Clubroot, the soil-borne disease that slowly sucks the life out of canola fields and farmers’ profits, has been identified in four more Alberta counties.
Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Ponoka and Lacombe counties have each identified at least one field this summer with the infection.
Previously clubroot had been confined to 10 counties around Edmonton and one in southern Alberta.
Murray Hartman, an oilseed specialist with Alberta Agriculture and chair of the province’s clubroot management committee, said the discovery is not a surprise.
“This disease certainly continues to spread. The initial results seem to be confirming that. It’s just a matter of time before it gets everywhere.”
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Clubroot first came to the attention of agriculture specialists in 2003. In 2007 it was declared a pest.
Once clubroot is discovered in a field, canola cannot be grown there for four to seven years, depending on the county, to help reduce the rate of infection.
But some of this season’s discoveries have puzzled clubroot experts.
In Lethbridge, clubroot was discovered in a hybrid juncea, or canola quality mustard. The discovery in juncea isn’t surprising, but the clubroot has only shown up in one of the parent lines of the hybrid mustard.
In a hybrid crop both male and female plants are present in the field. The two lines combine to create the hybrid seed. Clubroot was confirmed throughout the field in that parent line.
“One parent has it and the other parent doesn’t. We kind of scratched our heads at that,” said Hartman.
In Grande Prairie county, a canola field near Wembly showed signs of early ripening without the typical clubroot galls or swelling of the roots.
“There was no galls on the roots, which was very bizarre. If the plant is ripening early, you expect to see symptoms on the root,” Hartman said. “If they would have asked me, I would have probably said, ‘nah, don’t bother sending a sample.’ “
In Lacombe county, a single isolated spot in the field with clubroot has local officials wondering how the disease got to that location.
Dion Burlock, the county’s agriculture fieldman, said he has crossed the field three times looking for more signs of clubroot, but has only found the one site about 80 metres in from a county road on the side of a hill.
“This one has kind of got me baffled,” he said. “It’s puzzling how it got infected.”
Burlock said about 50 fields in the county, representing 80 percent of its canola fields, have been inspected.
Shayne Steffen, manager of agricultural services with Lacombe county, said there’s nothing baffling about the two discoveries of clubroot in his county. Twenty-five to 30 acres near a field entrance has tested positive.
A second field has also tested positive and it’s estimated 40 to 50 percent of that field is infested with clubroot.
Steffen said a University of Alberta plant pathologist estimated the field has likely been infested for about five years.
