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pulse crop root rot

44K views 120 replies 43 participants last post by  bfl2008 
#1 ·
Interested in hearing from anyone out there who has had bad root rot in peas and lentils. I am hearing that peas and lentils are done for 10 years once you get it. Has anyone got any experience with this? Have you tried anything? Is it a given that you will have issues or only if the environment is bad?
 
#3 ·
its called aphanomyces (I hope I spelt that right...) its is a water mould, so ground needs to be relatively wet for it to initially infect roots. but yes can remain dormant in soil for up to 10 years. interesting, according to researchers chickpeas are not susceptible and soybeans are moderately so. Don't think it is seed born though. weird thing is that it is quite hard to isolate in a lab without a PCR because fusarium and alternaria's that come in as secondary saprophytes on the sick plant roots will grow way faster on a plate. Only way to definitvely diagnose is to collect healthy samples from potential areas before symptoms start showing and have roots tested then.

On the other hand, I do think the soil borne fusarium species are getting more aggressive in pulses - I have seen a lot more late season fusarium wilt and the fact that 8-10 years ago we never treated any peas and now they have a hard time getting up without it says a lot to me..... Syngenta has a new Apron formulation on the market this year that also includes Crown, supposedly giving longer fusarium control - going to try it out this spring and see!
 
#4 ·
Around Assiniboia, root rot has become widespread. I know of a few farmers North of Assiniboia that had perfect conditions for pulse establishment last year. Soil was warm and dry, with just enough moisture to get the crop started and growing. The peas and lentils were up and out of the ground nicely when they received their first rain of the year. It was gentle and timely. But even with these "ideal" conditions, root rot flourished and many acres of pulses were lost.

Many producers are abandoning pulses in this area due to root rot. And yes, the have isolated aphanomicies, but it is my understanding that even though it has been isolated doesn't necessarily mean that it is what's solely causing the problem.

We had the worst year of root rot in the history of our farm. We are south of Assiniboia and we were pounded with rain after rain. Field with with a history of just slight areas of root rot, we had losses of up to 25% of the field to root rot. Then we had some fields that had no root rot. The only difference was cropping history.

We sent away infected areas of our field to a lab in Ontario to get a nematode analysis done, but we has waited too long in the fall to do it as the lab doesn't do incysted counts, just live counts. Plant parasitic nematode can definitely play a role in the problems we are seeing in our fields.

I read a report out of Washington on lentils fields that looked just like what we see in our fields. Scientists down their linked the loss directly to PPM's. Not saying that this is our problem, but the disease seems to move through our fields very similar to how nematode damage moves.
 
#38 ·
Not yet, but apparently the new Apron Advance has much better activity on fusarium, I ordered some last week, its a bit more money but i'm thinking this root rot issue is a combination of Aphanomyces, Rhizoctonia and Fusarium! hoping this will stop one of these! It has been a big issue for me in 2010 2012. I'm will putting Lentils on some of this ground this year :eek: hope its not a disaster!
 
#13 ·
We have have been battling pulse root rot north of assiniboia for 5 years and in 2014 we will not be growing any peas or lentils on our farm solely due to root rot. Industry and government officials have been out for the last two years in a row trying to get a handle on this mind boggling root rot.
We thought it was fus solani and used sedoxane in seed treatment which should control that species. Long story short the lentils had an amazing start then after the first half inch rain the patches of sick lentils started showing up. One 160 acre field we lost at least 100 acres. Overall on the entire farm we lost a very small percentage so yes I do think the sedoxane helped but it is not the solution. This winter they isolated aphenomyces from some of the samples taken.
In my 14 year farming career this is by far the biggest and most frustrating challenge we have faced. Any input would be greatly appreciated and if you have questions I would glady answer what I can. I know lots of research is being done and perhaps we can all work together and figure out a solution....instead of a ten year rotation.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the feedback. I had some fields quite bad last year as well, after the crop had a normal to above normal start and establishment, then the patches just started dying. One observation though was that once I crossed onto an old pasture, has been farmed for about 20 years now though, the root rot was non-existant, even in the low spots right up to standing water. The plants survived near flooding where in the same field with the same cropping history but across the line of the old pasture into the field, it was devastated. Now obviously, the disease triangle of host, pathogen, and environment, were the same host, pathogen and above ground environment so that leaves soil. What is different in the soil? Fertility is better in the newer ground, bulk density lower, more OM, better aerated soil, more mellow. Not to jump on the compaction bandwagon, but I think I need to look at how to get my soil in better shape. Long term and short term because peas and lentils might be the "canary in the coal mine" They indicate a soil problem but if we don't correct it, we soon will see issues in other crops as well. Likely we already are seeing yield decreases due to stresses just not the complete breakdown like peas and lentils. I likely have the most diverse rotation around growing 12 different crops per year, and intercropping. But I have been cheating on cereal acres the last while just for economics. So, my plan is to get some barley into those pieces this year, and maybe some tillage radish this fall. If I can get a machine, I would like to compare some smart till, and also my homemade cultivator with old stealth points sunk in the ground as deep as I can get them until I tear apart the cultivator and have to go to another auction sale.
To you guys who have been fighting this, I think you are right, there is no magic bullet here, no chemical solution, this one is going to be solved with field husbandry. What have you guys tried as far as soil solutions? Anyone tried deep tillage, vertical tillage, ripping? Tillage radish, forage rotation? Where you saw fields worse than others, how would you characterize the soil differences where it was better or worse?
 
