Agricultural News
Strong Resistance in Varieties Key to Staving Off Disease in Canola
Wed, 10 Aug 2016 05:09:53 CDT
Oklahoma canola farmers were fortunate in 2016 when it came to disease problems, according to Dr. John Damicone of Oklahoma State University. Dr. Damicone says that this past growing season really saw only limited problems arise during the life of the 2016 crop.
"If you pick up a book on canola diseases, it's probably 200 pages long and has lots of problems that can happen in canola," Damicone said. "We've had Blackleg show up pretty much all over the state. But I think our varieties are resistant enough where it's not hurting us too badly."
Aside from Blackleg, which causes stem cankers, Dr. Damicone says canola farmers should also look out for other diseases like Sclerotinia, a very persistent soil born disease that causes aggressive stem rot, killing the plants. He says this is a disease farmers do not want to get in their crop. He encourages producers to only plant canola in the same field once every three or four years to keep Sclerotinia levels from building up.
Aster yellows is another disease to keep an eye on. Dr. Damicone says although there are products available to kill the leaf hoppers that spread this disease, it is very difficult for farmers to identify when the have the problem, and there never really know when to spray their crop.
If disease does break out in your crop, Damicone says there are good fungicides readily available to combat the problem, however, he says that would significantly add to production costs, ruining profit margins. He says the best bet, is to sow strong, resilient canola varieties that will keep diseases at bay.
"There's various levels of resistance and I think we've got a decent amount in most of our varieties so we haven't been hurt by that this far," Damicone said.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Direcotor Ron Hays talked with Dr. Damicone at the recent Canola Educational Seminar at Lahoma- you can hear their conversation by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
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