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Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

Once operational, the Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network will help producers get a better handle on disease risks, so they can mount a timely defense.

When you’re growing pulses, managing disease threats just comes with the territory.  Should you budget for a fungicide application? Should you plan cultural practices to fend off disease? Should disease worries influence whether or not you plant pulses, or in which fields, or how many acres?

Kelly Turkington sees a better way. He wants to build a reliable, robust tool to reduce guesswork in your disease management decision-making.

Between now and 2023, Turkington is leading a major research project tasked with designing and implementing a monitoring program for plant diseases on the Canadian Prairies. The project is being funded by the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster.

“We’re looking at developing a similar approach to the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network used for insects, and that network has taken a decade or more to develop,” said Turkington, Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lacombe. “With diseases, you’re dealing with a wider range of issues that are usually unique to individual crops.”

One central hub for current, accessible information

Getting the Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network (PCDMN) off the ground will take a large amount of program design and foundational work. The Western Grains Research Foundation is a key partner and will be leading the development of a website and online presence for the PCDMN.

In-field scouting for diseases is critical, but if a certain disease is seen in a field, who’s to say whether the outbreak is mild, medium or severe? It’s a judgment call.

For this reason, a good deal of the project’s initial work will be in developing standardized protocols and scales that are either directed towards research-focused surveys or farmer/crop consultant-focused surveys. The Network will solicit ongoing survey information from provincial plant pathologists and disease researchers, and perhaps even farmers and consultants, and will turn this information into alerts during the growing season as well as annual disease situation reports.

“It’s our hope that researchers who are doing surveys see this as another venue for them to get their information out to producers,” Turkington said. “This information may also help inform research activities and even shape research proposals. The PCDMN can also help to build survey capacity to assist researchers to enhance their coverage of the prairie region, while also providing them with plant samples that can be used for assessments of pathogen virulence and fungicide sensitivity.”

By having observations made in the same locations over time, and reported consistently, the Network can identify changes in severity for key diseases in key crops.

“A farmer or crop consultant could use the Network information to stay on top of issues on an annual or growing season basis,” Turkington said, “and perhaps gauge the risk of the disease issues they are facing, and based on that, what the appropriate management tools are that they should use.”

Optimizing systems productivity, resilience and sustainability in the major Canadian ecozones

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

With the right agronomic systems, Alberta growers could one day boost yields, including those of pulses, by up to 50%. This research project will help develop the blueprint.

If Alberta crop producers wrote a mission statement for the next 30 years, it might go something like this: feed the world, protect the planet and make money doing it. This statement captures three interlocking priorities with which producers contend – production, environment and economics.

On the level of production, it’s a tall order. Farmers are challenged to increase output to keep pace with a global population that could reach 9.6 billion by 2050.

Here’s good news. Yantai Gan, Senior Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Swift Current, SK, sees plenty of room for production to grow. He points to a yield gap between actual yields and yield potential of between 30% and 50% for key western Canadian crops.

“Yields have been increasing through genetic enhancements and agronomy management improvements,” Gan said. “Moving forward, genetic enhancement will still play a major role developing better varieties, but agronomy management will have lots to contribute as new technologies become available.”

If greater yield alone was all that was needed, Alberta farmers could certainly oblige. They could increase seeding rates, fertilize aggressively and treat the crop to all manner of yield-enhancing crop protection products. This increased yield, of course, might come at a potentially high cost to the environment and to the farmer’s livelihood.

To help get production, profitability and environment all pulling together, Gan is leading an ambitious, five-year, cross-disciplinary research project to provide detailed, data-based recommendations for future crop production in Western Canada. This project will be funded until 2023 by the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster (ICAC).

Comprehensive look at cropping systems and environmental conditions

As Gan explains, the project will study six carefully-designed cropping systems at seven sites within three large ecological zones: the Eastern Prairies Zone (southern Manitoba), the Parkland Region (Melfort, SK and Lacombe) and Dry/Drought areas (Swift Current and Lethbridge).

The cropping systems include a conventional farming system, a higher nutrient-use efficient farming system and a soil health-focused system. There’s also a so-called ‘freestyle’ system in which crop rotation decisions are heavily weighted to current market conditions. Pulse crops will play a key role in this research.

