Photo credit: Lesley L. on Flickr

By Curtis Galbraith

Agriculture

Clubroot spreading in the MD of Greenview

Oct 30, 2019 | 1:07 PM

The canola disease clubroot is spreading in the MD of Greenview.

Recent testing turned up 16 new fields with the infection, all of them west of DeBolt.

The disease was first found in some fields near Sunset House.

MD of Greenview manager of agricultural services Quentin Bochar says this disease will spread.

“It’s inevitable. Once you find it. it just spreads, especially in wet years (they) are very bad for it. This was an extremely wet year, so we were expecting the number to go up.”

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He adds the best way to stop the spread of the disease is longer rotations.

I know the (Canola Council of Canada) has been saying a minimum of (a) two-year rotation. The Alberta clubroot plan says one canola crop every fourth year and that’s the only way to do it. In Europe, they’ve been dealing with clubroot now for 70-some years, but they also spread out their rotation, right? So, that’s your number one way to do it.”

Bochar says clubroot-resistant varieties of canola are available as well.

“The companies are saying they’re still 10 to 12 years away from finding a new strain of resistance. On a traditional rotation of one in four, that gives you three rotations (of canola) in 12 years, which can help the companies out, but it’s a management issue too I guess from the farmer’s perspective.”

Clubroot causes swellings on the roots that eventually kill the plant. Bochar says that can lead to severe yield reductions.

It can also affect things like cabbage, radishes, turnips, and broccoli.