Growing a new crop can be tricky for a number of different reasons. There are so many unknowns, and at the end of the day, a farmer needs to know they will make a profit off the crop. Robyne Bowness Davidson, pulse specialist at Lakeland College, has been working with lupins for 20 years. The… Read More
Category: Pulse Disease, Weeds & Insects
For all crops, there’s a critical weed free period — a time early in the season where the crop must be kept weed-free to prevent yield loss potential. For pulses, the length of time ranges depending on the pulse type. Ken Wall of Federated Co-operatives Ltd., joins this Pulse School episode to discuss why early… Read More
Growers spend the winter making sure the equipment is ready, the seed variety is selected, and the inputs are budgeted for. Some may forward sell crops, while others want to hold off and store it in their bins. Farmers work hard to make sure seeding timing is correct, and the soil conditions are fit. But… Read More
First found in Canada in southern Alberta in the 1990s, the pea leaf weevil is continuing to expand its territory to the east. The invasive pest whose larvae feed on the rhizobia in nitrogen-fixing root nodules has since spread across most of the pea-growing areas of Alberta and Saskatchewan. It was first detected in Manitoba,… Read More
Every year, pulse growers are on the lookout for root rots which can wreak havoc on not just the current crop but also have impact on future crop rotation decisions. Aphanomyces and fusarium are the main root rots of concern, and can be tough to distinguish from each other. In this episode of the Pulse School, Sabine… Read More
Disease management can make or break any given crop year, and on this episode of the Pulse School we are taking a look at chickpeas and the most important disease to scout for, ascochyta blight. Dr. Michelle Hubbard is a research scientist in pulse pathology with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. She says disease prevention starts before putting… Read More
Fungicides are integral for preventing disease in many pulse crops, however, just like how weeds have become resistant to certain herbicides, diseases can become resistant to commonly-used fungicide chemistries. The majority of pulse fungicides on the market in Western Canada contain a Group 11 — the category of fungicide most likely to be overcome by… Read More
Pea aphids love to feed off the sap flowing to new pods on the plant. The trouble is, just two aphids per plant at the right stage can siphon off as much as five per cent of yield. Laura Schmidt, production specialist with the Manitoba Pulse and Soybean Growers, says that modern pea varieties are… Read More
An emerging technology yet to be released in Canada looks to up the ante on spraying herbicides by using an algorithm that is able to identify and spot-spray just the weeds in a growing crop. On this episode of the Pulse School, we speak with Tom Wolf, owner of Agrimetrix Research & Training, about the new… Read More
Using surveys and science to detect regional pathogens aren’t new methods to detect diseases in pulse crops, but how are our U.S. pulse crop growing counterparts dealing with the diseases present in their areas? In this Pulse School episode, Lyndon Porter, research plant pathologist with the United States Department of Agriculture, joins Kara Oosterhuis to… Read More
Pea leaf weevils are out and active, and if they’re present in your fields they’re doing foliar damage to pea and faba bean crops. Meghan Vankosky, field crop entomologist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Saskatoon, Sask., joins Kara Oosterhuis for a discussion about pea leaf weevil scouting and thresholds in this Pulse School episode. “You… Read More
What can growers do, right now, to help reduce the devastating effects pathogens, such as aphanomyces and fusarium, have on pulse crops? Michael Wunsch, plant pathologist with North Dakota State University, joins Kara Oosterhuis for this Pulse School episode to talk about what is and isn’t in farmers’ control. Wunsch’s approach to disease management includes… Read More
Depending on where you farm across the Prairies, you might have some concerns about herbicide carryover from the previous year, especially after a dry fall. “If you’re in some of the drier areas of the prairies, especially southern Alberta or across Saskatchewan, you might want to take a look at some of the herbicides you… Read More
Planning concerns for next year’s pulse crops stem mostly from disease concerns, especially aphanomyces. 2020 was a really wet year, and there were pockets that saw a lot of moisture, which resulted in increased roots rots and that nasty soil-borne disease — such as aphanomyces — which makes planning for the future crucial. “We saw… Read More
While you’re out scouting your peas, lentils, or faba beans for disease at early flowering, have a look for pea aphids too. “Flowering is a good time to be scouting for aphids in peas,” says John Gavloski, provincial entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development. “The most damage they can do is going to occur… Read More