Development of Agronomic Practices for the Biofumigation Practices in the Central Manitoba
Zachary Frederick and Haider Abbas
1. [Haider Abbas] Characterize agronomic practices for mustard cultivars ‘Andandte’, ‘Caliente Rojo’, and ‘Cutlass’ necessary to achieve maximum biomass to theoretically maximize glucosinolate production.
2. [Zack Frederick] Evaluate whether mustard biofumigation with “Caliente Rojo” reduces Verticillium dahliae soil CFU and/or Verticillium wilt of potato
Objective 1:
A significant flea beetles’ infestation rate was observed throughout the grown season in the 2019 planting year. An area of 1 m2 was harvested to analyze biomass production in each variety. In addition to CMCDC, 2 more local sites were selected to collect data points from off-site for observation purpose.
Objective 2:
Four field sites were established in 2019 for study with one field site per grower cooperator. Two sites did not survive to biofumigate (MB-1 and MB-4) due to three feet of snow in mid September and extreme flea beetle pressure, respectively. MB-3 did not have sufficient growth to successfully biofumigate (average of 3-5 inches plant height). MB-2 was the only site with several feet of biomass with about 3-4 feet of mustard in wetter, high organic matter areas and 1-2 feet in the sand ridges (data not shown).
Biofumigation describes the elimination or suppression of soilborne pests, pathogens and weeds by gases emitted from buried biomass from members of the Brassicaceae family (e.g., brown mustard, oriental mustard, radish, etc.). Biomass is pulverized and incorporated into moist soil to convert glucosinolates into degradation products such as isothiocyanates. The process has been developed and experimentally-validated as a control measure of Verticillium wilt of potato in the United States and Europe. However, the methods of growing the mustard crop and the effectiveness of the process to reduce Verticillium wilt in Manitoba have yet to be validated in regionally with all cultivars of mustards, especially with a specialty-type mustard bred for biofumigation called ‘Caliente Rojo’. The project’s overarching goal is to explore a way to economically manage Verticillium wilt of potato in Manitoba using a mustard crop as a biofumigant green manure to kill Verticillium propagules in soil and/or suppress the disease. More specifically, experiments were conducted to determine agronomic inputs to maximize biomass of mustard cultivars ‘Andandte’, ‘Caliente Rojo’, and ‘Cutlass’. Additional studies examined field-scale mustard biofumigation to verify Verticillium CFU/g soil before biofumigating, mustard biomass at the time of biofumigation, and then the final Verticillium CFU/g one month after biofumigating. The conclusions of this project will scientifically reinforce growers’ efforts with evidence to effectively and economically manage Verticillium wilt of potato for their entire operations.