“Pulse crops have a higher yield gap than cereals and other crops,” Gan explained. “This is because pulse varieties come from a smaller genetic pool, and there is large potential to discover how enhanced genetics can be married with changing environments. Doing so will minimize damages to the system in case of severe stresses like a disease outbreak.”

With funding in place, Gan and his team have their marching orders for the next five years. He believes, however, that the project’s greatest value could occur well past that point. He’ll be looking to secure one or two more five-year funding cycles to keep the information current and steadily flowing to growers.

“Once we have three years of data we can start looking at making recommendations,” Gan said. “At the end of five years, we will have a lot of concrete information to give detailed information to growers for different regions with varying environmental conditions.”

Intercropping winter and spring crops with pulses

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

It’s complicated, but intercropping pulses with oilseeds could be viable and profitable in southern Alberta. A three-year research project will sweat the details.

Improvements in farm productivity tend to be made in small increments: a seed variety that promises 2% more yield, a herbicide that offers slightly sharper weed control or a grain auger that lets you work 5% faster.

Now, let’s think really big. What would you say to increasing your per-acre crop production by up to 40%? It could be possible using a crop production technique you might’ve heard of, but which only a handful of growers are currently practising.

Eric Bremer started a three-year project in 2018 to study the feasibility and economics of intercropping. His team will plant a variety of canola/pulse combinations, including spring and winter canola and spring and winter field peas and lentils.

“Putting two crops together usually means you get less yield for each crop, but when you have two crops with different needs, they can be quite complementary,” said Bremer, Head of R&D at Western Ag Innovations. “We’re interested in seeing if you can get more productivity overall.”

Previous studies give intercropping a promising thumbs-up

Bremer cites studies indicating intercropping can result in an overall per-acre crop production boost of around 50%. He thinks there may also be other benefits.

“You often get diseases when it’s wet, but if you have two crops using up the water better and keeping the canopy open, we think that could help reduce disease,” Bremer said.

There are potential complications, too, with weed control being one of them. A grower practising intercropping may have challenges finding a product that can be used on both crops.

“A potential benefit with weed control is that intercropping provides a more competitive stand than either apart,” Bremer noted. “Many growers find it’s competitive enough to just need pre-seed weed control.”

If you’ve ever struggled getting a pea crop harvested, now imagine harvesting your canola at the same time. As Bremer explained it, growers who are intercropping go through with one pass of the combine and separate the seeds when unloading the truck before storage. In the case of peas and canola, the large difference in seed size makes that straightforward.

Bremer admits adjustments will be needed depending on a farmer’s location, soil type and crop combinations. It’s a concept with lots of moving parts, but he believes it could deliver immense dividends.

Winter canola growing in the same field as winter peas or spring lentils? Flax plus chickpeas? A lentil/mustard combination? As Bremer kicks off this intriguing project, he’s as full of questions as anyone.

“It’s a more complicated system, so we’ll need to try a lot of things to make it work,” he said. “It will involve large changes to cropping practice, but if there’s a large payback, then growers will figure it out. Some growers have already been intercropping routinely. We’re just trying to help that along and see if it can work in southern Alberta.”

Integrated pest management of pea leaf weevil using biological control and low insecticide‐input alternatives

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

With this insect’s range expanding, and few current tools working well, new research is considering cultural and biological control methods.

Let’s say you grew a high-yielding cereal crop one year. By planting time the following year, a soil test illustrates the field is relatively nitrogen poor. That’s okay, because you’re growing peas next.

However, if pea leaf weevils are present that spring, this low soil nitrogen could cause big headaches down the road. Field Crop Entomologist Meghan Vankosky explains that bacteria in a pulse crop’s root nodules fix nitrogen that can be used by the plant to produce yield and to improve soil nitrogen reserves. Since pea leaf weevil larvae feed on those nodules, they impair the plant’s ability to fix nitrogen.

“There’s real concern for potential yield loss due to pea leaf weevil if you’re planting peas into low nitrogen soil, which is what we like to do,” said Vankosky, Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Currently, only one foliar insecticide is registered for pea leaf weevil. Insecticide seed treatment can work but must be purchased long before there’s evidence of a pea leaf weevil infestation.

“For growers in areas with high pea leaf weevil pressure, the recommendation tends to be insecticide seed treatment,” said Vankosky. “Outside those areas, it’s a gamble for producers to treat seeds but if weevils show up in big numbers, the foliar spray isn’t very effective either.”

