Harnessing weather data
Laying the foundation with Perennia’s weather station decision-support tools. | 10
Winter harvest
Year-round market gardening. | 12
Comes with the territory
Taking advantage of cold weather and endless sun to grow vegetables. | 18
November 2023
November 2023 Vol.79, Issue 4
Sweet cherries bred better
Bigger, firmer fruit, less splits, greener stems, field performance, preferred harvest timing, taste: when it comes to tree fruit breeding, there are a lot of factors to balance during the 20-plus year process.
Industry News 6
Growth Trends 8
2024 Buyers Guide & Directory 21
Practical pest management 30
By
Josh Mosiondz, OMAFRA
10 12 18
Harness the power of weather data
Perennia’s weather station decision support tools.
Breeding new cherry varieties takes 20 to 25 years. See page 14.
BY COLIN FARRELL, PERENNIA
Winter Harvest
Unlocking the potential of yearround market gardening with Catherine Sylvestre.
BY STÉPHANIE BRUNET
It comes with the Territory
How one farmer takes advantage of Yukon’s cold weather and endless sun to grow vegetables.
BY STEPHANIE GORDON
RUPP FEATURE:
Carbonado Gold is a 100-day, very uniform 40 count pumpkin. Dark orange with black handles makes this an industry standard.
Many growers have called Bayhorse Gold gorgeous. It is a powdery mildew resistant, dark orange pumpkin with a strong black handle.
White Gold proves some things are black and white. An eight pound white pumpkin that is so white it could almost be used to light a walkway.
Small World of Color (mix) impresses with its variety. Think BIG with Small as average weight is 25-30 pounds. A mix of white, pink, and blue.
Prince Edward Island will be the site of a new living lab. Led by the East Prince Agri-Environment Association (EPAA), this living lab project represents an investment of up to $4.5 million over five years from the federal government under the Agricultural Climate Solutions (ACS) – Living Labs program.
This living lab aims to accelerate the ag sector’s response to climate change by bringing together producers and scientists, among others, to codevelop, test and evaluate on-farm beneficial management practices (BMPs) on multiple sites
across the province. These BMPs – featuring the addition of kelp to the diets of cattle, rotational grazing, hedgerows, edge-of-field wetlands, and more – will help store carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Island farms.
In collaboration with partner organizations within the living lab, the EPAA will also encourage knowledge transfer and exchange between local producers, producer associations, federal and provincial researchers, Indigenous groups and other sector stakeholders.
The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) is initiating the modernization of Ontario’s Environmental Farm Plan (EFP) program. The process will begin this fall with written and verbal consultations to seek
agri-food stakeholder feedback on a range of EFP-related topics, including delivery options and the potential for EFP to support certification, as well as priorities the industry sees as important.
A report summarizing the findings and
There have been a few major promotions in the world of Canadian agriculture at the government and corporate levels in the past few months.
The August federal cabinet shuffle saw MarieClaude Bibeau depart from her post as minister of agriculture and agri-food – a file she has held since 2019. Bibeau, the MP for Compton-Stansead, Que., is now Canada’s minister of national revenue.
Lawrence MacAulay, MP of Cardigan, P.E.I., stepped in to fill the role. He has served as an MP since 1988 and counts himself among the country’s longest-serving MPs, as well as the longest-serving MP from the Island. MacAulay held the role of minister of agriculture for the entirety of Justin Trudeau’s first term as Prime Minister – from 2015 to 2019.
Brian Lynch has been promoted to the role of director, horticultural technology systems (HTS), at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. In this role, he will lead Vineland’s vision for the HTS program, a hub for testing, validating and optimizing both Canadian and international technology
recommendations on how to modernize EFP will be released by OSCIA next spring.
OSCIA will also be leading the update of the content in the Fourth Edition Environmental Farm Plan workbook in preparation for the launch of the new Fifth Edition workbook in 2025. This will include reviewing existing materials, as well as updating content to cover current regulatory requirements and new areas of focus like biodiversity and climate change.
solutions for the horticultural industry.
