Production tips for canola

Canola Watch, a weekly report from the Canola Council of Canada, has some interesting production tips:

• The most recent version reports that sulphate fertilizer supplies are just keeping up with demand. If a supplier runs out when you’re seeding canola, rather than waiting, another option is to broadcast ammonium sulphate. That can be done up until the four leaf stage.

• If you’re scouting fields with stand establishment issues, you can identify the crop from canola volunteers by looking for the blue seed coat at or near the root of the seedling.

• Some seed lots are very dry which puts the seed at higher risk of cracking as it moves through the drill. Collect seed in socks over a few hoses to check for cracking.

• If growers did an early pre-seed burnoff two weeks ago, but haven’t seeded the crop, they may want to consider a second pre-seed application, which may be cheaper and more effective than in-crop weed control.

• The Canola Watch report also advises that canola volunteers are a weed that should be controlled ahead of your canola crop. CleanStart is the only pre-seed burnoff registered that can accomplish this. The advice for CleanStart is to use no less than 10 gallons of water per acre.

Canola Watch reports are available on the Canola Council of Canada website. I’m Kevin Hursh.