In 2018, Vankosky began a three-year research project to study Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for pea leaf weevil in pea and faba bean crops with funding from the Canadian Pulse Science Research Cluster. The project will examine three potential ways to manage pea leaf weevil with less environmental impact.

  1. Beneficial insects. “We know there are potential natural enemies of this pest, but the current research barely scratches the surface,” said Vankosky. “We want to figure out the species here on the Canadian Prairies that might eat pea leaf weevil and the impact of that.”

 

  1. Trap crops. Another strategy that will be tested is the planting of trap strips in July. When the new generation of pea leaf weevil feed on the trap crops in the fall, researchers will test alternative control methods to determine if it is feasible to control pest populations in the fall.

 

  1. Pheromone traps. Using a pheromone-baited pitfall trap developed by University of Alberta Entomologist Maya Evenden, Vankosky is testing whether this system could be part of a trap-and-kill strategy to manage pea leaf weevil populations. An agent as mild as soapy water could be enough to kill trapped weevils.

With research showing a vigorous pea leaf weevil spread in Alberta over the last few years, Vankosky wants to give growers options beyond the current limited toolbox.

“The idea is to reduce the number of weevils overwintering or going into the fields in the spring,” Vankosky said. “We need to quantify the efficacy of these ideas. We’re not recommending anything to farmers without first testing those ideas ourselves.”

Refining dry bean fertility practices

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

A four-year research project evaluated two ways to potentially improve dry bean yields: narrower row widths and in-crop fertilization.

Growers in southern Alberta continue to find lots to like about dry bean production. When production, price and markets all come together, it’s a beautiful thing.

Over the past decade, bean growers have maintained an acreage range of 35,000 to 55,000 acres. As Doon Pauly explains, this range is largely determined by market factors, not by a reluctance of producers to grow more.

“I believe bean acres are stable around 50,000 acres because that is about the capacity of our current bean storage, cleaning, packaging and marketing system,” said Pauly, Lethbridge-based Agronomy Research Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

Pauly has been working on dry bean agronomy from many different angles since 2012. From 2014 to 2018, with funding from Alberta Pulse Growers and others, he looked at whether changes to conventional row spacing and fertilization in dry beans could improve yields. Provided dry bean infrastructure and systems expanded proportionally, farmers and industry could then share a larger revenue pie.

“Some recent years, bean prices were strong and production was good so beans were a valuable part of producers’ rotations,” said Pauly. “Even though current production systems are working well, we still wonder if alternative practices might have benefits.”

Could narrower rows, in-crop fertilizer boost yields?

Most bean growers fertilize prior to seeding with 55-cm (22-inch) row spacing planters. In theory, based on other crops, Pauly thought narrower rows with more plants per acre should boost per-acre yields. Secondly, he surmised that applying fertilizer in-crop rather than just at seeding time might push yields without causing unproductive biomass.

Pauly’s work has shown that higher bean yields are attainable with the increased per-acre plant populations that are possible with row spacing narrower than current industry practices. However, in-crop fertilizer application timing did little to influence yield, even though dry beans respond positively to nitrogen.

“I think after three years of research, we can say that in-crop fertilization in beans is not a strategy that should be used,” Pauly said. “There was just no benefit to it.”

Pauly maintains the conventional approach of putting fertilizer down around seeding time is better than trying to hit the perfect application timing in-crop.

Although he did see improvement in bean yields with narrower rows, this insight doesn’t provide an easy fix for growers. Today’s standard 55-cm row spacing works because producers are growing beans and sugar beets on the same land, and sugar beet planters use this row spacing.

“It’s my view that if we’re going to see a jump in bean productivity, I think we have to move to narrower row spacing,” Pauly said. “Then, it becomes an engineering problem to come up with a harvesting system that works.”

Recovery of field crops from hail damage in Alberta using foliar fungicides and nutrient blends

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

This agronomy researcher is testing the timing and efficacy of an application of fungicide or nutrients on hail-damaged crops.

When you have a crop that’s been seriously damaged by hail, conventional wisdom says there’s no way back. If you have hail insurance, you’ll be filing a claim. If you don’t, you’re out of luck.

