Farmers taking part in Wheatland Conservation Area Annual Field Day on Thursday had a chance to see some of the research being done.
The Pioneer Co-op Agronomy Centre is running three trials with Wheatland one of which focuses on fungicides on Lentils.
Lead Agrologist Jennifer Bingham says the reason they wanted to do the trial is that fungicides are pretty common on lentils due to the prevalence of anthracnose in Southwest Saskatchewan.
She says there are now several products on the market that claim to help flowering and reduce stress in the plants. Whether that is a fungicide or micronutrients and biostimulant products. The trial compares the various products and tank mixes in a low disease pressure year to see if there are any yield benefits.
The disease pressure is pretty low across the entire trial. We had no disease lesions that were visible. There is some leaf drop on the lower leaves either from the hot dry conditions, or from maybe a little bit of stemphylium blight starting to move in."
She says visually the trial looks fairly similar because there is no major disease pressure as yet.
"There was one plot that had the nutrient and biostimulant product that looked slightly greener a few days ago, but they've all kind of evened out now in the heat."
The trial also involves comparing a tank mix of a fungicide with a nutrient and biostimulant product to just the straight nutrient biostimulant product. She notes it will be interesting to follow it through to see the full impact.
Bingham cautions that just because it's hot doesn't mean the disease pressure is low.
"This is excellent conditions for anthracnose because we have high humidity, dew in the morning, and the crop canopy is quite wet. We had a lot of rain splash earlier in the season that moved spores out of the soil up onto the leaves, and now we have the heat and anthracnose likes heat. It likes heat and humidity."
Signs or symptoms of anthracnose typically show up as stem lesions on the lower stems of the plant, while leaf lesions tend to be aschochyta.
She says ideally, a fungicide should be applied at first flower before the disease develops, because you want to stop it in its tracks.
"A fungicide is not curative; it is preventative. The majority of the lentil fields are coming out of the fungicide window. Some of the latest seeded lentil fields are still flowering and still within that fungicide timing, but the majority of them have stopped flowering or are just about to stop flowering in this heat."
Bingham adds that the majority of the benefit from the fungicide is earlier in the season rather than later at podding.
She notes that on the trial they did include a second application of fungicide because in high disease years they have seen a benefit from applying two applications of fungicide. So that's why they included that treatment.
"If you have not sprayed a first application and we are now in early podding. That's kind of the timing for the second application, and unless you've spent the money and the time on that first application, I really don't know if that second application is going to be worth it with that late timing."
We're starting to see some pulse diseases creeping in, and as for insects, now its grasshoppers, cabbage seed pod weevil, diamondbacks, and lots of aphids.
She says that beyond that, the heat is a problem.
"There just is no subsoil moisture to help get these crops through this heat wave and we're seeing some crops going backwards quite quickly."