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Issues Archive
Use the expandable navigational menu on the left hand column to find a specific issue of Canola Watch by year, month and date.
November 20, 2018
Grading for green: Two limes don’t make a green
The Canadian Grain Commission has a colour guide for elevator graders to follow. Distinctly green is a dark green throughout the whole seed. Light green or greenish yellow seeds – sometimes called ‘limes’ – are not distinctly green and are not included in the green total.
November 8, 2018
Canola Watch: November 2018 quiz
Consider yield and profit when choosing a seeding rate
A target of five to eight plants per square foot allows for the loss of a couple of plants to frost, insects or other establishment threats while maintaining yield potential. This seeding rate is extra insurance to reduce risk. This target density range is also wide enough to allow for some uncertainty due to emergence percentage and seed size variations within a seed lot. Here are the economic considerations for five to eight versus two to three plants per square foot…
Seed trait priorities: Disease resistance, maturity, seed treatment
When choosing canola hybrids for 2019, think through the yield, quality and profit achieved over the past few years and consider what factors may have reduced overall profitability. Add notes on harvestability. Then consider how seed traits could help manage any existing and potential challenges, reduce risk and improve profitability.
Late fall fertilizer and soil testing
Fall fertilizer Fall fertilizer is best applied as close to freeze up as possible to balance two objectives: (1) To allow soil to seal over the band (frozen soil may not seal). (2) To reduce losses due to high microbial activity in warm soils. The key strategy of fall fertilization is to store nitrogen […]
Green seed: What to do about it?
Most green seed issues result when heavy frost hits canola before the seeds mature. This permanently stops the chlorophyll-clearing process and locks in green. Nothing can be done to reduce this green. Drying can shrivel up green immature seeds, which might seem to have a benefit, but it does not reduce the green in mature seed. With high-green canola, farmers will want to…
How to contain a clubroot-infested patch
If identified early enough and small enough, patches of soil infested with clubroot-causing Plasmodiophora brassicae can be managed in various ways to reduce the spore load in those patches and prevent clubroot from spreading beyond that patch. This excerpt from a November 2018 Canola Digest article describes patch management techniques:
Why tell people about your clubroot?
Farmers who discover clubroot early and take action should be commended. Not singled out. Not blamed. If you’re the first to find it in an area, it might mean you’re the most observant scouter or that nobody else has been brave enough to report their infestations yet. By coming forward, you and your neighbours have a chance to talk about management objectives early, while spore loads are low.
CCGA: Be heard on seed treatment bans
The PMRA is accepting comments on its proposal to ban clothianidin and thiamethoxam until Tuesday, November 13. Farmers have until that date to explain how important these seed treatments are to their operations. Use the form here to send an email to the PMRA.
Terminology of genetic resistance and loss of resistance
These definitions help answer questions such as: How can we lose a resistance trait? How does a clubroot-resistant (CR) variety work one year and not the next?
