Researchers and breeders will have greater confidence that the clubroot material they are working with is actually the correct pathotype, and that a pathotype shift hasn’t occurred part way through their research experiment and/or clubroot resistance breeding program.
The study will compare 1) uncoated and 2) polymer coated mono-ammonium phosphate, 3) liquid ammonium polyphosphate, 4) diammonium phosphate, 5) triple superphosphate, 6) ammonium phosphate sulfate, 7) struvite and 8) granular rock phosphate in broadcast versus banded placement.
This will accelerate the breeding of improved canola varieties as breeders from academia/government/industry use this service to phenotype larger breeding programs. This builds research capacity at GIFS, and will provide a useful phenotyping platform that will be utilized in future research proposals.
Healthy soils form the basis of productive farming systems, and soil health tests can be useful tools to support good management decisions. The concept of soil health recognizes soil as a living and dynamic natural system, a notion that aptly fits in the realm of biology; however, soil health tests are often dominated by indicators of soil fertility and chemistry. Biological indicators of soil health remain understudied and underrepresented in soil health assessments.
MORSE has the potential to increase the adoption of variable rate technologies, which could increase production in SK by 5% while improving environmental sustainability. It could revolutionize the way that agronomic experiments are done by replacing the conventional small plot experiments which have higher variability in the results.
This type of deep knowledge will be particularly essential for farmers facing an increasingly variable climate - they need to understand how and why different areas of their fields might respond under marginal production conditions in order to maximize both their profits and their productivity.
This research has been an integrated and collaborative approach to addressing the major research priorities around the new disease, verticillium stripe, in Canada. It includes four specific objectives; to measure yield loss, monitor disease development, evaluate canola genotypes resistant to verticillium stripe and determine the interacting effects of verticillium stripe and blackleg.
We did not find that high rates of phosphorus (P) fertilizer affected crop yield and had only a minimal impact on the overall canola microbiome community structure. In our study, the intermediate-rate P supplied in a narrow opener was the most cost-effective fertilization method which generated equivalent canola yield to the high P rate. Our rhizobox studies showed that early canola growth was higher in plants where half of the root system was exposed to fertilized soil and the other half to unfertilized soil. Each half of the root system had a distinct root microbiome indicating that the root-microbiome system may confer the best advantage in soil where P availability is heterogenous as would be found in most field soils.
An understanding of the effectiveness of liming to control different pathotypes will help in decision making, since liming to increase soil pH can be costly and will not produce satisfactory results if the pathogen strains present are less sensitive to pH.
This research project will provide canola producers with practical approaches to managing small patches of clubroot. This will be especially important in situations where the patch represents a new introduction to the area or farm, or where commercial sources of resistance are not available.
The objective of this project is to determine the best combination of fertilizer source, placement, and timing to maximize yield, improve fertilizer N use efficiency and reduce losses of N2O and ammonia (NH3) on light textured soil (sandy loam) in south-central Manitoba.
Flea beetles (both Crucifer and Striped), diamondback moths and aster leafhoppers are major pests of canola, all feeding on the plant at different times throughout the growing season. The outbreaks of each of these insects are difficult to predict year to year and currently there are no resistant varieties available, leaving insecticide application as the only control option.
