Reduce sources of inoculum in vineyards to prevent future anthracnose infections. | 12
Digging into soil health
Lessons from experts and peers. | 16
Organic perspective
Examining the Ontario Organic Market Report. | 20
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B.C. growers adapt to water use pressures by Peter Mitham
SAJID REHMAN AND SHAWKAT ALI
BY ALEX BARNARD
Cautious optimism
Happy spring, officially! I hope your season is getting off to a strong start and that the weather co-operates.
We’ve officially passed the twoyear mark since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. I’d like to say something about how we’re on the path to recovery and a return to something approaching normalcy, but it feels like “adaptation” is more accurate than “return.” Many changes have happened since March 2020 and while some things will revert to how they were in the past, some of these changes are likely to become permanent.
This was my first major event for the Canadian fruit and vegetable market, too, so I tried to soak in as much information as possible. (For a run-down of some of the OFVC presentations on soil health, see page 16.) Seeing people get together and share information on a peerto-peer basis (and joining in some conversations to learn firsthand) was invigorating.
It was hopefully a sign of good things – and future in-person gatherings – to come. As we return to something approaching normalcy or figure out what “normal” looks
“It was hopefully a sign of good things –and future in-person gatherings – to come.”
I’m a proponent of virtual events and webinars – I’ve hosted, helped organize, and attended several over the past two years, and I think they’ll continue to be a staple in the months and years to come simply due to how much more widely accessible they are. That being said, there’s nothing quite like being live and in-person. There’s an energy and enthusiasm that simply doesn’t translate through a screen, and the short conversations that occur between information sessions or while strolling the trade show floor are lost in a digital format.
In late February, I was lucky enough to attend the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention, or OFVC. I was pretty green to ag media when the pandemic began, so I’d only attended a couple in-person events.
like after the past two years, it’s a good time to consider which habits or efficiencies made necessary by the pandemic are worth keeping around. When the masks are put away and the vaccination drives quiet down, what do you plan to continue doing?
I don’t always agree with the adage of “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” but the extraordinary circumstances of the past two years have shown that adversity encourages innovation – and funding for that innovation. If nothing else, it’s brought greater public awareness of farming and modern agriculture and push for increased access to local (whether regional, provincial or national) produce. And that’s not a bad thing. •
Editor ALEX BARNARD abarnard@annexbusinessmedia.com 519-429-3966
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Canada supports organic market expansion
On March 1, Marie-Claude Bibeau, minister of agriculture and agri-food, announced funding of up to $770, 000 for the Canada Organic Trade Association (COTA) to support market development for organic products.
The funding will help create domestic and international export opportunities and promote the “Canada Organic” brand. The project includes the development of market activities at major food shows in Germany and the United States, with additional activities related to market accessibility and technical assessments.
“Canada’s organic industry is one of our fastest
growing sectors,” Bibeau said. “Supporting the market development for organic products will further contribute to the growth of a more competitive and sustainable Canadian agricultural sector.”
With this investment, COTA has developed a four-module retailer training program as well as a webinar training series on how to become “exportready.” It continues to expand the training program in order to deliver sessions virtually as well as in-person to a wide stakeholder audience. In the first two years of the program, COTA has trained more than 600 participants from 300 companies, with estimated related sales close to $1.7 million.
ONTARIO FUNDS AGRI-FOOD INNOVATION
The Government of Ontario is investing up to $22 million through the Agri-Tech Innovation Program to fund more than 170 projects that help the agri-food sector implement new and unique ways to set businesses up for future growth and success while strengthening the food supply chain,
BY
THE NUMBERS
4/10 agriculture employers surveyed were unable to find all the workers they needed.
More than 2/3 of employers reporting labour shortages said they received fewer Canadian applications.
creating safer workplaces and making operations more resilient to future disruptions.
This funding is in addition to a $2.4 million investment by the governments of Canada and Ontario through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership to support future innovations in more than
Pre-COVID, studies on Canadian vacancies in primary agriculture showed a labour gap of 63,000 positions in 2018. This is predicted to increase to 123,000 by 2029.
