Ontario Agriculture

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C&M Seeds Wheat School: Trying to Understand Fusarium.

Fusarium is an ugly monster that continues to rear its ugly head across North America. Some areas are definitely worse than other but the impact is real. With more tolerant wheat genetics coming every year, farmers are desperate to try and manage this disease in the most proactive ways that they can. Some of the management strategies include; timing of irrigation application, crop rotation, fungicide application and variety selection. This is a disease that many areas of the world live with and are forced to manage instead of trying to eradicate. Due to the disease’s reliance on the right environmental conditions, farmers are faced with trying to minimize the impacts.

See the definition of Fusarium on wikipedia

Fusarium not only affects the farmers bottom line but also the millers and bakers. Fusarium has even been used as a form of biological warfare in the 30’s and 40’s in Russia.

With all the talk about fusarium I thought it would be pertinent to talk to Peter Johnson from OMAFRA about fusarium and the impact that it is having in Ontario. I encourage you to watch this video even if you are not in Ontario because the same message applies whether you live in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta or Montana. Peter provides his discussion around how Ontario farmers try and live side by side with this disease. I hope that this helps you to better understand the possible ways to live side by side with fusarium.

See other episodes of the WheatSchool

Find out more about wheat genetics at C&M Seeds

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Comment by Avia Eek on April 14, 2010 at 1:14am
Wheat and other such crops aren't the only ones affected by Fusarium. It occurs in carrots as well, Fusarium Dry Rot. Currently, there seems to be no way to combat it in our organic based soil except through crop rotation, and fumigation. We also have a problem with sclerotia, however, we're testing a small area in one of our fields with a new biological fungus which will attack the sclerotia before it attacks the carrot root! Having said this though, as will all tools we use, timing is everything and temperature plays a big role in the success of this new product.

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