Burnt Black

[sumdumguy]

Just a little info about disease in lentils. Our neighbour burns his canary stubbles black before seeding lentils every spring. This year, while all others were canopied, diseased messes, he had no disease, high-yielding lentils. The lentils stayed upright, no ascho, botrytis. Leads me to suspect that our disease issues are self made and possibly a product of no-till. The practice of keeping all the trash on top creates an inviting medium for disease, maybe Fuz included in Durum. Also, my ancestors used to believe in distributing ash in gardens to keep the soil healthy. Just saying this year those lentils on burnt stubble out-produced all the lentils around by leaps and bounds and were easy combining.

[SASKFARMER3]

Section of canola swath yesterday. Half heavy wheat stubble last worked 5 years ago. Other black double worked last sept and oct. One side awesome other flooded mess both fields very nice. Ah yes Houston we have a problem its trash and trash is causing most of our headaches.

[farming101]

I agree trash harbors disease.
Neighbors used to burn their stubble routinely years ago, then summerfallow the next year!
The land they used to farm is still the poorest producing land in the community.

Maybe in wet years it has a place, especially after a crop that had a lot of disease in it.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I agree trash harbors disease.
Neighbors used to burn their stubble routinely years ago, then summerfallow the next year!
The land they used to farm is still the poorest producing land in the community.

Maybe in wet years it has a place, especially after a crop that had a lot of disease in it.

So we should all take a short sighted approach and sacrifice the long term sustainability of the soil by burning off all OM, then till it up to make sure none survives. Then we can all try to farm concrete without any OM, like those of us fortunate enough to be in the grey wooded areas where everything that grew has been removed plus intensive tillage for decades.

[farming101]

For sure not.
If disease is a problem all the time, it is likely a poor rotation, and a lot of rain and humidity that gives disease the foothold it needs to wreck a crop.
I don't think burning the OM off is a winning solution.

[hobbyfrmr]

You can spray for disease.
Some farms around here have 3 consecutive crops canola and it looks excellent . The other farmers are Switching on as well. I can count 1500 acres canola on canola in a 5 mile radius of my farm. It all looks teriffic. They are going to make a lot of money this year.

[BreadWinner]

Canola on Canola is turning out good because of less trash. The ground is dryer and has less sclarotina. We have found the same with canola on cereal stuble, we have decided to vertical till in fall and spring to turn it black but not burning. We also went to more agressive openers on the air drill to turm more soil over. The blacker the better. Ohh farming in the Sask swamp has its challenges.

[sumdumguy]

Black soil warms up faster in the spring and the seeds sprout in a few days. My neighbour has had his nice
lentil crop in the bin for at least 2 weeks. Some of his were lentils on lentils, too. I'm thinking I will follow his lead for a few years and see how it goes.

[farmaholic]

Tillage, has done far more harm than good on this farm. We have variable land and completely tilling a field would mean there are areas that shouldn't be left prone to water and wind erosion. High input continuous cropping has seemed to give the soil some structure again. I never want to see wash-outs or soil blowing on this farm again....I did as a kid and knew that it couldn't be good. We will never repair the damage that has been done.

A crop rotation that has a low residue crop in it will help the excess trash build up. lentils, flax, soybeans all don't leave a bunch of straw. A poor crop can even do it.....it did for us last year. $173K for a Salford 2100 50 foot verticle tillage tool.....my goodness, for something that may not be used much some years, I'd rather put that cash towards land.

Don't get me wrong, I see the merit in breaking the disease cycle and warming the dirt up but.....for here the cost, to the soil, may be too high!!!! Some springs we can dry out too fast as it is. The Prairies is a big place with great variability in soils and climate......do what is best for your farm or what suits you.

[fjlip]

Seeded canola on canola last, swathed first, yes out of ground quicker, grew bigger all summer. Lots of canola, about 60% of seeded in area. Screw cereals, flat peas!