By Alice McFarlane

Disease testing program monitoring for Blackleg and Clubroot in Saskatchewan

Jul 15, 2022 | 3:58 PM

MELFORT, Sask. – The Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission (SaskCanola) are collaborating on a project to monitor two diseases.

This summer and fall testing for blackleg and clubroot will be available at no charge to Saskatchewan producers.

SaskCanola’s Research Committee chair, Keith Fournier, said these diseases are invasive and costly.

“Clubroot is a soil-borne disease that deprives farmers of their hard-earned income. Clubroot is easier to manage when it’s found at low levels in a soil test before there are visible symptoms in the crop,” Fournier said. “Blackleg populations can shift over time when there is selection pressure from genetic resistance of canola.”

Fournier said it’s important for farmers as they make future seeding decisions to select a canola variety with a different resistance gene package.

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SaskCanola’s clubroot monitoring program is available again this year for Saskatchewan canola growers and their agrologists. Soil testing is the best way to detect the clubroot pathogen before any symptoms appear on the canola plant.

Farmers can request a soil sampling bag from SaskCanola, a Ministry of Agriculture regional office or a Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) plant health officer.

Soil collected from the field is then submitted for clubroot testing and SaskCanola covers the cost.

The ideal time to test for clubroot is in the fall. The galls on the canola plant’s roots are decomposing and starting to release spores into the soil at that time. Private sector agrologists are encouraged to work with growers to ensure that at-risk fields are identified and tested so the spread of clubroot disease can be reduced.

SaskCanola is offering a free blackleg test to the first 200 registered canola growers who apply. Farmers can collect plant stems suspected of infection and then contact SaskCanola to receive a blackleg testing code. SaskCanola provides the test results by email.

Private sector agrologists have the option of testing fields on behalf of farmers.

More information on the Disease Testing Programs is available here.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW