The 2024 growing season has been a wet one for much of the edible bean growing region, and that means growers need to get out and scout as crops start to flower in a high-disease risk growing environment.
On this episode of RealAgriculture’s Edible Bean School, host Bernard Tobin and Hensall Co-op field marketer Meghan Scott take a look at the perennial threat of white mould and discuss strategies to defend crops against the yield-robbing disease.
On the heels of Hurricane Beryl’s rainy trek across the province, Tobin and Scott visit a soggy white bean field in Ontario’s Huron County. Scouting the field, Scott notes that some early flowers are starting to appear in the canopy. “As those first flowers start to drop off, you are going to have those pin beans behind it. That’s when you want to get in there and put on your white mould fungicide.”
When it comes to fungicide application, Scott says water volumes are critical to helping the product penetrate the canopy and protect against the disease. “You need those droplets to hit the plant in order to protect it and if you’ve got big canopies you want to get as much water on it as possible to get those droplets into the canopies.”
Scott says minimum application rate is 20 gallons per acre: “But 25 gallons is going to do a much better job if you have the ability to do it.”
When growers are scouting for disease they should also be on the lookout for insects that can rob both crop yield and quality. In the video, Scott says it’s important to keep a watchful eye for pests like tarnished plant bug and western bean cutworm and apply an insecticide, as required.
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