There were no confirmed cases of clubroot in Saskatchewan canola surveys last year, but verticillium stripe continues to advance in the province.
Alireza Akhavan, the Provincial Plant Disease Specialist, ran through the combined results from the Ministry of Agriculture and Sask Oilseed surveys during a provincial agronomy webinar last month, which looked at 235 fields across 152 rural municipalities.
"The good thing for Saskatchewan was that we did not find any new visible symptoms of the clubroot disease in any of the assessed fields. Also, none of the soil samples out of 235 got back or returned positive results, so our numbers remain the same. This is very good."
While clubroot is being kept in check, the same cannot be said for another disease verticillium stripe. A total of 73 R.M.s confirmed to have verticillium stripe in 2025, Akhavan said, "with more cases on the east side of the province, but there are cases in other regions as well, as well as the RM of Maple Creek in 2023."
He added the disease is also confirmed in Alberta.
Verticillium stripe is a concern because there are no significant management tools and only a couple of tolerant cultivars.
Regarding more traditional canola diseases, blackleg was still an issue in 2025, but much lower than 2024 which was an all-time high.
Click here to see more...