20 projects that will turn innovative ideas into marketable products and technologies.
Examples of projects under this stream of funding include:
• Developing technology and equipment for apple growers to add efficiency to regular farm activities.
• Investigating the feasibility of alternative energy sources for field crop and livestock producers in Ontario.
• Developing technology to create a non-plastic material for use in horticulture and food packaging that also helps prevent soil erosion.
CAHRC estimates that labour shortages during COVID resulted in $2.9 billion in lost sales, equivalent to roughly 4.2% of the sector’s total sales.
The COVID effect – approximate numbers of TFWs in agriculture:
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B.C. GROWERS adapt to water use pressures
Record-setting weather prompts rethink of farm practices.
BY PETER MITHAM
British Columbia growers faced a year unlike any other in living memory in 2021, as six months took them from some of the hottest days on record to an extended cold spell where windchill drove temperatures to -20 degrees Celsius – a full 60 degrees below the summertime highs.
Combined with this was the kind of precipitation patterns climate change models have been predicting for decades – drier summers and heavier, more intense autumn rainfall that runs off rather than recharging aquifers. Growers across southern B.C. reached Level 4 on the province’s six-tier drought scale last summer, with some even reaching the most extreme, Level 5, and losing access to irrigation water. But in November, nearly 3,000 acres of fruit and vegetables in the Fraser Valley and elsewhere were underwater after storm systems –having delivered twice the normal monthly rainfall in September and October – delivered twice the region’s usual allotment of rain for November on the weekend after Remembrance Day.
“We get enough water in the winter for our local fields that we’re trying to get the water off. We don’t need it to be wetter,” says Andrew Arkesteyn-Vogler of Crisp Organics, which farms 20 acres in the
The intense rains and runoff from the mountains either side the Fraser Valley led to the breach of dikes and put pressure on the pump station that usually sends water into the Fraser River. Arkesteyn-Vogler’s fields flooded, ending the season and submerging leeks as well as a few root crops.
But the rains also washed away the incipient snowpack, which feeds the river and in turn the irrigation ditches that provide water to many growers in the region.
“During the wet season, our land is being drained constantly by the Barrowtown pump station, and then in the summer all those ditches are backfed with water,” he says. “It’s not like we don’t have water, it’s just that we have too much of it in the winter and then not enough of it in summer.”
This was the situation last year. A dry spring culminated in extreme heat at the end of June that sent temperatures soaring past 42 C for three days. Demand for irrigation water went up and some growers engaged in evaporative cooling to keep fruit crops cool. ABOVE
Barrowtown area of Abbotsford between the Sumas and Chilliwack rivers.
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The idea of capturing rain currently lost to runoff, a possible Climate & Agriculture Initiative B.C. action item, is appealing, but case studies need to be developed to see what’s possible.
Crisp Organics has four irrigation wheels that operated at maximum capacity throughout the heat wave, something that’s become increasingly common in recent years as springs have become drier. While the ditches that cross the property delivered enough water, water levels fell as the summer deepened.
“We have dikes and ditches around most of our property,” Arkesteyn-Vogler says. “Our water supply was good in the majority of them, but the river levels as the season progressed got lower and they were having trouble keeping the water in the ditches for the first time I’ve seen.”
Growers in Delta, at the mouth of the Fraser River, see similar issues, compounded by tidal influences. High tide sees a wedge of dense, incoming saltwater flow under the lighter freshwater moving downstream, resulting in more saline intake at the pump stations. The lower the streamflow, the further upstream the wedge penetrates. This creates problems for growers as far inland as Richmond in late summer, when streamflows are at their lowest.
This issue is one identified by Climate & Agriculture Initiative B.C. (CAI), established in 2008 through the B.C. Agriculture Council and Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C. to address issues related to climate change. Today, it delivers adaptation programs on behalf of the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.
