Clubroot meeting in Indus in early January

By Janet Kanters Times Contributor

A southern Alberta clubroot response workshop is being held on Monday, Jan. 7 in Indus to help canola growers gain a better understanding of the disease.
Clubroot, which was confirmed in four fields southeast of Calgary in the fall of 2018, is a serious soil-borne disease of canola, mustard and other crops in the cabbage family. In canola, it causes swellings or galls to form on the roots, which ultimately causes premature death of the plant.
In 2003, the first case of clubroot in western Canadian canola was found in a field near St Albert. Since then, thousands more infested fields have been identified in Alberta, most recently four fields in Rocky View County.
According to Autumn Barnes, agronomy specialist with the Canola Council of Canada (CCC), the recent discovery started with a field in Rocky View County when a grower who was swathing canola realized his crop didn’t look quite right.
“There were some areas of really thin plots and he asked for a second opinion, for somebody to come and take a look. They pulled some plants and found some pretty big galls. The plant tissue was sent away more as a formality to confirm the presence of clubroot,” said Barnes.
Further surveying by the CCC and by Rocky View County found three more fields with clubroot in the immediate vicinity.
During the meeting on Jan. 7, many experts will be on hand to answer questions about clubroot and talk about ways to minimize the impact of this disease.
“We’re trying to get the best information about clubroot in the hands of growers and other stakeholders in southern Alberta,” said Barnes. “As we’re seeing year after year, as our clubroot map changes, there really is no place that’s immune to clubroot and we need to prepare for it.”
The meeting will include experts in clubroot management, including Stephen Strelkov with the University of Alberta who has been doing a lot of research on clubroot over the years; Dan Orchard who is an agronomy expert with the Canola Council of Canada; John Guelly, a canola grower from Westlock County and director with Alberta Canola Producers Commission; Michael Harding, a plant pathologist and research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry; Jeff Fleischer, agricultural fieldman with Rocky View County; and Aaron Van Beers, agricultural foreman with Leduc County.
The clubroot workshop, which goes from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., is free but pre-registration is required. For more information visit albertacanola.com.