Pulse School: Checking up on disease development and nodulation

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With variable conditions across the prairies, pulse crop development also varies, but many fields are either in flowering, or beginning to flower.

In this Pulse School episode, Robyne Bowness-Davidson, pulse research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, fills us in on what she’s been seeing so far this season, and what growers should be keeping an eye on for the remainder of July.

“The things we should be concerned right about now is, what’s going on as far as disease, and what does our nodulation look like,” she explains, noting pea leaf weevil larvae are feeding on nodules in some areas.

If nodulation is a problem, and given the extreme varied temperatures and weather conditions we’ve had this year, Bowness-Davidson says this year may be one where you have to top dress with nitrogen.

“If we are seeing that the nodulation is poor, we might want to consider adding some nitrogen, which is not normally a message that I would normally give, because we always expect the peas to make their own nitrogen. We don’t want to be topping it up because we don’t want to be getting too much vegetative growth, and we don’t want to encourage lodging. But if you are not getting good nodulation, you definitely may have to think about doing that,” suggests Bowness-Davidson.

To learn more, from pea leaf weevil larvae feeding to bacterial blight to nutrient deficiencies, check out this Pulse School episode, filmed at CanolaPalooza in Lacombe, Alberta.

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