Lynch joined Vineland in 2018 as a senior research scientist and has led a team of engineers and technicians on projects tackling research and development problems in horticultural automation and robotics. He has also been instrumental in project technical developments in machine learning, computer vision, mobile robotics, manipulators and mechatronics.
Oleta (Leta) LaRush assumed responsibility for BASF Canada Agricultural Solutions as of Nov. 1. In this role, LaRush will lead Canadian operations and the Canadian leadership team for the agriculture division at BASF and will join the North American leadership team. She will also continue to serve as a member of the BASF Canada board of directors.
Antoine Bernet has been appointed as country division head (CDH) for Bayer Crop Science Canada. He now leads more than 550 employees in multiple offices, research, and production sites across the country, and serves as a member of Bayer’s North American Leadership Team for Crop Science.
In early October, Lawrence MacAulay, federal minister of agriculture and agri-food, announced a $9.8 million partnership with Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada (FVGC) through the AgriScience Program: Clusters Component (a Sustainable CAP program).
The partnership will assist Canada’s horticulture industry by enhancing research that protects the environment, builds greater resilience, and helps ensure Canadians have access to high-quality products.
“This program will bolster our efforts in areas such as climate change mitigation, economic development and sector resilience,” said Marcus Janzen, FVGC vicepresident. “[The Canadian AgriScience Cluster for Horticulture 4] is not merely funding; it’s a commitment to equipping Canadian farmers with the innovative tools they need to produce world-class fruits and vegetables and ensure our sector’s sustainability.”
This investment will fund research that builds upon previous cluster investments under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP). It will support the development of new varieties, disease management, labour cost-savings, climate resilience, and greener pesticides and energy, with a focus on apples, berries, field vegetables, greenhouse vegetables and potatoes. The goal of this research is to reduce the reliance on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, advance innovative technologies, and create new disease control technology.
The governments of Canada and British Columbia are providing support to the province’s farmers to repair or replace infrastructure damaged during the recent wildfires and drought. The 2023 Canada-B.C. Wildfire and Drought AgriRecovery Initiative will offer as much as $71 million to help producers throughout the province return to full operation. This initiative has been created through consultations with industry.
Farmers will receive assistance with up to 70 per cent of certain extraordinary expenses incurred during the emergencies, including repair or replacement of critical irrigation infrastructure damaged by wildfire not covered by insurance, labour costs to repair wildfire-damaged fencing, or replacing apiaries, bee colonies and beekeeping equipment lost in the wildfire.
The deadline to apply for this AgriRecovery initiative is Jan. 31, 2024.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has received reports, directly and indirectly, of spotted lanternfly (SLF) sightings in various locations during the 2023 growing season.
However, there have been no confirmed detections of SLF in Canada. A detection is defined as a live spotted lanternfly confirmed by the CFIA in the Canadian environment. If there is a confirmed detection, an
update will be posted on the CFIA website.
There have, however, been a few recent sightings of SLF in Ontario in August and September.
OMAFRA IPM staff ask growers to ensure staff are trained and know what to look for and who to report to, and to inspect anything entering your facilities that has come from anywhere in the U.S. – especially in the areas where SLF is known to occur.
Cultivating the careers of professionals in the agriculture sector is the focus of a new master’s program in the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC).
Scheduled to start in the Fall 2024 semester, the new master of plant agriculture program will address the demands of employers in the private and public sectors who are looking for professionals with
advanced expertise in plant breeding, crop production and plant science.
The hands-on, course-based program –housed in the University of Guelph’s department of plant agriculture –allows recent graduates and professionals to quickly upgrade their education and training without the need of conducting academic research through a
traditional thesis-based program.
The program is expected to attract interest from recent graduates and professionals from across Canada and the world seeking a master’s program that enhances career opportunities in the plant agriculture sector.
The flexibility of the program allows students to study on a full- or
part-time basis and to select courses that match specific career goals in breeding and genetics, biochemistry and physiology, or crop production systems for both agronomic and horticultural crops. Students can complete the program in three or four semesters, allowing international students to be eligible to apply for a post-graduate work permit.
