if’ clubroot appears, but at this stage it is really about ‘when’ it appears on your farm,” says Barnes. “Producers are urged to adopt a number of agronomic and management practices that will help to mitigate the impact of the disease.” Those proactive steps may not eliminate the risk, but certainly can slow the risk of yield-reducing disease levels developing and may just hold it at bay.

The clubroot disease pathogen (and there are several different strains) is believed to have a long history in Canada. First identified in eastern Canada in the early 1900s it has gradually moved west — in some soils it’s probably been around for decades. It is a disease prone to develop in cruciferous crops, which includes canola. With widespread production of canola in the past 30 years, and particularly with many farmers following tighter canola rotations in recent years (back to back or once every two years in rotation) basically the sleeping giant has awoken.

Since 2003 in Alberta the disease has spread from a few hot spots in a couple counties around Edmonton to moderate to high infestations across most of northern and central Alberta. In south-central and southern Alberta, a few infected fields have been found in Special Area 3 on the east side of Alberta, the disease was found in fields in Mountainview County surrounding Olds in 2016, it has been found in Newell County in the Brooks area, and last year a case was identified in Rockyview County which surrounds Calgary.

While this workshop presentation was given in Alberta, this is a Western Canada disease threat. Manitoba has several municipalities in the central part of the province where relatively high disease levels have been found in farmer fields, there are considerably more rural municipalities with moderate levels and about an equal number of rural areas with low levels of disease. Saskatchewan found its first clubroot infected soil sample in 2008 while a 2018 survey showed more than 40 fields primarily in the northern part of the province infected with the disease. All prairie provinces are on alert.

Spore count numbers game

Managing clubroot is somewhat of a numbers game. Low levels of what’s known as the resting spores of the clubroot pathogen can and very well may be in the soil and not cause any harm to a canola crop — the adage of letting a sleeping dog lie, applies. However, under the proper environmental conditions, or if those spores have the opportunity to attach themselves to susceptible host plants in successive growing seasons, they can begin to multiply.

Back-to-back or tight canola rotations is one practice that can increase risk of disease development, but canola isn’t the only culprit. Other host plants, part of the cruciferous family, can include volunteer canola, and mustard, along with common weeds such as wild mustard, stinkweed and flixweed. The disease pathogen can flourish and multiply on any of these plants. The disease spores are also easily moved through contaminated soil carried into a field on equipment, or blown in on airborne eroding soil.

A proper crop rotation of at least two years and ideally three or four years between canola crops is recommended says Barnes, but also pay attention to control measures to remove other non-crop plants such as canola and mustard crop volunteers and weeds.

Back to the numbers game: If a soil test for example reveals the resting clubroot spore count at about 1,000 or fewer spores per gram of soil (about a teaspoon) it’s not an issue. The spore population isn’t really going to affect canola crop yield until it reaches about 10,000 spores per gram, but after that the sky is the limit and the impact on the crop increases exponentially. Soil samples on moderate to heavily infected fields can produce spore counts of several hundred thousand, several million and even a billion or more spores in a gram or teaspoon of soil. At the moderate spore-count range yields can be reduced while at the upper range yields can be completely eliminated.

“The goal is to keep spore loads low and local,” says Barnes. Spore counts will begin to decline if the pathogen has nothing to feed on, so a crop rotation of at least two years between canola crops and more ideally three or four years will help reduce and keep numbers low.” And of course proper weed control during and between canola crops is important too. If an extremely high pathogen count is detected it may even take more years — seven or eight — to get the disease count down to that tolerable 1,000 spores per gram or less.

The post Clubroot is here. Deal with it appeared first on Grainews.

The next time I ran into clubroot was when I was a professor in 1970 on the University of Guelph faculty. One of my responsibilities was the control of turnip mosaic virus, a very destructive disease on the then $60 million Ontario rutabaga industry. I occasionally ran into fields of Laurentian rutabagas that were devastated by clubroot. Eureka, I found one healthy rutabaga in a 50-acre field of Laurentian rutabagas that was big and healthy whereas every other rutabaga was unsalable. Sad to say, this rutabaga was nothing new. It was the variety York, which was resistant to the Group 6 strain of clubroot prevalent in Ontario, stray seed that found its way into a Laurentian seed lot.