Even so, growers might have heard something different through the agronomic grapevine: hailed-out crops brought back from the brink by a timely application of a fungicide or crop nutrients. Ken Coles thinks there may be reasons for it to work, at least partially.

“If you’ve got damaged tissue, there’s a chance for infection,” said Coles, General Manager with Farming Smarter, an independent applied research organization based in southern Alberta. “The theory is that a fungicide could potentially protect that damaged tissue so it doesn’t get worse through infection. There are growth-regulating properties in fungicides as well.”

Given the high stakes – the value of the crop and the cost of such applications – Coles wanted to study these claims. In 2015, with funding from Alberta Pulse Growers and others, he began a four-year project to investigate whether these so-called recovery products lived up to their billing.

Device simulates hail on demand

In his research, Coles uses an ingenious invention – a round-linked dog chain with rotating drums mounted on the front-end loader of a tractor – to simulate the effects of hail. First, he uses the device to beat-up plots planted with pulses, cereals and oilseed crops at different times in the growing season. Then, he applies crop nutrients or fungicide and observes the effect of these inputs. Field peas are a major focus of this research product.

“In 2016 and 2017, we noticed that of all the crops, peas are the most susceptible to hail damage,” Coles said. “Peas just have really soft tissue.”

Coles reports that his research so far indicates yield loss due to hail is correlated to the stage of the crop at the time of the hail damage. Early damage had the lowest impact on yield because crops have time to bounce back.

With one year of field work left, Coles hesitates to issue firm recommendations. To this point, however, it appears that broad-based claims of miraculous crop recovery don’t hold water. Coles has seen a slight improvement with early or mid-season applications of nutrients and fungicide. These same applications made later in the season, though, were more likely to add stress to crops, or encourage weed growth. In effect, they could do more harm than good.

The project’s final year of research in 2018 will help Coles dig deeper into questions around applying fungicides and nutrients to hail-damaged crops.

“It looks like both the early- and mid-season timing give a very slight result,” Coles said, “but quantitatively, is it enough to pay for? I don’t think so at this point, but that’s what this last season of data will help us discover.”

Use of semio-chemical-baited traps to delineate the distribution of the pea leaf weevil, Sitona lineatus, in Alberta

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

Knowing the distribution and severity of this invasive insect would allow growers to make better management decisions and use insecticide only when needed.

How bad will pea leaf weevil be in your 2019 field pea crop? It’s a question that’s hard for growers to answer. First, you need to know whether pea leaf weevil is in the neighborhood. Second, since this pest is only an intermittent problem, you need to know whether an infestation is likely to be mild, medium or severe.

University of Alberta entomologist Maya Evenden developed a pea leaf weevil monitoring trap to help provide these insights.

“The only way we can find pea leaf weevils when they are still at low densities is by using these traps,” Evenden said. “The feeding damage is really hard to find when weevil populations are at low densities. Putting out these traps lets us know where the leading edge of expansion is because the tool monitors low densities of pea leaf weevil.”

Although pea leaf weevil has been mainly a southern Alberta problem, over the past several years, the pest caused considerable damage in Central Alberta and was found in the Peace region for the first time in 2018.

Between 2014 and 2017, Evenden and her team tested different lures and trap designs and landed on what she considered the best design: a basic pitfall trap. To catch the rice-sized adult pea leaf weevils, a cup is dug into the ground and a pheromone lure hangs from the cup’s small roof. A mesh over the mouth of the cup helps avoid capture of non-target organisms.

Trapping this pest is about placement and timing

Now, with two years of new funding from Alberta Pulse Growers and others in place, Evenden’s expanding her work. In Spring 2018, she and her team distributed pea leaf weevil pitfall traps in newly-seeded Alberta pea and faba bean fields. Knowing there is already a problem in the south, Evenden selected trap sites in the north, northeast and northwest parts of the province.

“There are two times of year we can trap pea leaf weevils,” Evenden said. “One is when they move into the fields in the spring, and the other is in the fall when they are moving out of the field to overwinter.”

Evenden hopes to use the spring catch information to compare numbers with adult weevil feeding activity and damage seen in the crops. For the fall trapping, where catch numbers are typically much higher, the data can help her estimate pea leaf weevil numbers the following spring.

Pea leaf weevil monitoring will help map the range of this pest in Alberta and tell pea and faba bean growers how likely it is that the pest will be a problem over the coming year. This would be a key insight for deciding whether or not spring seed treatment is needed.

