Canola Watch #11

Four the week
Two-hit wonder. Does your canola really need a second in-crop herbicide application? Only certain circumstances — like the one photographed below— make it worthwhile.

Summer heat A new PAMI project will look into summer effects on stored canola, and help set best practices to prevent heating: Aerate to warm it, turn it to warm it, or just leave it cold? Have you checked stored canola lately?

Clubroot conundrum. No current commercial clubroot-resistant canola hybrids have resistance to the different strain found in Alberta. Equipment sanitation and long rotations will be required to prevent the pathogen’s buildup and spread.

Insect Aside. Are striped flea beetles taking over? Maybe, but that shouldn’t change the steps in making the decision to apply an in-crop insecticide.

Map of the week





The top map shows growing degree days (GDD) base 0 up to June 9, 2014. Compared to 2013, as shown in the lower map, some areas are ahead of last year’s pace, some are behind. (Note the legends are slightly different, so use the legend specific to each map.) Source: AAFC’s Drought Watch site.

Alberta Agriculture’s weather service provides GDD and other graphs for specific locations if you want to refine your search in that province.

The agronomy message: Crop protection and fertilizer top dress decisions may extend crop maturity, which may be a concern given that most canola across the Prairies is already behind. Thin stands take longer to mature, so stands that already have less than 7 plants per square foot (70/m2) have more to lose from insect damage — both from maturity and yield perspectives — if the stand is thinned further. Growers looking at a nitrogen top dress may consider in their decision the fact that increased biomass that results from a nitrogen top dress can cause the crop to mature later.

Source: Alberta Canola Producers Commission