News Canola Diseases
CCC recommendations if you find a clubroot patch

Clubroot – a giant pain for many canola growers on the Prairies, and a disease you want to catch early. Active scouting and knowing your fields helps. But once you find a patch, what do you do?

The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) has created a resource of steps to follow for identifying, collecting and disposing of clubroot-infected plants.

Once you’ve found a possible clubroot patch – typically around field entrances, drainage paths or low spots in the field – confirm by pulling plants and looking for clubroot galls or send for DNA testing.

The CCC recommends, if feasible, hand-picking all the plants in a patch. Brittany Hennig, a graduate student at the University of Alberta studying clubroot, learned that can be easier said than done. But if it lessens next year’s spore load, it’s well worth it.

I applaud the 20% of you pulling #clubroot patches. I finally practiced what I preach – and my hands still hurt.

This patch took me and the farmer 4 hours to pull. There are now that many fewer galls to release spores next spring.#worthit #westcdnagt.co/b6O6QTi8bi pic.twitter.com/zqJTPXedea

— . (@AgGirl_BHennig) August 20, 2020

For the full list of recommendations, visit the CCC website.