Farmers in areas where they had significant moisture should be checking their canola crops for any problems with Sclerotinia Stem Rot.

The disease tends to form lesions on the plant during flowering in hot, humid conditions.

Lone Buchwaldt, a Research Scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, says the spores don’t infect the plant but colonize the petals and pollen.

“For those petals that fall onto the plant, then it's the perfect substrate for the spores to colonize and then penetrate into the plant. Whether it’s a leaf, petal or worst of all if they infect the main stem then we have this great yield loss.”

Sclerotinia is considered one of the most destructive disease concerns for the crop as it can take 10 to 30% of the yield and even more depending on the infestation.

Buchwaldt says they are working on new varieties with Sclerotinia resistance.

“We have a number of lines that are very promising where we have combined all these quantitative traits. So, sclerotinia, yield, seed quality they all rely on a large number of genes, but we have managed to combine them in a few lines that we would like to share with Canola breeders.”

She says right now the varieties are open pollinated, adding they want to transfer the seed to the industry for crossing and making hybrids.

Buchwaldt says right now they are currently looking for collaborators to get involved in the project.

Information is from Sask Canola’s July Canola Connection Radio Program.