Long Flowering And Sclerotinia Risk

Jul 30, 2015

Improved moisture in some regions has extended flowering. Some fields have been at “full flower” for what seems like weeks. Highly variable crops may also be at full flower or their “most yellow” — other terms for 50% flower — for longer than typically expected. This does extend the sclerotinia stem rot risk. But that “risk” may still not be high enough to warrant a fungicide spray — given the risk was so low before and that late applications tend to have a reduced benefit for yield.

The fungicide window to manage sclerotinia stem rot closes at 50% flower. (See specifics for each product in the table below.) Keep in mind that the odd year, these late applications are more effective than early applications, especially if moisture needed to promote apothecia development and spore infection didn’t come until later on.

50% flowering is when:

—The crop is at its “most yellow.”

—There are more than 20 open flowers on the main stem. In this case, include aborted flowers and developing pods as “open flowers.”

—Side branches are starting to flower.

—If significant petal drop has occurred, canola is probably at or past 50%. First petal drop is around 30%. It just takes a few days to go from 30% to 50%.

—You may notice signs of sclerotinia infection down in the canopy around rotting petals.

Late in the window, the choice to spray when conditions seem favourable often comes down to the grower’s gut and approach to risk. Would the grower feel better spending the money and spraying, or saving the money and not spraying? Some growers may approach this by spraying half a field and using the experience as a way to learn more about sclerotinia management.

Caution with late applications. Applications after 50% flower are not on fungicide labels, and may be inside the preharvest interval for some fungicides. (See the table below for PHI for each product.) Second, late applications are not as effective. After 50% flower, most of the flowering is on side branches. These petals tend to drop onto upper leaves and side branches, causing minimal damage to the main stem. However, if the crop lodges, infection on side branches can spread to main stems — but this is not that common in in today’s lodging resistant varieties.

Source : AlbertaCanola

Video: Moving Ag Research Forward Through Collaboration

BY: Ashley Robinson

It may seem that public and private researchers have different goals when it comes to agricultural research. However, their different strategies can work in tandem to drive agricultural research forward. Public research may focus more on high-risk and applied research with federal or outside funding, while private sector researchers focus more on research application.

“For me, the sweet spot for public private sector research is when we identify problems and collaborate and can use that diverse perspective to address the different aspects of the challenge. Public sector researchers can work on basic science high risk solutions as tools and technologies are developed. They then can work with their private sector partners who prototype solutions,” Mitch Tuinstra, professor of plant breeding and genetics in Purdue University’s Department of Agronomy, said during the Jan. 10 episode of Seed Speaks.

Public researchers they have the flexibility to be more curiosity driven in their work and do discovery research. This is complimentary to private research, which focuses on delivering a product, explained Jed Christianson, canola product design lead for Bayer CropScience, explained during the episode.

“As a seed developer, we worry about things like new crop diseases emerging. Having strong public sector research where people can look into how a disease lifecycle cycle works, how widespread is it and what damage it causes really helps inform our product development strategies,” he added.

It’s not always easy though to develop these partnerships. For Christianson, it’s simple to call up a colleague at Bayer and start working on a research project. Working with someone outside of his company requires approvals from more people and potential contracts.

“Partnerships take time, and you always need to be careful when you're establishing those contracts. For discoveries made within the agreement, there need to be clear mechanisms for sharing credits and guidelines for anything brought into the research to be used in ways that both parties are comfortable with,” Christianson said.

Kamil Witek, group leader of 2Blades, a non-profit that works with public and private ag researchers, pointed out there can be limitations and challenges to these partnerships. While private researchers are driven by being able to make profits and stay ahead of competitors, public researchers may be focused on information sharing and making it accessible to all.

“The way we deal with this, we work in this unique dual market model. Where on one hand we work with business collaborators, with companies to deliver value to perform projects for them. And at the same time, we return the rights to our discoveries to the IP to use for the public good in developing countries,” Witek said during the episode.

At the end of the day, the focus for all researchers is to drive agricultural research forward through combining the knowledge, skills and specializations of the whole innovation chain, Witek added.

“If there's a win in it for me, and there's a win in it for my private sector colleagues in my case, because I'm on the public side, it’s very likely to succeed, because there's something in it for all of us and everyone's motivated to move forward,” Tuinstra said.