Alberta Insect Pest Monitoring Network – The wet weather will favor disease development. Many fungal and bacterial diseases will thrive with the continuous moisture available.
On his weekly insect update on Call of the Land, Scott Meers talks about cutworms, scarab beetle, and bertha armyworm.
Diseases to watch for under these conditions at this time of year include:
- Root rots on all crops, especially in low-lying areas. Soil-borne fungi such as Pythium can cause browning root rot of cereals, and root rots on pulse crops.
- Stripe rust on wheat, barley, triticale. Stripe rust has already been confirmed this season on winter wheat in the Olds and Lethbridge areas. Regular scouting is essential in winter and spring wheat as the cool wet weather will favor stripe rust disease initiation and development.
- Ergot – wheat, barley, oat, rye, triticale. Many native grasses are at or near flowering and the cool, wet weather will encourage ergot infections to get started on grass in ditches and headlands surrounding cereal fields.
- Blackleg – canola. Growers with fields of canola that have inadequate blackleg resistance, or are at a high risk for disease, could consider adding a fungicide application to their program. Fungicide applications for blackleg prevention can be done up to the 6-leaf stage
- Late blight – potato and tomato. The current weather is ideal for late blight infections to begin.
- Cereal leaf diseases including tan spot and stagonospora
- Leaf and stem spot diseases on seed alfalfa
- Fireblight on members of the rose family (apple, crabapple, mountain ash, cotoneaster, hawthorn, pear, raspberry, saskatoon, plum and cherry)
- Black knot on members of the plum family (chokecherry, cherry, flowering almond, plum, mayday)
- Seed decay and seedling blight may lead to root rot in all crops, especially pulses
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The wet soils will also facilitate clubroot infections in canola, mustard and brassica vegetables which could become symptomatic within the next few weeks in areas where susceptible canola is grown in clubroot-infested fields.
Click here to download the complete Prairie Pest Monitoring Network Weekly Update for June 18, 2014. This week we remember our colleague and friend, Dr. Lloyd Dosdall, a great friend and mentor to all of us in the Ag industry.
