Canola Watch #19

Four the week

No rush. The ideal swath timing for yield is when canola is at 60% seed colour change on the main stem. For large plants with many branches, even this may be too early for seeds in side branches to reach the firm green stage.

Patch work. Patchy canola is a pain to harvest, and there is no good answer in terms of when to swath except to say that later is probably better to give more seeds time to fill.

Lygus, part IV. We’ve been talking about lygus for weeks, but they keep hanging on. This week’s key points: They can’t penetrate firm seeds or mature pods and by now pre-harvest intervals are a management factor.

Phinal countdown. This is crunch time for pre-harvest intervals (PHI), with many products dropping off the availability chart as we get closer to canola cutting time. Take the quiz to test your PHI skills.

Map of the week




Patchy crop is a theme this week. Excess moisture and the establishment problems that it brings have created a lot of patchy crops in the eastern Prairie. And while some areas have had excess moisture, drought is a factor in some western regions. These maps are from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Click here for these and other weather impact maps.

August 13 Quiz

How well do you understand the pre-harvest interval concept and why it's important? Test yourself with this week's three-question quiz.

Source: Alberta Canola Producers Commission