• Read more: Clubroot is coming to a field near you

I accepted a position with Alberta Agriculture in 1974 with responsibilities for diagnosing and controlling diseases in canola and cereals. This position gave me more contact with famers, paid more than Ontario and housing was way less costly.

I did lots of field work on sclerotia on canola, seed treatment of canola and worked on smuts and bunts in cereals. I was able to show the effectiveness of systemic seed treatments for loose smut control in cereals and the fact that lindane insecticide was indeed systemic in canola seed and that sclerotinia actually produced apothecia.

In 1976, my technician, Rita Stevens and I received at our Alberta Agriculture diagnostic laboratory four or five samples of clubroot-infected cabbage and cauliflower samples from various Edmonton gardens and a farm garden at Ohaton (Camrose), Alberta.

Knowing how destructive clubroot could be to rutabagas (the Argentine canola parent), Rita and I set up a number of experiments to determine the extent of the clubroot infestation at the farm garden infection at Ohaton and the effect on our currently grown Argentine and Polish canola varieties in 1976.

In our growth chamber and greenhouse experiments with this Ohaton clubroot strain we found that this clubroot isolation was very destructive to Polish canola (Candle) and relatively mild with only small nodules on Altex the most commonly grown Argentine canola. I forwarded samples of the clubroot to a specialist in Quebec who identified the clubroot as Race 6, different from the Race 3 that is presently highly destructive on Argentine canola.

I gave several provincial and at least one national presentation on the danger of clubroot to Canada’s canola industry. I provided photographic slides to several publications including the Western Committee on Plant Disease Control over the following 20 years.

In 1988 I published a write-up on clubroot in the Alberta Text Book Practical Crop Protection. In that one-page deposition I described the biology of clubroot (Plasmodiophora brassicae) and the destructive damage that could be caused by this soil-borne disease. I even described the difference between hybridization modules and 2,4-D damage that caused swelling of the upper root region of the canola plant.

I included a clubroot management strategy from cleaning machinery, drainage of wet soils and liming of acidic soils and other pertinent control facts.

I approached the canola industry in the 80s and 90s for funding to conduct surveys for this destructive disease but came up empty handed.

Eureka! In August of 2003 I got a call from Dan Orchard, then an employee of Sturgeon Valley Fertilizers, asking me to look at a suspected clubroot disease problem in canola near Morinville, Alberta. Dan Orchard, now with the Canola Council of Canada, was correct. It was a field of Argentine canola heavily damaged by clubroot from one end to the other. That summer Dan found 12 more clubroot-infested fields. In subsequent years I checked many fields in the Edmonton area near oilfield pumping equipment. Half of these pump sites that I visited (six out of 12) had clubroot-infected canola around the truck traffic margins of the pump sites.

These earlier findings are now history and canola growers must now face the reality that their most profitable field crop that they grow is now in grave danger.

An ounce of prevention

Clubroot infestation of cropland is not inevitable in fact it’s just about totally preventable. Look at the preventative programs that have succeeded in Canada — ringrot control of potatoes and golden cyst nematode of potatoes, both very destructive diseases. Rat control and Dutch elm disease control in Alberta — neither are present in the province.

How can you exclude clubroot from your cropland?

First of all, clubroot as we now know it is a highly destructive disease of most if not all crucifers, i.e. member of the cabbage family. They include crops such as cabbage, turnips, broccoli and kale, and weeds like wild mustard, stinkweed, shepherd’s purse and volunteer canola. A single large club on an infected canola plant can have as many as 16 million spores.