“When we found them in the Peace, I was disappointed for growers, but the fact that we detected them at such a low level meant our monitoring is working,” Evenden said. “It would be great to be able to disseminate this kind of information to growers ahead of time. The research has also indicated that we might be on the verge of developing tools that use pheromone cues in control. It’s a big contribution.”

Investigating agronomic practices to remove barriers to faba bean production in Alberta

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

Looking at herbicide issues, disease pressures and crop nutrients, this researcher is helping to give growers the tools to increase production to meet anticipated new demand.

Alberta faba bean growers will remember the record 100,000-acre crop in 2015. Since then, acreage has generally hovered between 30,000 acres (the figure for 2017) and 50,000 acres.

Despite this lower pace of plantings, faba beans could be the sleeping giant of the province’s pulse sector. As new fractionation plants come on stream, they’ll be looking for pulses, and faba beans will be high on the list.

“These fractionation plants opening across the Prairies will have an impact on faba bean production because this bean fractions very well,” said Robyne Bowness Davidson, Pulse Research Scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

In 2016, she began two projects – funded initially by the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund, and later by Alberta Pulse Growers – to examine and improve the faba bean grower’s agronomic toolkit. Both projects wrap-up next spring.

Studying herbicide residue, chocolate spot and crop nutrients 

More and more growers are applying weed control earlier in the season – either before planting or before emergence. Two years of work by Bowness Davidson has shown that faba bean crops can be critically sensitive to mistimed herbicide application and herbicide residue.

“At two of our four locations, we saw significant impact where pre-seed herbicides were sprayed too close to faba bean emergence,” she said. “This impact included lack of emergence, curling, yellowing and stunting. In one location, we also saw two wheat herbicides sprayed in 2016 that had a negative impact on the 2017 faba bean crop.”

Chocolate spot, a faba bean disease seen worldwide, is another agronomic issue on Bowness Davidson’s radar. Although not yet a significant problem in Alberta, she feels that day is coming.

“Chocolate spot has the potential to be a very devastating disease,” said Bowness Davidson. “In 2018, we’re looking at six different fungicides in varying degrees of registration. If chocolate spot shows up in the future, we’ll have tools in the toolbox that work.”

The third area Bowness Davidson has studied relates to nutrients. Despite having one growing season of project fieldwork remaining, she’s seen enough to urge caution in this area. With micro-nutrients like boron or macro-nutrients like potassium and sulphur, Bowness Davidson advises that supplemental applications only help if the soil is deficient to begin with.

“Two years of research showed no response with the micros in any of our locations,” she said. “But, the micros weren’t limited there in the first place, and most farms don’t struggle with micro-nutrient deficiencies. Research into macro-nutrients (Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur) has shown some response in a couple of locations where initial levels were marginal.”

Bowness Davidson is confident her research in the areas of herbicide use, chocolate spot and crop nutrition in faba beans will help farmers be ready to increase production when demand growth occurs.

“It’s an area we’re still working on, and have a bit to learn,” she said. “Sometime in the next three to five years, I think faba beans will rebound. When they go up again, we’ll definitely have some answers.”

Advanced agronomic practices in wheat, barley and peas to maximize yield and harvestability

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

With extreme lodging, it can take as much as five days to harvest a quarter-section of peas. A four-year project examined two possible ways to boost standability: inter-row seeding and PGRs.

Why is it that some farmers who can grow peas don’t grow peas? For many, the answer is that the crop frequently lodges and can be extremely time-consuming to harvest.

Research that helps improve standability, therefore, has tremendous value for pea growers and the industry. Between 2014 and 2018, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry Agronomy Research Scientist Sheri Strydhorst carefully examined two ideas for their potential to improve the standability and harvestability of field peas.

Inter-row seeding can help

Some Alberta farmers have reportedly improved their pea standability through the resourceful technique of seeding peas into standing wheat stubble. In concept, the sturdy wheat stubble props up the peas.

Strydhorst tried this idea at three sites in the central and Peace regions of Alberta by inter-row seeding peas into 8-inch and 12-inch wheat stubble. A check treatment had no wheat stubble.

