Thanks to a seed grant from Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre (Vineland) has discovered a new approach to control and eradicate invasive plants and weeds. Vineland’s innovative solution utilizes the unique natural chemistry of invasive plants as a source of new sustainable control tool.

Prof. David Wolyn, department of plant agriculture, is the University of Guelph’s Innovation of the Year award winner for 2019.

Fruit & Vegetable (F&V) magazine and BASF Canada are celebrating the hard work that goes into producing Canada’s fruit and vegetable bounty with the What’s Growing Canada video contest!

Pfennings Organic Farm sits outside of New Hamburg, Ont., and is owned and operated by the Pfennings family whose farming roots extend deeper than historical documents can offer. Along with growing organic vegetables, grains and legumes, the farm also packs and distributes organic produce.

Technology will play a key role in conquering global food insecurity, and Canadian agri-tech developer JRS VirtualStudio Inc. has teamed up with researchers at McGill University to develop a new mobile app that will help answer important questions about the diets of people living in marginalized communities worldwide.

Less than two per cent of Canada's population lives on a farm, and this lack of connection to farming has led to confusion about safe farm practices and food choices. Real Farm Lives, a documentary web series about the realities of modern farming in Canada, returns for another season to help bridge the gap.

It may surprise you to learn that wild potatoes grow like weeds in South America. While farmers in the United States battle weeds like pigweed and lamb’s quarters, farmers in the Andes Mountains have to keep weedy potatoes in check.

Dr. Martin Entz, professor in the department of plant science at the University of Manitoba, was recently honoured by the Canada Organic Trade Association with the Leadership in Organic Science Award.

In a first-ever study investigating the risk of neonicotinoid insecticides to ground-nesting bees, University of Guelph researchers have discovered at least one species is being exposed to lethal levels of the chemicals in the soil.

Perennial fruit orchards are long-lived, long-term investments which require regular maintenance and upkeep to ensure that they retain their youthful health, vigour and productivity for an extended period.

The University of Guelph is planning a new, $12-million facility aimed at helping understand the stressors affecting honey bees and other pollinators and finding solutions.

Canadian vegetable growers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on herbicides that don’t kill the weeds they are targeting. Not only do these herbicide-resistant weeds cause farmers yield losses, but also the farmers often find themselves paying for multiple weed control strategies, including hiring workers to manually remove the weeds.

“Samurai Wasps vs. Stink Bugs” is not the title of the latest Avengers film. But it does describe new efforts by Cornell scientists to control a household nuisance and agricultural pest.

Food-borne illness can create big problems for both public health and a business. Most recently, an outbreak of E. coli made headlines across Canada and the U.S., with 29 confirmed cases in Canada. Romaine lettuce and other leafy greens were recalled by producers and food manufacturers after the outbreak was traced back to farms in California.

UPL AgroSolutions Canada recently announced that the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has granted registration for Manzate Max liquid fungicide for use on fruit, including apples, potatoes and vegetable crops.

Protecting the health and safety of Canadians and the environment is a priority for the Government of Canada. This includes helping to protect the health of bees and other pollinators by minimizing their exposure to pesticides.

The University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus recently released a number of new tables outlining fungicide efficacy for management of diseases in field tomatoes. 

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) recently announced the approval of URMULE registrations for Presidio Fungicide for control of downy mildew on field and greenhouse basil and downy mildew of hops, and suppression of Phytophthora blight and pod rot and downy mildew on edible-podded beans in Canada. Presidio Fungicide was already labeled for use on a number of crops in Canada for control of several diseases.

BASF introduces new Versys insecticide for the 2019 season. Versys controls aphids and whiteflies in fruit and vegetable crops.

The Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) recently announced the approval of a minor use label expansion registration for Avian Control bird repellent to reduce feeding damage to ripening bushberries (crop subgroup 13-07B), grapes and sweet corn caused by birds in Canada.

The Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC) website is undergoing a renovation, and as a result the Pest Management Centre pages have been relocated to join the AAFC Research and Development Centres’ web pages. Along with this migration, the pest management centre homepage has been updated.

