Archive Article: 1997/10/04

4 October 1997

Phoma stem canker incidence was generally low in 1996-97 but this is no safe indication of risk for this coming autumn. There is a plentiful supply of infective spores ready to move off the debris of the previous crop in the right conditions of humidity and wetness for infection.

Between them, light leaf spot and phoma stem canker are responsible for yield losses worth up to £80m in UK winter rape crops. ADAS considers stem canker to be the more yield sapping of the two diseases, easily causing around 1t/ha (8cwt/acre) in losses.