Wednesday, November 15, 2006 - 11:00 AM
218-8

Blackleg Disease of Canola: A Multi-State Research Project.

Carl Bradley1, Bryan Hanson2, Cody Chesrown2, Luis del Rio2, Paul M. Porter3, Dave LeGare3, Paul Raymer4, and Daniel Phillips5. (1) 306 Walster Hall Box 5012, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Department of Crop Sciences, AW-101 Turner Hall, 1102 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, (2) North Dakota State Univ, Langdon Research Extension Center, 1750 10th Street, Langdon, ND 58249, (3) Univ of Minnesota, 411 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Buford Circle, St. Paul, MN 55108, (4) Univ of Georgia, Griffin Campus, 1109 Experiment St., Griffin, GA 30223-1797, (5) Univ of Georgia, 214 Redding Building, Griffin, GA 30223

Blackleg, caused by Leptosphaeria maculans, is a fungal disease of canola that has caused economic losses to growers in the United States and world-wide.  A multi-state research effort on blackleg has been conducted in 2004 and 2005 by North Dakota, Minnesota, and Georgia.  The research involved evaluating foliar fungicides for blackleg control, evaluating commercial cultivars for resistance, and evaluating and selecting highly-resistant breeding lines developed by the University of Georgia that could be adapted for use in North Dakota and Minnesota.  Under severe blackleg pressure in North Dakota, canola plots treated with foliar fungicides azoxystrobin, boscalid, boscalid + pyraclostrobin, flutriafol, prothioconazole, or pyraclostrobin had significantly greater yields than the untreated controls in 2004 and/or 2005.  Several commercial canola cultivars and University of Georgia breeding lines had good levels of resistance to North Dakota populations of L. maculans; however, most commercial cultivars were susceptible to Georgia populations of L. maculans.  University of Georgia breeding lines appear to have a high level of resistance to both North Dakota and Georgia populations of L. maculans.  Selections out of University of Georgia breeding lines were made in North Dakota for maturity and will be evaluated for blackleg resistance and yield in North Dakota.