Get a free soil test

Oct 04, 2023

Farmers can celebrate Ontario’s Agriculture Week with a free soil test.

By Andrew Joseph, Farms.com; Image by niknak09 from Pixabay

Ontario is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Agriculture Week, and The Greenbelt Foundation is celebrating by offering a free soil health testing program.

Although the celebratory week is already half over, The Greenbelt Foundation’s offer with the Soil Health Institute is ongoing.

Via the program, farmers can:

evaluate current soil health and compare it to similar soils in their region;
understand how much healthier their soil can be;
measure and track the impact of different management practices on soil health.

This opportunity is open to grain and oilseed farmers throughout the Golden Horseshoe region—in Hamilton, Halton, and Peel.

In 2024, farmers in Niagara, York, and Durham will be eligible.

Soil health is one of the more important factors that can lead to a successful harvest, improve profits, boost the strength of local food systems, and further Ontario’s ecological sustainability goals.

To sign up for the program, visit: https://www.greenbelt.ca/greenbelt_soil_health.

Video: LALEXPERT: Sclerotinia cycle and prophylactic methods

White rot, also known as sclerotinia, is a common agricultural fungal disease caused by various virulent species of Sclerotinia. It initially affects the root system (mycelium) before spreading to the aerial parts through the dissemination of spores.

Sclerotinia is undoubtedly a disease of major economic importance, and very damaging in the event of a heavy attack.

All these attacks come from the primary inoculum stored in the soil: sclerotia. These forms of resistance can survive in the soil for over 10 years, maintaining constant contamination of susceptible host crops, causing symptoms on the crop and replenishing the soil inoculum with new sclerotia.