#15 ·
I am wondering if the minimal till is allowing this syndrome to thrive. Neighbours that deep band fertilizer in in the fall or seed more of the old fashion way where the entire ground is worked up do not seem to have much problem with this root rot issue. Is it because they are not preserving as much moisture in the soil or is it because the tillage is helping open up the soil which keeps these organisms in check. This land with root rot grows good wheat and canola crops. We need to get Burt Vandenberg and others at the university to do variety trials so we know what varieties of pulses are more susceptible to aphenomyces and so they can breed resistance into the plants for this disease.
 
#16 ·
Has anyone Tried using Quadris? Here is the label Check page 22 for canola and page 31 for legumes.
http://www.syngentacropprotection.com/pdf/labels/SCP1098BL2J0910.pdf

If your land is tiled i would be very careful with tillage radish. Have heard stories of the roots growing into the tile across most of the field. You might want to try a nematode trap radish.
http://www.michigansugar.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Oilseed-Radish.pdf

I know Sugar beets and legumes are not the same, but the disease's are. I am going to try a nematode trap radish mixed with some oats to cover crop after my wheat this year. Throwing the oats in to cheap out on the radish. Plus they both winter kill. Trying this because growers around are seeing problems with Root rot in their beets as well as in their beans. Using a cover crop should help.
 
#17 ·
Have a stupid idea. Does anyone know if it is at all possible if this disease was introduced to fields through the use of an inoculant at some point in the past?

Reason for asking is that it is bizarre that some fields in an area have it -- and some don't. Not being disease expert -- I just thought that might be the case that the pathogen was introduced by a bad inoculant formulation.
 
#18 ·
Interesting theory, I don't know either, but I had never noticed any significant issues in the past and then last year, it was pretty much everywhere on me. No neighbours seemed to have any. It has really been bugging me as to where this came from. I wonder if I have any left over innoculant I could test, I doubt it. I know I did try a new different innoculant that nobody else around here used... I would have to hope that isn't the case though and I don't want to slander any company without proof so I won't name them. But if anyone else had it show up last year, PM me and we could compare innoculant companies.
 
#19 ·
I am not a pulse grower but am considering trying peas so I asked a local agronomist about this. The answer was that first and second time for pulses on a particular piece of land seem to do great but after that issues start to appear. Seems it is best to keep the pulses on a loooong rotation.:rolleyes:
 
#20 ·
rotation is important for prevention of lots of disease (aphanomyces in particular) but fusariums .... I think almost anything is susceptible to that. like colin said, maybe a small amount of tillage again???? incorporation will more rapidly reduce the residues that the pathogens are living on.

A second point on the aphanomyces..... it is a water mould, it needs wet weather, a couple dry years and it likely goes away (???? I hope!!!). was probably in our soils all along and the combination of a series of wet years and pulses being grown way too close together in rotation gave it a critical mass to expand.

we have been using the cruiser pulse mix both for weevil protection and b/c we seed peas so early a fungicide is almost a must in cold soils, both for disease protection and vigor
 
#21 ·
Someone should get ahold of sk pulse producers and find out how many $ is going toward research. Are they aware that it is such a big problem?
The drier years can stay away. I have to do some serious soil building, the more moisture the more OM that is produced.
Colin you have the most diverse crop rotation but does it include any perennial forage, winter annuals, or cover crops. I have also experienced the improvement in crop health across small sections of virgin land. Better OM for sure but there could be more micro nutrients there as well. There hasn't been 50+ years of exporting them. Have you done any trials on applying micros to the soil or foliar?
 
