Like the Christmas decorations coming out at Costco, it feels like the variety and hybrid line-up decision keeps moving earlier and earlier each year. For some farmers, early decisions are vital in order to secure the exact variety, treatment, and trait package, but that decision is sometimes made before the current-year’s data is compiled. To… Read More

Advancements in RNA interference (RNAi) technology could soon unlock new tools for managing canola pests and pathogens, such as sclerotinia and flea beetles. RNAi — ribonucleic acid interference — involves targeting specific RNA sequences in a disease or pest, rather than targeting entire proteins or enzymes, as is the case with current pesticides. It’s a… Read More

Verticillium stripe — a disease first discovered in Western Canada in 2014 — appears to be taking advantage of the stress to canola plants caused by an old, familiar disease pathogen. While research to understand Verticillium longisporum in the Prairies is still in its early stages, there’s a hypothesis that its prevalence in a canola… Read More

The decision whether to spray a fungicide for sclerotinia stem rot always comes back to the disease triangle — a susceptible host, the presence of the pathogen, and a favourable environment — and many canola-growing areas currently have all three. Under “favourable environment,” sclerotinia requires moist soil conditions to germinate. The last few years have… Read More

Canola seedlings have experienced a tough start in many areas of the Prairies this year. In Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan, the crop has had to come through flooding, broadcast seeding, compaction, crusting, and flea beetles (stay away, grasshoppers), while it’s been the opposite soil moisture scenario in drought-stricken parts of Alberta and western Saskatchewan. In… Read More