This is a collaborative project that will build on greenhouse trials that demonstrated significant yield increases when plant hormones were applied to field peas. Field trials will determine if similar responses to the application of plant hormone occur in the field environment. Preliminary testing shows great promise for increasing seed yield in all three crops. This has enormous potential to increase yield and profitability for Alberta producers.

The objectives for this project are to demonstrate the benefits of crop rotations to reduce input costs and pest problems, increase crop production, optimize profit margin and improve soil quality in the southeast Peace region. The results of this trial will help to identify improved crop rotations for the area and showcase the potential of pulses to decrease reliance on N-fertilizer and increase producer profitability.

Field surveys for pea root rot performed across the province in 2013 and 2014 revealed the presence of the previously unreported pathogen Aphanomyces euteiches in Alberta (Chatterton et al. 2014). A. euteiches is the most destructive pathogen to pea worldwide; control measures are difficult, owing to the longevity of resting spores (Gangneux et al. 2014), and thus its detection has raised serious management implications for pea producers. Surveys of fields in 2013 indicated that A. euteiches was detectable in seven out of 145 fields within > 200 km radius in southern Alberta. However, the number of fields that tested positive in 2014 increased significantly (77/131 fields tested), and were found throughout pea growing regions.

Fields that tested positive for A. euteiches often had the highest root rot ratings (6 – 7, indicating dead or decayed root system). Several fields showed complete yield loss; shoots were yellowed and stunted with premature lodging, and were often sprayed out before harvesting. Producers in counties with widespread root rot have indicated that they would no longer consider growing peas in their rotations, until solutions to manage the problem are available. The widespread distribution of this soilborne pathogen would imply that the pathogen has been present, but gone undetected, for a number of years, partly because formal surveys, including a pathogen isolation component, hadn’t been conducted for several years, and stresses the importance of surveillance activities to predict disease impact.

The natural host range of this pathogen in Alberta is not known, but it is suspected that alfalfa fields may also be infected in Alberta. Preliminary greenhouse trials on host range of Alberta strains indicated that alfalfa, lentils, and some dry bean cultivars are susceptible, and that soybean, faba beans and chickpeas are resistant. However, artificial inoculations in the greenhouse are not always indicative of host range in natural environments. Therefore, a thorough survey of potential host crops throughout Alberta is required to determine the potential threat of Aphanomyces root rot to all pulse/legume crops.

Objectives:

1. Determine distribution of Aphanomyces root rot on pulse and forage legume hosts
2. Evaluate soil characteristics (soil compaction, pH and nutrient) contributing to root rot severity
3. Determine host range potential of Aphanomyces euteiches isolates from Alberta on pulse and legume crops

A better way to protect beans from white mould

In 2017, all dry bean seed brought to Alberta was treated with a product known as Heads Up®. Research funded by APG and others helped make this advance possible.

Until this year, the agronomic package for dry bean production in Southern Alberta might have been described as a case of two out of three ain’t bad.

That’s according to Michael Harding, Brooks-based Research Scientist, Plant Pathology, with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.

“We now have good early-maturing, high-yielding varieties,” Harding said, “and pretty good tools for weed control. But disease has continued to be an issue. In most years, white mould is the biggest or one of the biggest constraints to dry bean production in southern Alberta.”

In 2013, Harding and a team of researchers embarked on a four-year study to evaluate foliar fungicides for controlling white mould in dry beans.

Among the products for testing was one that was unique. It was a product derived from saponins from a plant called Chenopodium quinoa, and had been brought to Harding by an agribusiness entrepreneur who’d wanted to see if it provided a white mould response and hoped to find a market for it.

“It’s a product that’s normally applied as a seed treatment,” Harding said. “White mould usually comes in July or August, so it was hard to imagine it would be effective. It turned out to have a significant effect, possibly due to a phenomenon known as resistance priming. You can prime the plant to use its own natural resistance to the disease. It’s a different way of poking at the problem.”

A new approach on white mould

Through four years of trials at Brooks and Lethbridge, Heads Up® often outperformed the other products. Before long, Harding’s results had helped complete a package of performance data that would ultimately support its registration.

The product, now known commercially as Heads Up® Plant Protectant, was used to treat all dry bean seed brought to Alberta by Viterra in 2017.

“We were looking at fungicides for the management of white mould, but we weren’t seeing a transformation in the ability to control white mould,” Harding said. “That one product showed significant improvement in most years, or a trend to improvement in others. Normally we’d start in the lab and the greenhouse and do growth cabinet trials. In this case, we clearly saw the potential of this product and fast-tracked it to small plot trials.”

Another component of this study looked at the use of micro-nutrients within a white mould management program. Despite flashes of performance, no configuration performed consistently enough to offer a real advantage, in Harding’s eyes.

Still, this 2013-16 study helped bring dry bean growers a piece of the agronomic puzzle they’ve long lacked: a new way to manage white mould.

“Part of our job is to try things out so the growers don’t have to, so there’s less risk for them,” Harding said. “That’s the purpose. We tried a product out and it was adopted by industry. In that sense, it’s one of those projects that has been really satisfying.”

Tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius) is being re-visited by several dry bean breeding programs as a source of tolerance to various biotic and abiotic stresses. It is already the source of tolerance to common bacterial blight used by all North American breeders. In the field last summer, we observed halo blight and bacterial brown spot tolerance in our interspecies hybrid offspring from crosses between susceptible common bean and tepary. We would like to propose a continuation of the tepary bean genetics project and expand it to include direct collaboration with colleagues in Colombia and Puerto Rico to assess stress tolerance in progeny from crosses between common and tepary bean. We will investigate chilling tolerance and disease resistance in Saskatoon and heat and drought tolerance in Puerto Rico and Colombia. We would use the genomic resources generated under IMAP to map the tepary genome as well as assess the level of introgression of tepary genome in the most promising interspecies hybrids.

Diseases caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum are an enormous production constraint to many crops across Alberta and the prairies. Recently two novel approaches to control of this disease have been identified and shown excellent promise in proof-of-concept trials. The results from this study will provide the evaluation needed for producers to utilize combinations of products already available that will give superior white mould control.

The three major objectives of this project are to: 1) determine the optimum row spacing and seeding rate for one Pinto and one Great Northern bean genotype with the best agronomic characteristics; 2) determine optimum nutrient requirements using urea and ESN (polymer coated slow release urea) fertilizer types and rates, including in-crop N applications with one genotype, with and without inoculant; and 3) determine optimum application practices for solid-seeded beans for white mould control. This experiment will be carried out at three locations: Vauxhall, Taber and Bow Island over three growing seasons.

The Alberta Pulse Growers sponsor the evaluation of recently registered varieties of peas, lentils, chickpeas, and dry beans. Sites are located throughout the province to provide regional data to assist with your varietal selections in future years.