b"DISEASE OUTLOOK Typical symptoms of stripe rust of wheat due to natural inoculum at Beaverlodge Research Farm, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, July 13, 2017. PHOTO: KELLY TURKINGTONCrop Disease OutlookYour province wide crop disease outlook for the 2022 growing season.FUTURE OUTLOOKS for any industry can be tricky. NeverWhen susceptible hosts and virulent pathogens come mind the agriculture industry where many factors can play atogether in a favourable environment, the disease risk is high, role in what transpires over the next year.explains Harding. Conversely, if the host plant is resistant to Its important to look at what has developed in the field itselfthe pathogen, or if the pathogen is weakly virulent, or if the as well as adjacent fields when the crop was last grown. Thisweather is too cold or too dry, the disease risk will be low.will typically indicate the typical disease spectrum and whatHe says when trying to predict what farmers can expect, its may be needed in the upcoming field season best to look at environmental conditions as weather can be a When it comes to Alberta's crop outlook for 2022, Michaelprimary driver of many diseases such as sclerotinia stem rot Harding, crop assurance program lead with the Alberta(canola) and fusarium head blight (wheat/barley) for which Government, believes farmers can expect more of the same. genetic resistance is either incomplete or absent, and that are Farmers will know what disease issues are common in theirvery responsive to precipitation. areas and should scout and assess risk for these regularly- So, if we have more precipitation during the summer, we will occurring problems in 2022. Id recommend watching out forexpect more risk of these diseases. Whereas, if its a drier year, bacterial leaf streak on wheat and barley. This is an emergingwe will expect less risk. This would also be true for diseases like issue in Alberta and frequently is unnoticed or misdiagnosed. mycosphaerella blight on pea, and fungal leaf spots on cereals. He also says clubroot on canola is continuing to spread andSyama Chatterton, a plant pathologist at Agriculture and Agri-is evolving in Albertaeven in the southern portion of theFood Canada's (AAFC) Lethbridge Research and Development province.Centre says root rot should always top-of-mind for pea and lentil It is moving much, much slower in southern Alberta, but it iscrops. still showing up in new fields from time to time. Early detection2021 was an extremely dry year and did not provide ideal is an important management tool. Verticillium stripe on canolaconditions for root rot development. However, the largest is another disease that may be spreading on the prairies andcontributor to risk factors for root rot is the environment in canola producers should be aware of it, and root rots on peas/ the field when the last pea or lentil crop was grown because lentils continue to spread and cause issues. of the long-lived resting spores that can survive in soil under harsh conditions. Generally, the last really wet years were in Crop Disease Predictions 2020 and 2016. Predicting crop disease risks is no easy task and can be veryShe says a five-year break between a pea or lentil crop may challenging because risk will depend on how these three factorsnot be long enough if root rot issues were found in those fieldshost susceptibility, pathogen virulence and environmentalif they were planted with peas or lentils in 2016. conditionscome together in 2021. If fields were planted with pea or lentil in 2020, a one-year 52seed.ab.ca"