Canola School: Scouting and spraying for sclerotinia
We’re starting to see some flowering in canola and with that, scouting for sclerotinia is on the to-do list. Justine Cornelsen, with the Canola Council of Canada, based out of Manitoba, joined Kara...
View ArticleCanola School: Mapping a control strategy for kochia
Kochia is a big concern for farmers across the Prairies, primarily because it’s a tough weed to kill, and the population is rife with herbicide resistance. Most farmers are aware of Group 2 resistance...
View ArticleCanola School: Top tools for scouting for bertha armyworm
Walking into a green, fully-podded canola field isn’t easy — it’s actually more like swimming if you’ve got a good stand and your plants are well knit together. But, it’s important to really get into...
View ArticleCanola School: Plant stand counts and post-harvest disease scouting
If the weather was in your favour this fall, and the canola is off, now is a great opportunity to review what went wrong or what went right with the crop. One way to get some insight is to do plant...
View ArticleCanola School: Managing weeds early in the season
Starting the year off on the right foot requires a little bit of forethought and planning. When it comes to keeping a canola crop clean during the early stages of growth, there are some steps to take...
View ArticleCanola School: Scouting strategies for clubroot
Any time you’re growing canola, and any field you’re growing it in, clubroot should be on your mind. For Leighton Blashko, senior technical specialist at BASF Canada, the two most important things when...
View ArticleCanola School: When and where to scout for flea beetles
Flea beetles are a common insect pest in early growing canola across the Prairies. There are two important species of concern for canola (and mustard) growers: the striped flea beetle and the crucifer...
View ArticleCanola School: Root rot conditions of concern
It’s still early days, but as we wait for soil temperatures to warm up in parts of the Prairies and for canola seeding to roll in full force, it’s good to review the potential for canola diseases. Root...
View ArticleCanola School: New online tools support blackleg management
The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) has recently updated a few agronomy graphics, including the life cycle of blackleg. “We’ve had different life cycles in the past, but we wanted to update it and...
View ArticleCanola School: New research in the fight against flea beetles
Flea beetles are one of the most detrimental insects for the early stages of canola, but new research sheds some light on how seeding date can be used to get ahead of this pest. In this Canola School...
View ArticleCanola School: Winter canola taking root in Ontario
Winter canola isn’t actually that new of a crop to Ontario — there were certainly some acres produced in the 80s and 90s — but there’s been a resurgence in the last five years with increased...
View ArticleCanola School: A two-pass herbicide layering strategy
Herbicide strategy for in-crop applications in canola first requires knowing what weeds are out there, and keeping in mind that two applications is an option. In this Canola School episode, Jaeda...
View ArticleCanola School: The science of heat blast and what you can do about it
It’s well-known that canola does not like heat during flowering. As soon as daytime highs rise beyond 30 degrees C — as we’re seeing through the current heat wave in Western Canada — the plant can...
View ArticleCanola School: Deciding whether to spray for sclerotinia
It’s been dry in parts of Western Canada heading into canola flowering, but has it been dry enough to hold off on spraying for sclerotinia? That’s a question many growers and agronomists in...
View ArticleCanola School: Sweeping and scouting for cabbage seedpod weevil
Cabbage seedpod weevil can cause considerable yield loss to a canola and other brassica crops, such as mustard. As adults, the pest is three to four millimetres in length, is ash-grey in colour, and...
View ArticleCanola School: Controlling grasshoppers, an atypical pest
It’s been dry, windy, and hot across most of the Prairies this year, and an insect pest that you don’t typically see attacking canola is thriving in these conditions. Lyle Jensen, agronomist at...
View ArticleCanola School: Aggressive lygus bugs and their enemies
Lygus bugs attack several broadleaf crops, including alfalfa, flax, faba beans, lentils, and canola. They are a pest of concern that have been a focus for Hector Carcamo, research scientist at...
View ArticleCanola School: Managing clubroot patches using ag lime
Using clubroot resistant genetics and lengthening rotations are highly recommended practices for managing clubroot on the Prairies. But is there more farmers could do? “Ninety per cent of those...
View ArticleCanola School: Comparing clubroot management strategies
Clubroot has been confirmed in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and can cause yield losses between 30 and 100 per cent. Sanitation, crop rotation, using resistant cultivars, and managing...
View ArticleCanola School: A insect pest forecast for the Prairies
The impact of 2021’s drought and heat across many parts of the Prairies continues to be a key point in conversation as we look towards the 2022 growing season. Meghan Vankosky, field crop entomologist...
View ArticleCanola School: Test soil temperature to mitigate disease and insect pressure
As the snow melts, many producers across the Prairies are eagerly awaiting for the day they can get in the field — if they there aren’t already. Sheldon Toews, technical service specialist with BASF,...
View ArticleCanola School: Stick to the rotation for long-term gains
Looking at the current state of the commodity markets, you may be tempted to make some last minute changes to your crop plan. Deviating away from your crop rotation may seem like a good idea in the...
View ArticleCanola School: The value of a pre-seed scout for weeds
We’ve all experienced those fields where the weeds have gotten out of hand. Sometimes weeds getting away on us is because we didn’t have a great handle on what was out there to begin with. RongRong...
View ArticleCanola School: Mitigating flea beetle pressure through consistent seeding depth
When it comes to seeding depth of canola, there are many different opinions and recommendations out there. While there may not be a right or wrong answer — did you know you can potentially mitigate...
