First found in 2014 in Manitoba, verticillium stripe has become a more common disease found in canola.
In parts of Manitoba, the season started with an excess of moisture and was hot, which led to the perfect breeding ground for the disease.
Which is why it was the heaviest year on record in Western Canada for verticillium stripe.
Courtney Boyachek, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada (CCC), joined this latest Canola School episode to give us some updates on the disease that inhibits the uptake of water and nutrients to the canola plants.
“It’ll block off the water conducting tissue in the canola plant, which is your xylem. And it doesn’t let any water nutrients get up there — which causes all sorts of symptomology — anywhere from wilting and stunting, to chlorosis, and then ultimately, necrosis in the plant, which inhibits our pods and seeds from developing,” Boyachek explains.
As far as location goes, it is still most aggressive in Manitoba, but has been located in all three prairie provinces.
“It’s starting to creep its way more intensely to Saskatchewan and Alberta,” she says. “Alberta has the least amount of instances — but it’s still found — and then it just gets worse as you move further east.”
Since it is still a relatively new disease in Western Canada, they aren’t 100 per cent sure on the yield impacts. Research is currently being conducted to see exactly what this looks like for Canadian producers, but since it has been present in Europe for about 30 years, they can use some of the data from there.
“Over there we’re seeing a bit of yield loss — anywhere from 10 t0 50 per cent. But in our geographic, we’re not 100 per cent sure yet.”
Check out the full conversation between Boyachek and RealAgriculture’s Kara Oosterhuis, below:
Canola School: What we’ve learned about verticillium stripe
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