Here are seven tips for stopping clubroot infestation:

1. Check any and every field that you farm for clubroot. Check the canola crop, volunteer canola and any cruciferous weeds (wild mustard, stinkweed, shepherd’s purse) for root infecting clubs.
2. Pay particular attention to field entrances. Nine times out of 10 this is where clubroot shows up since it’s where farm machinery, pick-up trucks or any custom farm equipment drops clubroot-infested soil.
3. First you must plant clubroot resistant canola. This precaution should prevent clubroot from establishing on your cropland even if you get contaminated by chance.
4. If your soil is acidic, i.e. between pH five to seven ,then you should drop a ton or so of crushed limestone on the half acre field entrance. This in time will raise the pH to seven or a little more. Do this to all your canola cropland. High pH does suppress clubroot infection. You may have heard that if your soil is above pH seven you are immune to clubroot. Coffee shop gossip. A higher pH, especially seven and up, will slow down but not stop clubroot. In a wet season clubroot can be destructive even on soil with pH above seven.
5. Ensure that any custom seeding or harvest equipment is steam cleaned before access to your cropland.
6. Ensure that any utility or oil service equipment that has access to your cropland is steam cleaned prior to access.
7. Any new utility equipment that intends to dig its way across cropland should be held to rigid procedures of cleanliness.

Controlling clubroot

If clubroot, Race 3 or another race, has been confirmed on one or more of your canola fields, do not panic. Just follow the procedures for clubroot prevention. Work all of your clubroot-free land first, then seed anything but canola on these infested fields. After working these infested fields either steam clean or thoroughly wash down the equipment that you used for these clubroot fields on your farm yard or on non-crop areas.

If you have total clubroot infestation on most, if not all, of your cropland, you are in a bind.

In this situation, you must use resistant cultivars and depending on location you must follow the advice and directions of local service boards. You must be familiar with the resistant canola varieties available. There are purportedly three kinds of resistance. You must abandon the practice of wheat/canola/wheat/canola or even as some growers do canola/canola/canola. If you persist with this practice, in a very few rotations resistance to the clubroot organism will break down and your canola crops will fail. You will get into significant crop loss.

At best you can grow clubroot-resistant canola once every three to five years in infested croplands. Anything more frequent will in a few rotations make growing a profitable crop of canola impossible.

Clubroot awareness procedures

• Be aware of the potential for clubroot, whether your land is infected or not.
• Be aware of your nearest clubroot infested cropland.
• Ensure that you plant only clubroot-resistant seed varieties.
• Any visitors to your cropland, especially canola crops, whether friends, consultants or commercial industry representatives should be invited to don plastic over boots.
• If you cannot get plastic over boots, prepare a tray of water with 10 to 20 per cent bleach (one part bleach to nine parts water). Ask you guests to step into the tray of bleach for clubroot sterilization.

Following this awareness procedure will focus attention on this destructive disease. Do not worry about what your neighbours might think. You do not want to lose a bundle of money on the best of your cash crops.

The post Clubbed to debt: the rise of clubroot appeared first on Grainews.

Researchers are learning more about the pathogen, developing new clubroot-resistant seed varieties and finding better ways to measure the presence of clubroot. But for now, planting resistant seed, rotating crops to avoid planting canola within two years on the same field and sanitizing agricultural equipment that may carry clubroot spores are still the most effective tools farmers have to protect against infection.

• Read more: Clubroot is coming to a field near you

Unfortunately, Bruce Gossen, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research scientist, told delegates, though long rotations and sanitization are effective, “growers won’t use them.” Farmers reliant on immediate cash returns from canola crops are reluctant to implement longer rotations — surveys have found that 10 to 15 per cent of farmers do not give their soil the recommended breaks from canola. As well, farmers find that fully sanitizing agricultural equipment to remove all clubroot spores is time consuming, which is especially problematic during busy seasons.

Researchers are assessing the potential of using soil amendments like lime and fumigation to lower the load of clubroot spores in infected soil. Gossen says liming “looks positive,” as a way to keep the load of clubroot spores low, but the costs of fumigation are too high for widespread use. “There’s not a lot that can be done on a large scale,” he said.

“This is not an easy problem to solve,” agreed conference attendee Carol Holt, farmer from Bashaw, Alta., and agronomist with Univar. “There are limited control measures and they can’t be easily applied.”

