b'break between pea and lentil crops is not long enough and willkey months. For some foliar disease issuessuch as leaf spots increase risk of severe root rot if fields were planted with pea orand rusts in cereals and mycosphaerella/ascochyta in pulseslentil. However, these were just general trends for the prairies,producers can follow disease development in their crops and and producers should assess environmental conditions in theiruse this as an indication of risk and fungicide need.own field or area when making the decision to plant peas orHowever, for other issues such as sclerotinia stem rot in lentil. canola and fusarium head blight in cereals, Turkington adds the Similarly, she adds that white mould caused by Sclerotiniadecision to spray and the application of fungicide needs to be sclerotiorum wasnt a big concern in 2021. done prior to the appearance of disease. But the resting structures (sclerotia) can also survive long- So, for these issues, producers will need to follow weather-term in the soil, and a dry year will not be enough to reducebased risk maps, checklists and other tools to gauge risk and the soilborne inoculum by appreciable amounts. For other foliarneed for fungicide.pathogenssuch as Ascochyta blights of chickpea, lentil, andHarding says another weather-related disease risk is peathe inoculum is primarily residue-borne with someoverwintering and long-distance dispersal by wind. seed-borne transmission. Because disease levels were low inThe best example for this is stripe rust on cereals. In milder 2021, we can expect that there will be lower inoculum levels inwinters, with lots of insulating snow cover, the pathogen can crop residue, and this should reduce inoculum loads in 2022.overwinter and show up very early in the spring. Alternatively, Similarly, seed-borne pathogens should be lower becausethe pathogen can be blown in from overwintering infections disease severity was lower in 2021.in the Pacific Northwest U.S. The same is true for aster yellows moving from south-to-north via the aster leaf hopper insect Weather Conditions vector which can cause serious issues on cereal, canola and Kelly Turkington, a plant pathologist with AAFC, agrees it canhorticultural crops.be challenging to predict what disease issue can be expected inSecond is the amount of pathogen inoculum from previous the upcoming growing season.years. The main factors influencing risk will be prevailing weatherFor some areas of the Prairies, we are coming off of a few dry conditions (mainly rainfall), especially in June and July. Weatheryears in a row, he adds.during these months will be the main driving factor and, thus,Dry conditions made it difficult for many pathogens to it will be important to follow weather information during thesecomplete life cycles and produce overwintering inoculum. As AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONSFoster Park Brokers work with you to identify and manage your risks by building an insurance program as customized as your operations.Carol Bouck: 780.235.3134 Dave Heinrich: 587.447.3797 Office: 1.800.668.3213 Email: [email protected]'