Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Plant Pathology... what's it good for?

Whenever I'm out and about in the streets of Ottawa, I frequently bump into people who ask what I do for a living. The first words out of my mouth are invariably, "I'm a plant pathologist." The response this statement elicits varies: I've been asked if this means I'm a tree doctor. Others ask if I'm a landscaper.

One way I get around this is by asking them if they have a garden, lawn or tree with spots on the leaves. Then I ask what they do to prevent the spots from spreading - a very common answer was to spray the affected areas with a general-purpose pesticide. From this, I explain that if they were to have someone like me look at their affected plants/lawn/trees, they could probably get away without using general-purpose pesticides (which aren't very effective in many cases), or with a very minimal application of a specific pesticide targeted to the disease. At this point, they become highly interested because nowadays, no-one likes having to use pesticides, either self-applied or commercially applied.

It's interesting though, because the point here is that although people have a heightened awareness of the environmental and health implications of pesticides, few seem to have an awareness of what could be done to help reduce their use. One has to go to the source of the need for these pesticides - disease and insect pests - in order to determine the need for chemicals. Excess pesticide use in the past has already forced many of the causal agents to develop resistance, so other methods are needed.

A few key points to remember are:

  1. if it's a plant, remove affected parts, clean the plant litter off the soil surface, ensure proper watering and fertilizing regimes are in place, and many insect pests can be taken care with a dilute solution of water and biodegradable soap;
  2. if it's your lawn, ensure you know what you're looking at - dog urine causes nitrogen burns which look like a disease, june bug grubs are also major causes of lawn damage, fairy rings and mushrooms are caused by overwatering - many dead areas, if caught early, can be taken care of by replacing the sod in that area;
  3. if it's your tree (i.e. a maple or crabapple tree) many leaf spots can be reduced in the following year by ensuring the leaves are raked and any fruit has been discarded of.
  4. try a biological remedy. Many biological control agents are becoming available off-the-shelf at gardening outlets.

Some of these items can be reviewed on my other blog entitled Plant Doc, What's Up?

However, the situation becomes more complicated where large agricultural operations with monocultures of genetically homogenous plants are involved. The uniformity of the population generally means that there's lots of food for the pathogens and insects! In these cases, a rigorous integrated pest management (IPM) program coupled with a good integrated nutrient management program can reduce losses and avoid complications arising from changing environmental/agricultural legislations and policies.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Meeting Theo Blom

I met with greenhouse floriculture specialist Theo Blom at the University of Guelph while I was there (see previous post). He had interesting things to say about my Easter Lilies posting, particularly the fact that the origins of most, if not all, lilies are propagates of those produced by 10 farms across the California-Oregon border. One thing that he mentioned which struck me in particular, was that these farms are primarily cattle-oriented.

"The reason for this," Dr. Blom remarks, "is that the lilies deplete a lot of nutrients from the soil. The land is divided into strips so that only one strip contains the crop of lilies for a period of three years, while the others are seeded with grass and allowed to fallow, or are used as pasture for the cattle." Dr. Blom went on to explain that the ten farms are located within a very narrow swath of land, each very close to one another.

When I asked why, Dr. Blom explained that the climate in this patch of land across the California-Oregon border is relatively protected from extreme climate changes through its proximity to the Pacific and the mountains. Lilies are also endemic to the region, earning its title as the Lily Capital of the World.

Lily operations are not without their pros and cons, as explained in a previous posting of mine, as well as in this article from www.sfgate.com. In short, the climate is also beneficial to insect and microbial pests, so the bulb producers utilize a heavy regime of pesticides. The pesticides have been found in well water from as many as 11 locations in close proximity to the farms. Runoff into the nearby rivers also threaten the local fishing industry.

