CROP ADVISOR’S SOLUTION SOLVED – WHAT’S WRONG WITH JOHN’S CANOLA?
John was having problems in his glufosinate ammonium-resistant canola. He had been happy with the results using his new air seeder and, in fact, said he had the best-looking crop in the country. But six days after spraying, 60 per cent of his crop was yellowing.
John was worried he’d applied the wrong fertilizer mix, but everything checked out. His water source was fine and the sprayer was set properly. Even the weather had been optimal. We really couldn’t understand what the problem was.
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We went back to John’s house and had a cup of coffee so I could quiz him about the field’s crop history.
“John, what were the last few crops on this field?” I asked.
It turns out two years ago, he’d planted wheat on the field in question.
Then, John had planted glyphosate-resistant canola on the field, just previous to this year’s glufosinate ammonium canola. He admitted that, despite the dangers, he’d planted canola back to back because of the per-bushel price.
I sighed. The mystery was solved but that didn’t help how we were feeling. I told John all the plants that were dying were the volunteer canola plants from last year’s crop.
While the problem in John’s canola was clearly due to lack of rotation, do yourself a favour and also be vigilant in your fertilizer application. Those directions on the bag are there for a reason. The manufacturer has done all the testing so you don’t have to. Even if you’ve applied the same fertilizer for years, refresh your memory every season.
It is absolutely crucial to incorporate rotation in your planning. Proper rotation is key to keeping on top of pests because it eliminates hosts and it interrupts pest life cycles. In the same way, rotation minimizes the damage that can be caused by perennial weeds and disease. You’ll also minimize nutrient loss (at the same time increasing fertility) and probably slow the need for tillage.
It’s easy to get swept away with the idea of cashing in on a good price. But you’ve got to remember that science is science. The dangers of planting the same crop in the same location season over season aren’t changed by market prices. Stick to what you know to be true and save yourself the heartache in the end. Not all was lost in this case. John still got 45 bu./ac. off his canola, but he’ll never forget the promise of how things looked in the spring.
Jason Sauchuk is an area marketing representative for Richardson Pioneer in Sprucefield, Alta.
CROP ADVISOR’S CASEBOOK A COLOURFUL PROBLEM
During the last week of August I received a call from Don in the Camrose area. He’s got a mixed grain and cattle farm of about 1,500 acres. He was worried about his canola.
“I guess I’ve got some sort of disease. My canola is podded, but the top of the plants are turning prematurely. Even worse, they seem to be coming out purple,” Don groaned.
I asked him for a bit more detail. Everything had looked great with his crop throughout the year, except in the last week when it started to pod. While the tops were coming in purple, the stems were yellow and the lower pods were still green and immature. We agreed on a time to meet the next day.
Under a hot sun, Don met me at my truck. We looked out over the field, which had some undulations. The hilltops appeared purple, but the low-laying areas still had their immature green hue. We headed into the canola for a closer look. Upon inspection of the plants, there were no lesions on the pods or the plants to indicate disease. Seeds in the pods appeared to be plump and the stems of the plants seemed to be intact and functioning properly.
We discussed Don’s fertilizer package, which had been determined and applied according to the soil test. At 71-12-0-18 it seemed sufficient to sustain his canola, so we dismissed that as the potential problem.
Realizing the hilltops and south-facing slopes seemed to be the most affected areas of Don’s canola, our talk turned to the weather. Extreme heat in the last week had hastened maturity in all of the area’s crops, including Don’s. Not only had we seen a really hot summer, we received far less rain than we should have. You could see the evidence in the soil of Don’s canola… or rather, you couldn’t see the evidence. To say the soil moisture was lacking was an understatement.
What was the issue in Don’s field and what could he do to avoid the problem in the future? Send your diagnosis to COUNTRY GUIDE, Box 9800, Winnipeg, Man. R3C 3K7; e-mail [email protected]; or fax 204-947-9136 c/o Krista Simonson. Correct answers will be pooled and one winner will be drawn for a chance to win a COUNTRY GUIDE cap and a one-year subscription to the magazine. The correct answer, along with the reasoning which solves the mystery, will appear in the next Crop Advisor’s Solution File.
