The Canola Council of Canada encourages farmers to use soil testing for the presence of clubroot DNA, stubble tests for blackleg and verticillium stripe, and additional tests for the presence of sclerotinia stem rot spores. These tests have proven reliable.
While these are the major canola pathogens, they are a small sample of the organisms that interact with canola plants, for bad or good. There are other tests to identify potentially beneficial or pathogenic organisms in the soil.
In time, there may be more information about the risk or benefit of other organisms and a better handle on the value of other tests, the council said in a recent statement.
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