By the name alone, you would expect no easy answers to the root rot complex.
It is the number one disease concern for pea and lentils growers and really came to the forefront in the wet years of 2014 and 2016. Since that time, 53.5 million dollars has been invested in disease research, including $20 million through Saskatchewan Pulse Growers and the producer levies.
The most serious part of the root rot complex is aphanomyces. Fields testing positive for aphanomyces should not be seeded with peas or lentils for at least eight years.
The Root Rot Task Force was established in 2022 to co-ordinate research efforts.
"So, we're looking at it from all different angles, and there's really the root rot task force, which is a collaboration of Alberta Pulse Growers, Manitoba Pulse and Soy Bean Growers, and Saskatchewan Pulse Growers," said Sherrilyn Phelps, the Director of Research and Development with Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. "We've developed a strategy to look at eradicating root rots, and it's quite complex. Not only is it about investing in research, but it's also ensuring that there's coordination on funding available to invest in research, and not duplicating what others might be already doing. And then it's also about communicating those results and getting them into the hands of growers as quickly as possible."
The research is focusing on the three components of the disease triangle, pathogen, host and environment.
She says the pathogen aspect means "understanding what's there, how we can control it, how we can really understand what the complexities are within that."
The host is the crops "and looking at how we can build resistance and manage that crop to have less impact of the root rot."
"And then the third piece is what we can do to sort of manage the environment that the crops are growing in, so understanding conditions that affect it. So what soil characteristics can we influence, like drainage for one, if we're looking at a water issue, but there's other factors as well, looking at nutrient levels, looking at soil pH, looking at calcium levels." she added.
Progress on root rot resistance is further ahead on peas than lentils due to genetics, she said.
"(The Task Force) were able to identify some genes that confer partial resistance in domesticated peas, so they didn't have to look elsewhere. And so they're looking at just stacking those levels of resistance to try and give you as much protection as possible. With lentils, those don't exist, so they're having to go to wild relatives, try and bring traits in from that species, which is very complicated."
Phelps says since there is no silver bullet, developing root rot solutions is taking quite a bit of time.
(With files from Neil Billinger, CJWW)