Its modelling indicates that by the 2050s, the Fraser Valley will see summer precipitation decline by 12 per cent, while snowfall is predicted to drop by 50 per cent even as the number of days exceeding 30 C more than triples. CAI released a report last fall
examining the challenges of a warming climate and suggesting ways farmers could maintain access to water.
“For a long time people felt they were going to be fine in terms of supply, but the reality is there’s lots of pressures on water in that region,” says CAI director Emily MacNair. “We wanted to do an initial look at where it made sense to take some next steps on those issues for agriculture … to reduce their vulnerability.”
The action items include studying connections between streams and aquifers in the region, drafting plans for new infrastructure including pump stations, and on-farm water storage.
The ideas are attractive, but not simple. The region’s aquifers have long been under pressure from the range of uses noted above, and demands are increasing. The province’s new groundwater licensing system promises to entrench the rights of existing users, but it also licenses water use to a farm’s current crop, something critics say could restrict a farm’s access to water as needs change over the long-term.
Similarly, the idea of capturing rain currently lost to runoff is appealing but case studies need to be developed to show what’s possible.
“There’s a lot of challenges,” MacNair says. “Making good decisions about how to deal with this going forward is complicated.”
This is where producers are taking a second look at farm management to make themselves less vulnerable to water pressures. As an example, Crisp Organics is refocusing from farmers’ markets, which typically demanded year-round production, to wholesale. While margins are lower, it’s also more efficient in terms of overall resources.
“We’re trying to get more of our acreage planted in the MarchApril-May window, when hopefully we’ll get some actual rain,” Arkesteyn-Vogler says. “We used to do a lot of farmers’ markets and try to market year-round, but in the wholesale marketplace we’re trying to have a whole whack of food [available] for a shorter period of time. … We tried to be extended for over a decade, but you just face so many more elements.”
Planting earlier also reduces the risk of being unable to access fields to harvest crops in the event of heavy rains, for example. It also addresses labour issues, reducing the need for help after Dec. 15, the date for Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) participants to head home.
Reducing tillage is another strategy, one that also helps maintain soil carbon. This means finding ways to tamp down on weeds before they become an issue, which also helps reduce competition for valuable water.
“We’re certified organic, which makes it trickier because we rely more on mechanical cultivation,” Arkesteyn-Vogler explains. “We’re constantly breaking the crust of the soil to dry it out to kill the weeds.”
Growers such as Dan Oostenbrink of Chilliwack see stale seed-bedding as a way to reduce tillage. This practice involves tilling the top inch of soil weekly prior to planting a crop to expose the seeds of perennial weeds and grasses and give them a chance to germinate. The next rounds kill them. Seeds deeper than one inch won’t germinate, especially not if three inches of mulch are spread over the top.
But strategies like this are difficult to achieve on a commercial scale, says Arkesteyn-Vogler, who uses a thermal weeder to cook weeds before planting, helping reducing in-season weeding.
“We’ve done it in the past for carrots, but it might be something that we do a little bit more in general.” •
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANDREW ARKESTEYN-VOGLER.
GROWING HORTICULTURE
A VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Fruit & Vegetable and Greenhouse Canada brought stakeholders in horticultural production, education and policy together to a virtual roundtable to discuss their experiences, ideas and initiatives to grow the next generation of horticulturalists.
Listen to the discussion on recruitment and training, what horticultural operations are looking for in candidates, and how to tap into a new labour pool.
Speakers include:
^ Kim Wickwire | Olds College
^ Laura Bryce | Kwantlen Polytechnic University
^ Dusty Zamecnik | EZ Grow Farms and Hometown Brew
^ Tania Humphrey | Vineland Research and Innovation Centre
^ Stephanie Slaman | John Slaman Greenhouses Ltd./Slaman’s Quality Flowers
DISEASE DEEP-DIVE: Anthracnose on grapevines
Reducing infected plant material and sources of inoculum in your vineyard will reduce future anthracnose infections.