BY THE NUMBERS – Cherry and apple breeding at AAFC-Summerland
Breeding apples since 1924
Breeding cherries since 1936
5,000 new, unique apple trees are planted each year
1,000 new, unique cherry trees
Five Researchers eat roughly 60 APPLES PER DAY during the harvest period
Bringing a new apple or cherry to market, from first planting to naming and commercialization, takes roughly
99% of the planted apple and cherry crosses will not progress on to the next stage of cultivar development dedicated researchers working on apple and cherry breeding
20 YEARS
The Canadian Fruit and Vegetable Summit presents the latest in soil and water-related research, actionable insights and best management practices for fruit and vegetable growers. Hear from industry experts, share best practices, network with fellow growers and see the latest products and services – all designed to help grow your business.
Speaker: Jason Henry, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre Panel: Ontario Soil Network fruit and vegetable growers
Speaker: Kevin McKague,
Predicting the weather, and whether growers can use that information for pest and disease management. Perennia lays the foundation for weather station decision support tools.
BY COLIN FARRELL, Perennia agri-technology specialist
Depending on weather conditions, pest and disease development may vary from year to year. Growers typically have a good sense of when conditions are right for something to go wrong, but wouldn’t it be great if that next incoming threat to your crop would text you to let you know it’s heading your way? Perennia has taken the first steps to provide growers in Nova Scotia with weatherbased decision support tools. These tools use real-time data from on-farm weather stations to help monitor the risk for incoming pests and diseases. Over the past two years, Perennia has assisted Nova Scotia producers and industry organizations in
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installing and utilizing on-farm weather stations, purchased with the assistance of the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture Weather Station Assistance Program. This collaboration resulted in the creation of a network of 100 weather stations situated in Nova Scotia’s farming regions, each recording and transmitting data every 15 minutes. Perennia is now harnessing the power of this network with the launch of its new Farm Data Tools website (farmdatatools.ca), a webbased platform for weather station decision support tools. The platform offers open access to an interactive weather station map, where users can
An on-farm weather station connected to Perennia’s Farm Data Tools platform.
access current conditions and download historical weather data from all 100 onfarm weather stations. More than this, the platform is the foundation for weatherdependent modelling tools that utilize real-time weather data from a chosen weather station.
So far, Perennia has launched two Farm Data Tools: PomeBlight, a weatherbased model with a calculation based on the Maryblyt model developed at the University of Maryland, which provides predictive alerts of fire blight infection risk in apple and pears; and a Growing Degree Day Calculator, which calculates the accumulation of heat within the growing season and is a useful indicator to identify the growth stage of crops and to assess the development of pests and diseases.
This is just the beginning for the Farm Data Tools platform. With this foundation in place, there is a lot of potential to add more crop-specific models and tools relevant to Nova Scotia, which can benefit more growers across commodities.
Luckily for Perennia, this is not a new concept, and there are many great examples of agriculture weather hubs and crop risk decision support tools and
calculators across Canada.
Some free, open-access examples that we’ve noticed do a particularly good job of setting the bar high are:
• ONvegetables Weather Dashboard: A regional weather dashboard for the Ontario vegetable industry that features custom date ranges for monthly precipitation, growing degree days and pest threshold calculators;
• ONfruit Strawberry Disease Decision Support System: A riskmodelling tool for Ontario strawberry growers that identifies anthracnose fruit rot and botrytis fruit rot risk based on leaf wetness and temperature data;
• Farmwest Weather-Based Calculator: A weather data hub for the entire British Columbia agriculture industry to access weather data and several decision aid calculators;
• British Columbia Decision Aid System: A web-based platform for the British Columbia tree fruit industry that runs pest, disease, disorder and horticultural models to estimate the current status of the issue and links that to appropriate management and pesticide recommendations; and
• Computer Centre for Agricultural Pest Forecasting (CIPRA): A userfriendly software tool that can predict the development of more than 130 pests and diseases, crops (phenology) and some postharvest disorders based on hourly weather data across Canada. There is a growing consensus that longer, warmer summers and milder winters will result in greater overwinter survival of pests and diseases, as well as a northward expansion of pests and diseases not currently found in Canada. A reactive approach to this increasing risk of pests and disease is not likely to provide longterm stability for growers. This is why weather-based decision support tools that consider the unique weather needs of each region, like Perennia’s Farm Data Tools, are becoming an increasingly important resource – they provide local, real-time forecasting tools to make well-informed decisions while there is still time to act.