Clubroot has only recently affected North Dakota and the Peace River region of Alberta, but international delegates from countries including Japan, China, Poland, Sweden and Germany brought stories of their long history with clubroot, which also impacts other cruciferous crops such as broccoli and cabbage. “We think it’s just started, but we’re just the last to get it,” said conference delegate Wayne Truman, Saskatchewan farmer and SaskCanola board member.

The post No silver bullet for international disease appeared first on Grainews.

That adds up to a financial hit for affected farmers. But while the economic and agronomic realities are acknowledged, the psychology of dealing with a clubroot infestation has gotten less coverage.

John Guelly, a farmer from Westlock, Alberta, compares it to going through the grieving process.

“When you first find out, you’re kind of upset about it, and mad, and wondering how it got there,” says Guelly. Guelly discovered clubroot on his farm in 2013. At first, he didn’t quite believe it was clubroot, and wanted to downplay the situation, he says.

That rings true for Dr. Greg Gibson, a psychologist with Prairie Mountain Health in Manitoba and assistant professor at the University of Manitoba.

Clubroot is a practical problem and “an emotionally laden problem as well,” he says. Gibson hasn’t worked with farmers facing clubroot specifically, but he has worked with producers dealing with other issues.

The first four stages of the grieving process include shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, and depression. Once a person works through those four stages, they are on a better footing, moving towards acceptance and hope.

Guelly says it’s something he went through, to a certain extent.

“You go through it over a long period of time. It’s nothing something you digest and say — Boom! — I need to do this or do that. You have to work it through in your head and get things ironed out before you can actually come up with a full plan.”

• Read more: John Guelly’s six-step management plan

But if a person gets stuck in one of the first four stages, Gibson says, that can lead to more problems in the future.

Shock and denial followed by pain and guilt

The shock and denial stage is an issue because if the farmer isn’t awake to the problem, he might not deal with the clubroot quickly enough, says Gibson.

That’s critical because when clubroot spores are low, the disease is still manageable. Dan Orchard, Canola Council of Canada agronomist, has cited research showing that a two-year break from canola can cut viable clubroot spores by over 90 per cent. But if spore loads are sky-high, even a two-year break leaves too many viable spores in the soil.

In the shock and denial stage, other people may need to “shine a light on the issue,” says Gibson. “Sometimes it’s needed when folks are in denial, especially when it’s emotionally-laden.”

But once a farmer has pushed through (or been nudged out of) shock and denial, pain and guilt waits. This is especially true if farmers feel they are partly to blame, because of something they did or didn’t do, Gibson explains. Concern about what others might think about them, or how others might be affected, can also create shame.

“Farming families are highly pro-active, industrious, and self-sufficient,” says Gibson. “And if they found that they in any way are the catalysts to other people’s concerns–whether that be other people, their own families, or what have you–that can create a tremendous amount of guilt.”

The pain and guilt in these situations can also increase the likelihood that someone remains in denial, Gibson says.

Guelly sees the social stigma surrounding clubroot as part of the problem. “It seems to be something that nobody wants to talk about. It’s like mental health.”

Along with worrying about what the neighbours will say, farmers also worry about land values dropping and the county’s reaction, says Guelly (although he notes clubroot hasn’t cut land values in his area). But the best thing farmers can do is talk about it, he says.

“You can learn more from neighbours, agronomists. Know what you’re looking for in the first place so you can catch it early,” says Guelly.

Gibson tells farmers to think of themselves as engines that need to be maintained. They can watch for check-engine lights to catch problems early. The early stages of grief may come with negative coping strategies, such as self-medicating with alcohol or drugs, or perhaps smoking more than usual, says Gibson.

“Sometimes when people are stuck in that shame mode, it’s almost like they feel that they’re not worthy of looking after themselves,” he says.

Gibson advises people to avoid these negative coping strategies, to keep exercising and to take care of themselves.

Anger and bargaining, followed by depression

Once people are noticing there’s a problem, they might try bargaining (perhaps in vain) with the powers that be, such as county officials, says Gibson. Or they may go into panic mode.

Another common behaviour is lashing out. Or people may try to come up with a solution, but it won’t be done in a healthy way, says Gibson. “Rather than accepting the issue, they’re fighting against it.”