“When there was lodging, stubble did improve standability about a quarter of the time,” Strydhorst said. “What surprised us was the other positive benefits we got, including reduced days to maturity and larger seed size.”

At the field level, growers can implement this low-cost practice to improve field pea standability fairly easily. By seeding in the same direction as the standing stubble, keeping the stubble tall and using the nudge feature on their GPS, about 70% to 90% of plants will be ‘accidentally’ inter-row seeded.

Value of plant growth regulators doubtful

The other idea Strydhorst has been testing is whether applying plant growth regulators (PGRs) would improve standability in pea crops. While Strydhorst gave the inter-row seeding idea a qualified yes, her ruling on PGRs was not so enthusiastic.

“We tested three different active ingredients using different rates and in different combinations,” she said. “Often it felt like we were spraying water. That’s how ineffective it was.”

Strydhorst would not recommend PGRs for field peas because using them showed no consistent improvement in height, standability, yield or seed size. In fact, if the pea crop was under stress due to heat or drought, PGRs actually reduced yield.

Although her research showed that CDC Meadow responded slightly better to PGRs than AAC Lacombe, Strydhorst indicated further investigation may be needed to identify pea cultivars that might be more responsive to PGRs.

Strydhorst can relate to the frustration growers feel with pea standability. In her research plots, in fact, moderate to severe lodging occurred about 63% of the time. That’s a challenge that needs solving in order for Alberta’s pea growers and the industry to thrive.

“It’s a terrible headache when you have your pea crop go down,” Strydhorst said. “I’m not sure PGRs are the solution, but we do need to put significant agronomic effort into finding a solution for standability. Breeding will help but breeding alone isn’t the answer.”

Cover crops as part of a rotation strategy to reduce pea root rot, and evaluation of other management options

albertapulse on January 3, 2019

With a distribution survey of Aphanomyces in pulses now complete – short answer: it’s everywhere – research has now turned to possible remedies, such as Brassica cover crops.

Some years back, pulse specialists began to hear more and more about the incidence of root rot in Alberta’s pea and lentil crops.

While researchers assumed it was caused by the usual suspect – Fusarium – this time, it wasn’t. The culprit was a root rot causal agent not seen in Alberta before: Aphanomyces. Researchers knew they needed to get a handle on this new problem as quickly as possible.

Syama Chatterton, Lethbridge-based Plant Pathologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, began a five-year survey in 2013 on the incidence and severity of Aphanomyces root rot in Alberta and Saskatchewan. She also wanted to know how environmental and weather patterns affected its distribution.

Chatterton and her team studied Aphanomyces root rot in peas, lentils, faba beans, dry beans and alfalfa. The weather cooperated nicely, providing both very wet and very dry years for comparative purposes during the survey’s growing seasons.

As expected, they found that rainfall/moisture was the biggest driver of Aphanomyces root rot. Aphanomyces root rot on peas was still present in dry years, with up to 40% of pea fields testing positive.  In wet years, however, the Aphanomyces level jumped up to 70% for peas. For lentils, Aphanomyces was virtually non-existent in dry years. In wet years, Aphanomyces was present in 40% to 50% of lentil fields.

“Something really interesting to look at, that came out of this survey project, is how moisture affects Aphanomyces and why it affects these two crops in a bit of a different way,” Chatterton said.

Testing Brassica cover crops

Inspired by greenhouse research showing that Brassica green manure crops could biofumigate the soil and break down spores of Aphanomyces, Chatterton began an APG-funded four-year project in 2017 to scale-up this concept.

“We wanted to take that from the greenhouse and see if it could be applied in the field and fit in with the agronomy practices of producers,” Chatterton said.

In 2018, researchers will seed cover crops in the spring and fall, including oriental and white mustard in combination with tillage radish. They’ll include a better-known Brassica – canola – in the trials. The expectation, however, is that canola won’t be as effective at breaking down Aphanomyces spores as mustards are, due to canola’s lower glucosinolate levels.

Using green manure crops to control soil-borne pests has been previously explored in potato production. Could this strategy work in peas and lentils? The production risk and confirmed wide distribution of Aphanomyces root rot in pulses give Chatterton’s work special urgency.

“When we started the Aphanomyces survey, we knew we’d find it,” she said. “What surprised us was just how widespread it was across the prairie provinces. Basically any field with a long history of growing peas or lentils had it.”