On a positive note, along with new challenges come new opportunities, and growers who are aware and become early adopters of new approaches and technology will be well-positioned to take advantage of these opportunities. •
and warm-weather crops in the summer. This also helps pay back infrastructure investments more quickly. Finally, Sylvestre noticed that year-round farming provides more stability on the farm, promoting employee and customer retention. It shifts the operation from being seasonal to year-round, creating a more sustainable business model.
Sylvestre actively works to encourage others to experiment with winter vegetable farming as part of a resilient farm model. By developing winter growing on your farm, a farmer can offer a unique specialty, benefit from limited supply, and command higher prices.
Growing vegetables in the coldest months of the year does have its challenges. One of the biggest obstacles Sylvestre has faced is light availability. Winter months have fewer daylight hours, which limits plant growth. Another challenge is the cost of energy, as maintaining the right growing conditions in winter can be energyintensive, leading to higher costs. Lastly, year-round farming can be demanding, especially if the summer workload is not adjusted to take into account the addition of winter production.
Learning which vegetables are the most productive helped Sylvestre mitigate these challenges. In her experience, the most productive winter vegetables include kale, bok choy, senposai, komatsuna, Tokyo Bekana cabbage, spinach, and arugula. The combination of kale and bok choy grown together on the same planting bed is very profitable. The idea is to use the space left by the small kale plants with a single-harvest crop like bok choy. Once the bok choy has reached maturity, it is harvested to leave the space free for the kale, which will remain in place until spring.
Sylvestre has also found that many Asian crops like senposai, komatsuna, and Tokyo Bekana cabbage are very productive because their growth is scarcely affected by reduced light levels in winter. When it comes to reliability, however, spinach and arugula have proven to be among the most reliable options for winter cultivation. “They are easy to grow and easy to sell. Most customers know about these crops and have no difficulties cooking with them,” she explains.
While the most well-known method of winter production is greenhouse growing, it’s not the only one. “Our model of yearround vegetable farming differs from greenhouse megacomplexes in several ways,” Sylvestre says.
One primary difference that she identified was growing the vegetables in season. “We prioritize growing crops in their prime seasonal time, rather than trying to create an artificial growing environment year-round.” Additionally, only growing season-adapted crops are selected for winter market gardening. Sylvestre’s selection of crops is based on what thrives in her region’s specific climate during each season, leading to more sustainable practices.
Another big difference is the use of minimal heating to control the climate, reducing energy consumption. Sylvestre says, “by working with nature and the seasons, we require less energy and general input, making our approach more environmentally friendly.”
Finally, she explains that winter market gardening is also connected to community enhancement: “Our approach fosters community hotspots, providing year-round jobs and
opportunities for people to connect. It also attracts young people back to farming.”
Ferme des Quatre-Temps initially focused on season extension and shoulder-season growth to extend their market season. However, the concept of year-round farming emerged as some apprentices, including Sylvestre, began experimenting with growing vegetables in the empty greenhouses. Over many years of trial and error, they learned several valuable lessons, including building a clientele before starting to grow, recognizing light availability as the main limiting factor for winter growth, and beginning planning at least six months in advance or more.
Today, Ferme des Quatre-Temps is a fully year-round diversified vegetable production operation, offering winter communitysupported agriculture (CSA) and supplying restaurants with vegetables grown in their prime seasonal time.
Sylvestre decided to write “The Winter Market Gardener” with Jean-Martin Fournier to share her experience and knowledge, contributing to the development of a more profitable small-scale farm model. She believes that year-round growing can play a crucial role in achieving this goal. Their book aims to shorten the learning curve, helping others avoid costly mistakes and offering concrete and directly usable information, including specific planting dates and crop spacing. This resource fills a gap in the available information and provides a solid starting point that can be adapted to individual contexts. •
When a dust devil hit Sarah Ouellette’s market garden, members of her farm team found themselves paddling a canoe in the middle of the lake to fetch displaced row covers.