View ArticleCanola School: Cutworm, the buffet feeder
With some insects, we may be confused as to why they have the name they do. When it comes to cutworms — this isn’t the case. It’s pretty “cut” and dry…as the pest will feed on the stems of the plant....
View ArticleCanola School: When does it pay to spray for flea beetles?
Validating economic thresholds for flea beetles can be tricky — especially when we know the damage the insect can do to the canola crop. Héctor Cárcamo, research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food...
View ArticleCanola School: Who’s who in the zoo? The difference between striped and...
There are two main species of flea beetles across the Prairies: the striped flea beetle and the crucifer flea beetle. Both can have devastating impacts on the canola crop, however, they have a few...
View ArticleCanola School: Maximizing yield potential after a tough seeding season
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,...
View ArticleCanola School: Is it worth spraying for sclerotinia after drought?
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...
View ArticleCanola School: Sweep well ahead of deciding to spray for cabbage seed pod weevil
By early July, many canola fields across the Prairies are in the beginning stages of bolting. According to Héctor Cárcamo, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Lethbridge, Alta.,...
View ArticleCanola School: Understanding the lifecycle of the diamondback moth
Diamondback moths blow in at some point early in the season (thanks, America!), and set about living on the Prairies and in the canola crop for the rest of the growing season. Jordan Bannerman,...
View ArticleCanola School: Scouting for lygus bugs and diamondback moths
Both lygus bugs and diamondback moths can cause issues for canola growers, not only because of the damage they do to a crop, but also because they tend to show up later in the growing season, which can...
View ArticleCanola School: Fall weed control — your spring self will thank you!
Despite the calendar date, many areas of the Prairies haven’t seen a killing frost this fall, which means the window for fall weed control is still open. As producers, agronomists, and everyone...
View ArticleCanola School: The five Ws of planning next year’s canola
The ground may freeze and the plants stop growing, but there’s no “off season” for good agronomy. Just because the crop is in the bin, doesn’t mean we should stop thinking about how to improve...
View ArticleCanola School: Verticillium stripe continues to widen its path across the...
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...
View ArticleCanola School: Life without lambda-cy (for one year, at least)
Canola growers in Western Canada likely won’t have access to crop protection products that contain lambda-cyhalothrin — one of the main active ingredients used to control insect pests — in 2023, which...
View ArticleCanola School: Saskatchewan farmer shares lessons learned after 5 years using...
After spending close to 2,500 hours over the last five years operating a sprayer equipped with optical spraying technology on his farm near Fisk, Saskatchewan, Carl deConinck Smith is not only an early...
View ArticleCanola School: Putting Group 14 resistant kochia on the radar, with suspected...
Farmers in Western Canada should add another chemistry to the list to pay attention to when it comes to herbicide resistance in kochia, says a weed scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The...
View ArticleCanola School: Mitigating flea beetle damage through uniform seeding
When talking about flea beetles and flea beetle pressure, it’s really all a numbers game. How can we get the least amount of insects across a wide range of plants? The key, says Jack Payne of South...
View ArticleCanola School: The importance of a pre-emerge herbicide pass
Ideally, we want to get every crop off to the best start possible. One of the ways that this can be done in canola is through a pre-emergent herbicide, says Marissa Robitaille Balog, of the Canola...
View ArticleCanola School: Honing in on early insect pests
Once the canola crop has emerged, keep eyes peeled for pesky early insects. Across Western Canada, the top two insects of concern tend to be cutworms and — you guessed it — flea beetles. Anique...
View ArticleCanola School: Keeping an eye on the early competition
Canola is not a very competitive crop in its early stages, so keeping an eye on the competition is key. We’ve covered on the Canola School why a pre-emerge herbicide pass can be valuable, but of...
View ArticleCanola School: Clean, clean, clean… the importance of a proper sprayer tank...
The growing season is busy. From before the crop goes into the ground, to after it’s harvested, there are a million different things on the go. Although skipping any steps is frowned upon, one step...
View ArticleCanola School: Manage blackleg well to manage verticillium better
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...
View ArticleCanola School: Nighttime is the right time to spray cutworms
When’s the best time to control cutworms in canola? For growers wanting to take out the pest it’s best to put away the sun glasses and reach for the night vision goggles. On this episode of the...
View ArticleCanola School: Gauging the effectiveness of flea beetle seed treatments
There’s plenty to learn from early scouting trips across the field, including seed survival, seeding depth, and evaluating the effectiveness of inputs so far. One of those key early inputs includes a...
View ArticleCanola School: Use a bird-like approach to scouting for bertha armyworm
Bertha armyworm isn’t necessarily an insect pest the Prairies have had huge amounts of trouble with over the last few years. Which is exactly why it may be our turn for an “on” cycle, says Keith Gabert...
View ArticleCanola School: Strip-tilling creates a happy medium of seedbed prep, water...
To till or not to till? It’s an ongoing conversation in areas where water is controlled through irrigation or risk of soil erosion is high. Carlo Van Herk, research technician with Farming Smarter,...
View ArticleCanola School: Second-guessing that “safe” rate of seed-placed fertilizer
“We’ve always done it that way” isn’t always the best approach in farming, and that includes the decision on how much fertilizer to put down with canola at seeding. Canola is sensitive to fertilizer...
View ArticleCanola School: How RNAi could help manage flea beetles and sclerotinia
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 —...
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