Research Results

This facility will increase the overall capacity for insect and pest related research and will therefore benefit numerous researchers and projects at the USask. Finally, this facility will result in important training opportunities.

This is the first investigation into the infection by pycnidio- and asco-spores, as well as a mixture via wounds under the influence of cultivar resistance and fungicide seed treatment for blackleg disease in canola. The findings from this study suggested that it is feasible to produce ascospores and pycnidiospores in the lab and use these types of spores to test canola materials for blackleg resistance in both controlled environment and field conditions.

Clubroot poses a significant threat to canola growers. Although genetic resistance is critical for managing the disease, changes in pathogen virulence endanger its effectiveness. Second-generation resistance offers promise against pathotypes that can overcome first-generation resistance. However, without an understanding of pathogen virulence on second-generation resistance, we risk compromising its efficacy. This project provided data on the performance of second-generation clubroot-resistant cultivars in the field, along with insights into the virulence characteristics of pathogen populations collected from these cultivars.

Understanding weed biology is the first BMP for reducing risk of herbicide resistance. This study will result in an understanding of different cleavers biotypes that exist across the Prairies, their emergence phenology, and some of their biological characteristics.

This work will provide crucial information needed by the agricultural industry and growers: field-scale data on how farmers may best balance agronomic and environmental outcomes by adjusting either the timing of fertilizer application or the fertilizer formulation.

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 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.