How one farmer takes advantage of Yukon’s cold weather and endless sun to grow vegetables.
BY STEPHANIE GORDON
The two large row covers – about 45 feet by 100 feet each – were held down by heavy gravel bags. Two pieces became five when the covers were picked up like pieces of paper by the ferocious winds, clearing large rocks to end up in trees and the lake.
Many farmers in the Yukon have stories like these. In any given season, you can be at the mercy of frost,
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harsh weather or even grizzly bears.
A common misconception about farming in the Yukon is that it’s a vast barren wasteland where nothing grows, but that is simply not true.
According to Statistic Canada’s 2021 Census of Agriculture, most farms in the Yukon are horse farms, but crop farms (23 per cent), poultry and egg farms (12 per cent) and greenhouses (10 per cent) still exist.
Ouellette has been running a
Ouellette’s farm and new greenhouse in July, one of the most productive months when farming in the Yukon because of the longer days and endless sunlight.
RIGHT The ice house is a well-insulated building where eight 1,000-litre tanks are filled with water that turns into ice during the winter, and is used in the summer to chill vegetables.
certified organic market garden, Sarah’s Harvest, for the last decade. The farm is on Lake Laberge, 50 kilometres north of Whitehorse. She farms only 0.4 acres, but it’s highly productive – she grew over 20,000 lbs. of produce last year. In 2019, she was named Yukon’s 2019 Farmer of the Year.
Ouellette moved to the Yukon in 2012 after interning at an organic farm in Guelph, Ont., but is “here for life” and plans to continue farming up north.
“I was skeptical if I would be able to [farm] up here, but I took a chance and started a market garden and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Ouellette says.
She farms a variety of herbs and vegetables, including lettuces, spinach, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, carrots, beets, rutabaga, fennel, kohlrabi, cabbage and potatoes. She sells directly to the community in addition to supplying retailers and restaurants.
Yukon farms look different from the large acreages found elsewhere and they thrive in their own ways. Direct sales were up by 48 per cent from 2015 and the high rate of direct sales reflects the community’s engagement in agriculture activities.
“The customer feedback is really uplifting and motivating. Our days are long
and we work hard, and with the cutworm challenges and climate issues, sometimes I think it’s incredible we keep trying, but it’s really important work,” Ouellette says.
The growing conditions in the Yukon are like a cold desert. Thankfully, Ouellette’s farm is located near Lake Laberge, so essential irrigation is nearby.
“We set up irrigation before putting a single seed in the ground. I would never sow seeds before I know the irrigation system is working,” Ouellette explains.
Over the years, the soil has become extremely fertile because of a consistent effort from past owners and Ouellette to add compost to the ground.
Frigid winters don’t mean Yukon farms are impervious to pests. Ouellette shares that cutworms have devastated her carrots and they’ve experienced Sclerotinia rot, leaf miner and root maggots in other crops.
While she’s heard stories of neighbours being visited by deer or grizzly bears, the largest pest she’s had to deal with have been voles; she thanks her livestock guardian dogs for keeping it that way.
In the “land of the midnight sun,” the growing season is concentrated during the summer months of June and July, when the days are long and sunlight is endless.
In the summer, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun so days are long and sunny, with some northern remote areas seeing almost 24 hours of sunlight on certain days. In the winter, the northern hemisphere tilts away from the sun, shortening the days and cloaking the Yukon in darkness for up to 19 hours. It makes for a short and intense growing season.
By September, frost is frequent, and the ground is frozen by the first week of October at the latest. It’s no surprise that season extenders like greenhouses are increasing in the territories. In the last few years, greenhouses in the Yukon and neighbouring Northwest Territories increased by 54.8 per cent, and Ouellette’s operation is no different.
Ouellette is expanding by building a new 24-foot by 48-foot passive solar greenhouse to extend her season and grow seedlings for sale.
The project is grant-funded and driven by Ouellette’s desire to replace an older greenhouse that has been extremely