#22 ·
My guess virgin land has more organic matter which will help the water wick away faster. It also probably has more microbial life in the soil which might help break down the bad bugs. Is all the fungicide we are putting on now days killing off some of the good bugs in the soil that may be involved in getting rid of or keeping the bad guys out? Does anyone know of a farm that has root rot that farms the old fashion way with non min till seeding and no fungicide? From what I see their pulses do not seem to have the root rot problems on wet years.
 
#23 ·
I think Southern SK is correct in terms of being a microbrial imbalance. Tillage, in my opinion, would actually worsen the problem. Tillage destroys the environment that beneficial microbes flourish in. There is no proof, studies or evidence showing that tillage reduces pathogen pressure. In fact, I read a scientific journal covering a pea root rot study. One of the trials was to see if tillage had an effect on root rot disease suppression. After the multi-year study, they concluded that tillage had no effect. And it makes sense that it wouldn't.

Also, the theory of warning up the soil could backfire as these pathogens only begin to flourish and become active in warmer soil temperatures.

I believe we have improved our soils significantly from 80 to 90 years of abuse they took, but we still have generally "unhealthy" soil. We have to take our farming practices to the next level. Use the tools we have today selectively and focus on soil health for the long term benefit.
 
#24 ·
That is great talk, but what does that mean? What do we do to improve soil health? I as well believe no-till is a big part of it. Is CTF important as well, or was the pounding rains of the the extreme 2011 and saturated conditions what threw the soil life for a loop? If that is what it was, anaerobic conditions, compaction, etc. How do we remediate that and get back to where we were prior to that? Just continue with a good rotation and no-till and hope let the soil bounce back? There is not enough research into soil biology. The standard response is always, what can we treat the seed with or what can we spray? Those are not the answer. We better start pushing for more funding into soil biology IMO. We all need to push our commodity associations to direct more research to these areas. After all it is our checkoff dollars.
 
#26 ·
Using some biomimicry practices might help. Native soils have massive diverse root systems functioning for approx. 7 months of the year. Feeding soil life through root exudation.

With our cropping system's we have active roots for maybe 3 months of the year. No diversity in a given cropping year (compared to a native model).

Bridging that gap and trying to make money on the northern prairies is the challenge. Growing seasons are very short for cover crops following cash crops (maybe only a fit after early harvested crops like peas/lentils). Maybe a drill following the combines with a multi-species cover crop like oats, radish, buckwheat, mustard, sunflower would be a powerful shot of diversity and root exudation. Just brainstorming, have no first hand experience other then reading what some others are doing.

Taking land out of production for a year is economically foolish in my opinion. So we are kind of limited to OM building options.
 
#28 ·
Maybe I will continue to try some of the relay crop stuff. I did camelina/lentil intercrop last year and it worked very well, but a couple years ago, I had seeded camelina in the fall, then seeded the lentils in Jun, harvest the camelina over the top in July, then harvest the lentils in Sept. It showed promise, but I did a few things wrong, camelina seeding rate was too high, lentils seeded a little too early. I would like to try it again with a few adjustments. I wonder if soybeans would work behind something early? What about soybeans into barley or winter wheat or something? Harvest the cereal with a stripper head and then let the soybeans grow? I would bet that the pod clearance on the soybeans would be better than you have ever seen. Hmmm, I might have to try that. I hate running my drill through the field of crop a second time, compaction concerns that I am trying to eliminate by doing this, but would a broadcast soybean grow with a rain? Lentils will, would a soybean?
Maybe I will find a planter to run in with a small tractor and scratch them in.
Seed barley first, mid April or so, then spray the barley for weeds and seed the soybeans say End of May early June. My concern though is barley is so competitive especially when it is ahead of another crop that the soybeans won't ever establish. And if I seed the barley at a low enough rate to let the soybeans establish, is it going to tiller out to no end and give me harvest issues? Maybe this is where RTK and some wide row spacings could work. 15" rows might leave enough room for the soybeans to get a foothold between them? Sure wish we could inspire a research farm to try these concepts so I don't have to foot the bill.
 
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