Clearly, the bulb producers and the locals want to arrive at a solution that's sustainable and reduces the use of pesticides. I see several ways that they can co-ordinate their integrated pest management (IPM) program into their series of rotations of lilies, fallow, and pasture land. If you are interested in hearing more on this, please contact me or post a reply!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Interesting Breakfast Meeting

As I mentioned in my last post, I attended a breakfast meeting (one of a series hosted by the Guelph Partnership for Innovation) and was pleasantly surprised when the speaker turned out to be Dr. Gord Surgeoner. In summary, Guelph is very well poised to be "the place to go" when it comes to agricultural and environmental innovation - that is, Guelph has a lot to offer biotechnology and agricultural/environmental companies and governmental agencies. In fact, the entire region from the GTA to Windsor is experiencing first-hand, the benefits of having these service- and product- based industries close at hand. The immediate benefits are closely associated with the development of synergy rather than competition - each of these organizations and comapnies are complimentary to one another rather than at each others' throats.

However, there is evidently a "centralization effect" in which the people in the immediate region are those that immediately benefit from having this 'synergistic cluster' (as I have heard it be called), and the benefits clearly are linked to proximity. At one point, after the presentation, I raised the very real possibility that many small business owners and farms might feel alienated or otherwise isolated, particularly where the rest of Ontario (North of the GTA) is concerned. I discussed ways we could alleviate and lessen this potential impact. Of course, it helped that I was speaking from the perspective of someone living just outside of Ottawa!

Your thoughts and comments on this would be greatly appreciated within this post, and especially in the discussion groups you can sign up for (links and sign-ups are located in the bottom right-hand panel of this blog).

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I was just reading the Ontario Agricultural Services Coordinating Committee (OASCC) Annual Report Presented to the Canadian Agri-Food Research Council2002-2003 (light reading before bed) and preparing my itinerary for the next few days this week.

So far, my week looks like this:

May 9:

  • @9:00 am - Leave Ottawa
  • @ 3:00 pm - Meeting for peer-reviewed journal article #1
  • @ 4:00 pm - Meeting for peer-reviewed journal article #2

May 10:

  • @ 10:00 am - Meeting to discuss display materials for Conference #2
  • @ 11:00 am - Meeting to disuss Intellectual Properties
  • @ 1:30 pm - Project proposal meeting at Ontario Institute of Agrologists

May 11:

  • @ 7:15 am - Guelph Partnership for Innovation Breakfast at Ramada Inn
  • @ 10:00 am - Project proposal meeting with past president of Canadian Phytopathological Society
  • @ 1:30 pm - Attend M.Sc. defense at the University of Guelph
  • @ 3:00 pm - Meeting in Kitchener with business gurus at TECHVIBE
  • @ 6:00 pm - Meeting to discuss need for novel projects aimed at quickly moving products from the lab to actual retail situations

May 12:

  • @ 10:00 am - Project proposal meeting at Flowers Canada (Ontario) HQ
  • @ 12:30 pm - Two poster presentations at the Regional Canadian Phytopathological Society Conference (Conference #1) hosted in the Guelph Turfgrass Institute
  • @ 6:30 pm - Pre-Conference dinner for Conference #2

May 13:

  • @ 8:45 am - Give welcome speech for Conference #2
  • @ 10:00 am - Staff display booth #1
  • @ 11:00 am - Staff display booth #2
  • @ 1:30 pm - Participant in Panel Discussion

May 14:

  • @ 9:00 am - Leave Guelph
  • @ 3:00 pm - Arrive Ottawa (home!)

As an aside, I was also featured in an on-campus publication called @ Guelph which can be read here

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Consider an Agri-Tour for your next vacation!

The last time I went to Egypt, I booked the trip through an Agri-Tours package. This is a great package - it has everything you want to see: trips to the Pyramids, the Temples, Aswan Dam, even Abdou Simbel. The difference between this package and a "regular" tour package is that it also shows you Egypt from an agricultural standpoint. I'll confess; I've been to Egypt quite a few times, but while going down the Nile or driving to a temple, I've always wondered what they grew on the land, and how they coped with the encroaching desert! Now I know, and this experience has been invaluable.

This tour company (Tours Cure-Vac) was established in 1986, and also does Agri-Tours to numerous other international places as well (Mexico, Peru, Syria, and Africa are a few). The best part is, if they do not have an established package to a destination you request, they will develop one tailored to your specifications.

After my first Agri-Tour, I spoke to them about promoting these packages among the agricultural community in Canada. You may contact me with further questions, or you can contact Tours Cure-Vac directly (please tell them Nathan referred you to them).

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