BY SAJID REHMAN (PERENNIA) AND SHAWKAT ALI (KENTVILLE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE, AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD
CANADA)
Anthracnose, or black spot, of grapevine is also known as bird’s-eye rot and is caused by the fungal pathogen Elsinoe ampelina. Under the warm and humid growing conditions of eastern North America, anthracnose can cause significant damage to grapevines by destroying new shoots, leaves, petioles, tendrils and berries, lowering fruit quality and yield.
SYMPTOMS
Leaves: Initially, small, circular brown spots of variable diameter (one to five millimetres) appear; with age, their centres turn greyish with dark brown to black margins (figure 1A). Older lesions on the leaves may have circular or angular margins, but their necrotic centers generally drop out to depict a “shot-hole appearance” (figure 1B). These lesions may coalesce and cover the entire leaf blade, followed by the death of the infected leaf. Infected young leaves at shoot tips are malformed and appear burned, as the lesions prevent their normal development (figure 1C).
Shoots:The infection on young shoots starts as small, reddish-brown, circular lesions. Later, these lesions appear sunken with greyish centres and darkbrown circular or angular margins (figure 2A). The margins of the lesions may appear raised and their centres may expand up to shoot’s pith. Under warm and humid weather, small, pink spore
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masses can be observed in the lesions. Later, these individual lesions coalesce and the blighted shoot may crack (figures 2B and 2C), which is why the infected shoot remains stunted in growth and leads to the deterioration of older canes. Similar symptoms can be observed on petioles and tendrils.
Anthracnose lesions on the shoots may look similar to hail injury, but anthracnose lesions have raised, darkbrown edges. In addition, hail damage is
mostly observed on one side of the shoot, whereas anthracnose lesions are more evenly distributed.
Berries: The lesions on rachis and pedicels resemble those observed on petioles and shoots. The girdling on rachis leads to shrivelling and drying of the entire cluster. Infected berries develop small, reddish-brown, circular sunken spots with a diameter of 5 to 7 mm. The centers of these sunken spots
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FIGURE 1. (A, B) Circular brown spots of anthracnose lesions with black margins on grape leaves, and (C) Young shoots. PHOTOS COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES.
FIGURE 2. Anthracnose infections on shoots. (A) Small, reddish brown, and circular lesions PHOTOS COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES. (B) Older lesions with a flaky appearance, (C) Crack on a blighted shoot PHOTOS
become whitish-grey with reddishbrown to black margins which resemble a bird’s eye (figure 3A). These lesions on berries may enter into the pulp, followed by cracking and invasion of secondary micro-organisms, which leads to sour rot that deteriorates the quality of extracted juice. Severely infected berries look mummified due to shrivelling and drying (figures 3B and 3C).
EPIDEMIOLOGY
The pathogen can overwinter on diseased canes and berries from previous growing season which were left either on the vine or the vineyard floor. Fungal resting structures (mycelium or sclerotia) are activated and start producing conidia in early spring following a wetness period of 24 hours at a temperature of 2 C. The rain splashes disseminate freshly produced conidia to newly growing tissues, where primary infection can be initiated depending upon temperature (2 to 32 C) and wetness period. Warmer temperature reduces the wetness period required for starting a primary infection and the subsequent symptom expression. Under optimum temperature of 25 to 30 C, spore germination requires only three to four hours of wetness period, followed by symptom expression within three to four days under the same temperature range. By contrast, under lower temperature, symptom expression is delayed.
Lesions developed on new leaves, shoots, tendrils and young berries produce abundant mucilaginous conidia under humid weather, which are dislodged and disseminated by rain droplets to a shorter distance (up to seven metres). Disease development and further spread is stopped in the latter half of summer, depending on the onset of the dry period.
A C B
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AND LIFE SCIENCES.