After the anger and bargaining stage comes depression. Depression is a huge one for many farmers, says Gibson. “Farmers are very self-sufficient folks and sometimes they don’t want to burden other people with their issues.”

People suffering from depression tend to isolate themselves. Hard-working people might face a lack of motivation, as though they’re all in, Gibson says. This might spread to relationships and finances as well. They almost check out of life, he adds.

Even if a person doesn’t feel suicidal, depression can be serious and extremely debilitating, says Gibson.

Getting unstuck

How can farmers avoid getting mired down in the first four stages? And how can their families, agronomists, and friends help them?

Gibson says it’s hard to think clearly in the early stages of grief, and to separate emotion from logic. Farmers will likely need help problem-solving from people they trust, whether that’s an agronomist or neighbour.

Guelly suggests getting farmers talking to clubroot experts and agronomists. Farmers need to realize that clubroot is not the end of the world, he says. Although their world has changed, that doesn’t mean they’re done growing canola, he adds.

Gibson says agronomists and others should demonstrate empathy and validate the farmer’s experience. Don’t say things such as “I know how you feel.” Instead, just let them talk or say something like “that sounds heavy,” says Gibson.

From there, it’s important to move into problem-solving, says Gibson. Avoid terms like “wrong” or “bad,” as well as emotionally-laden language or anything that sounds like laying blame. Focus on the future, and on solutions to address problems. Set short-term goals. Be patient, says Gibson.

Watch out for all or none thinking about the situation — for example, remarks about things never getting better, or clubroot being a cross to bear. “If they’re not blaming the other person, they’re blaming themselves,” says Gibson.

Ultimately, agronomists are not therapists, Gibson says. But agronomists can refer struggling farmers to other resources, such as farm stress lines or services within the community.

Family is very important in this situation as well, because the whole family experiences trials and tribulations on the farm, Gibson says. Often spouses of farmers also have a self-reliant personality, but they need to make sure they’re maintaining their own engines, he says. That means having a support system, avoiding self-medication and other negative coping strategies, going for walks, and using farm stress lines if needed.

It’s also important that the family makes time to have fun, Gibson adds.

“Being able to balance life is important in general. But when you’re finding that there is a farm crisis, then sometimes play goes out the window. And it’s still important to have a good work-life balance.”

As for Guelly, he doesn’t want to see farmers in other provinces hit the clubroot learning curve the way Alberta farmers did. Try to find it when spore levels are low, he advises.

“The big thing is don’t panic. Keep scouting.”

Farm stress lines

In Manitoba: Manitoba Farm, Rural, and Northern Support Services. Chat online on its website or call 1-866-367- 3276 (Monday to Friday 10 am to 9 pm). After hours call 1-888- 322-3019.

In Saskatchewan: Sask Farm Stress Line. Call 1-800-667-4442 Available 24/7. For more info visit Mobile Crisis Services online.

In Alberta: Alberta Mental Health Help Line. Call: 1-877-303- 2642. Available 24 hrs a day.

The post Clubroot can damage more than just the bottom line appeared first on Grainews.

Blackleg genetics, along with seed treatments, can help you get into the season and established while protecting seedlings from blackleg for the first few weeks after seeding.

At the two- to six-leaf stage, consider using a foliar fungicide — especially if last year’s scouting showed that you had significant blackleg infection in your fields.

• Read more: Four canola diseases to watch for

Genetics, seed treatments, and fungicides can be individually effective against blackleg, but they should be supported by good agronomic practices to maintain their useful life.

Scouting to identify the disease, as well as good weed control to eliminate host weed species, are two important pillars of a successful blackleg management strategy.

The ideal time to scout for blackleg is right around maturity, or close to swathing. When scouting, cut stems just above the soil surface to check for blackleg infection symptoms. Late-season blackleg infections may look like several other issues, such as lodged or early-maturing patches, and might not otherwise raise a lot of concern.

Weed control throughout your rotation should also be top- of-mind. Controlling brassica weeds and canola volunteers is especially important, as they can be prime blackleg hosts in your non-canola growing years.

Michael Hutton, product evaluation scientist with Syngenta Canada.

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