Clubroot has been confirmed in two canola fields in north-central Saskatchewan.
It marks the first time the soil-borne disease has been detected on a live canola plant in the province. It has previously been detected in Alberta and been found on canola in the Edmonton area since 2003.
“We’re far from happy that we have to announce this, but we’re just not surprised that we had to announce it,” said Brett Halstead, chair of the Saskatchewan Canola Development Commission.
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“We’re very disappointed, but we knew it was probably going to be happening some day.”
The only other appearance of the disease in Saskatchewan was in a 2008 soil sample collected in the west-central portion of the province.
Halstead said the recent discovery is more worrisome than the previous one because it involves living plants.
The provincial government has refused to release the location of the two farms because of privacy concerns and because it wants every farmer in the province to be vigilant, not just those in the two rural municipalities where the disease was found.
Faye Dokken-Bouchard, a plant disease specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, said the province will work with the farmers to develop management plans based on recommendations outlined in the Saskatchewan Clubroot Management Plan.
However, the province will not audit the producers to ensure the plan is followed.
The clubroot discovery was independent of the province’s annual plant survey, which found no signs of the disease in the 250 fields it inspected. Results of the 100 soil samples collected this growing season will not be available until early 2012.
Dokken-Bouchard is encouraged that root galls are the only symptoms found in the two fields where the disease was discovered.
There were no above ground symptoms such as stunting, wilting, yellowing, premature ripening and seed shriveling, which would indicate a more severe infection.
However, that doesn’t mean growers should let down their guard.
“We want people to be aware that it could be in more places than just these locations,” said Dokken- Bouchard.
“The potential risk is there and we need to be really vigilant about watching out for symptoms next year.”
The rule of thumb for clubroot and other diseases that prevent water and nutrient uptake in plants is that yield loss equals half of the level of infection. This means that a field where 50 percent of the plants had the disease would experience a 25 percent yield loss.
Clubroot has been detected in hundreds of fields in Alberta, with incidence levels reaching more than 70 percent in some cases. The Canola Council of Canada says wet conditions hastened the spread of the disease to new fields and new areas in Alberta this year.
Dokken-Bouchard doesn’t expect the clubroot problem in Saskatchewan to become as severe as it is in Alberta.
“We do feel it will not become widespread because we are practicing careful monitoring and prevention,” she said.
However, farmers need to remain vigilant because there are no control options for the disease. Some seed companies have clubroot resistant varieties, but Dokken-Bouchard said they are only resistant to the most prevalent pathotype of the disease.
Growers need to prevent movement of soil between fields by cleaning their equipment, growing no more than one canola crop every four years on a piece of land and scouting their crops regularly for root galls and other symptoms.
Halstead said farmers should be particularly careful when buying an air seeder. They need to inquire where it came from and thoroughly sanitize it before bringing it onto their land. They should also check out the equipment of pipeline and power crews who need access to their land to make sure they are not carrying contaminated soil.
Halstead is already instituting new management practices on his farm near Nokomis.
“I’ll probably monitor a little bit more. I’ve already pulled some plants out of the ground and looked at the roots,” he said.
Dokken-Bouchard said growers should contact Saskatchewan Agriculture if they suspect they may have a clubroot infection.
“We’re there to help,” she said.