MANAGEMENT
The infected canes and mummified berries left either on the vines or on the orchard floor are the primary sources of initial inoculum. Infected canes should be pruned out and destroyed in the winter before any new buds appear on vines. Similarly, infected fallen berries on the vineyard floor should be ploughed and covered with soil or mulch. This practice will significantly reduce the release and spread of spores. Some commercial grape varieties are highly susceptible to anthracnose infection. These include Thompson Seedless, Cardinal, Delicia, Italia, Citronella, Queen of Vineyards, Vidal Blanc (hybrid) and seedless table grape varieties (especially Reliance). Highly susceptible varieties should not be planted in heavy soils because these growing conditions favour anthracnose development.
Depending on rainfall events, vineyards with a known history of disease should apply recommended foliar fungicides at seven- to 14-day intervals starting from shoot lengths of about 5
to 10 cm until the berries are half grown. Late dormant-season sprays, shortly after bud break, may inhibit germination of sclerotia and spread of primary conidial spores from infected canes. Bordeaux mixture and copper oxychloride may be used to protect against anthracnose.
SCOUTING
Vineyards should be monitored regularly from early May to mid-September, with more frequent scouting from June to August.
When: From phenological stage 3 (first leaf unfolded to four to six leaves unfolded) to stage 12 (inflorescence visible). Regular monitoring should continue until harvest under prolonged wetness periods, especially after rainfall and storm events.
Where: Throughout the vineyard.
How: Monitor young leaves for the appearance of small brown spots (1 to 5 mm in diameter), with greyish centers and dark brown to black margins. •
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FIGURE 3. (A) Bird’s eye spot on developing berries, (B) Mummified berries with girdled pedicel and (C) rachis PHOTOS COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M AGRICULTURE
DIGGING INTO soil health
Learning how to build soil health from experts and peers at OFVC.
BY ALEX BARNARD
The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention (OFVC) included a series of sessions on soil health and cover crops for vegetable production. Sebastian Belliard, soil management specialist, field crops, with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), kicked off the day’s presentations with a discussion of the value of soil health testing.
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“It’s become cliché to say that a soil health assessment needs to consider physical, chemical and biological parameters, but it’s worth repeating,” Belliard said in his presentation, adding that soil health tests that don’t touch on all three components have limited value.
A diverse collection of soil types from within the five soil zones in Saskatchewan.
Some of the benefits of soil health testing that Belliard noted include knowing where you stand in relation to other growers, understanding the effects your practices are having on your soil, testing assumptions and verifying observations, improving your understanding as a soil manager, and demonstrating sustainability, which will likely become more important as climate change mitigation measures require tangible demonstrations to access funding.
Two things he recommends growers consider when they want to improve their soil health are understanding what the goal is and, even more importantly, what the question is. “What is it that you want to know about soil health or about how
your soil is functioning? From there, that determines what kind of goal you have for doing a soil health assessment,” Belliard said.
“Once you know that goal, you can understand what kind of testing you need to do and what sampling strategy to use to reach that goal.”
An OMAFRA-developed soil test is in the works, according to Bellard, currently called the Soil Health Assessment and Plan (SHAP). It’s comprehensive in that it has a variety of indicators, such as risk assessment, inherent soil properties, management, in-field assessments and analytical indicators.
He also stressed the importance of interpreting results in context and taking a more holistic view of soil health.
As part of a grower panel on the benefits of building soil health, Kurtis Allaer of Serkka Farms in Wallaceburg, Ont., and James Kingsbury of Sandy Shores Farms in Port Burwell, Ont., discussed practices and strategies they’ve tried out or incorporated on their farms.
Allaer farms on sandy loam and clay loam soils, rotating processing vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, with field crops like grains and soybeans, in addition to running a commercial turkey farm. He said his family has focused on good, basic agronomic principles as the backbone to their cropping strategy. The principles may be fairly basic, according
• Protects fruit & veg crops from: Botrytis, Powdery Mildew, Anthracnose, Early Blight, Gummy Stem Blight, Phomopsis, Downy Mildew & Leather Rot (see label for det ails)
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