New for 2019, BASF will introduce Serifel, an innovative, new fungicide with three modes of action to target powdery mildew and botrytis in grapes.

Whoever said that “A potato storage is not a hospital” was absolutely right. Diseased or bruised tubers that are stored will not get better. Tubers bruised at harvest are easily invaded by soft rot and/or Fusarium dry rot, which can cause serious economic losses in storage.

With harvest in full swing in some parts of the province, farmers need to be aware of the risks associated with worker fatigue.

Farmers have had long-running battles trying to keep birds of many varieties from eating their sweetcorn. They’ve used propane cannons, visual deterrents and even shotguns, but none succeed for very long.

Sustainability is a hot topic, with companies around the country taking steps to make their businesses “greener” and more eco-friendly. For the agriculture industry, sustainability will be especially important in the years and decades to come as a compromised environment has a direct impact on the ability to produce fresh, healthy food. The good news is that there are many techniques facilities can adopt to reduce their environmental footprint, including a sustainable approach to pest management.

A hot plant is an early warning sign of an under-watered, unhealthy plant, which makes monitoring crop temperatures a priority for many farmers. But to do so, they need the right equipment. Infrared cameras can detect heat and convert it into an image, but they are large, unwieldy and expensive. Infrared sensors are less expensive, but they don’t provide images, which makes accurate monitoring difficult for medium and large-sized fields.

While farm machinery innovation often means bigger sizes and more complex technology, one Ontario farm is proving smaller and simpler may be the way of the future for harvesting row crops.

Growers sizing up the impacts a changing climate could have on North America are well aware of two key challenges. One is greater rainfall earlier in the winter, meaning smaller snow packs and less runoff during the growing season. This will contribute to drier summers. Compounding the effects of a drier growing season is a rise in temperatures.

Keep cool is the motto in cherry orchards, where heat rapidly degrades picked fruit and turns stems brown. That’s why nearly all B.C. cherry growers use Mylar covers. White on the outside, reflective on the inside, the tarps keep heat out and humidity in.

In a greenhouse in Belgium, a small robot moves through rows of strawberries growing on trays suspended above the ground, using machine vision to locate ripe, flawless berries, then reaching up with a 3D-printed hand to gently pluck each berry and place it in a basket for sale. If it feels that a berry isn’t ready for harvest, the robot estimates the date it will be ready for it to return and pick it.

Ontario's Government for the People unveiled valuable resources to help farmers reduce the risk of barn fires this winter, the time when most barn fires occur.

When plants are growing outdoors, it’s no surprise that they are at risk for pest activity. But even once produce is harvested and brought inside for storage and packaging, it can fall victim to pests’ appetites. In fact, pest infestations that are established during storage can put your produce at increased risk, as it is easy for pests to move and spread quickly in the closed environment.

The Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association and Farmers' Markets Ontario, two important organizations that connect farmers with consumers through direct sales experiences, recently received an investment from the provincial government. 

Cavendish Farms’ newest plant is officially open for business. Cavendish Farms president Robert K. Irving was joined by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Lethbridge Mayor Chris Spearman and other dignitaries to celebrate the largest private sector investment in the history of the City of Lethbridge.

Agrinos’ proprietary organic biostimulant, iNvigorate, is now registered for use by Canadian growers. The soil-applied microbial product enhances crop quality and nutrient uptake under variable growing conditions while increasing the total productive capacity of both the soil and the crop.

The Ministry of Agriculture has recently updated the guidelines regarding organic certification in BC. Changes were made to provide greater clarity as to how to be in compliance with B.C.’s Organic Certification Regulation.

Both the federal and provincial governments are stepping up to help Ontario's berry farmers to increase sustainability, implement new technologies and increase awareness of their products.

Canadian Fruit and Vegetable growers rely on Fruit and Vegetable magazine's printed and online Buyers Guide to quickly access contact information for products and services they need. 

Bee Vectoring Technologies International Inc. recently announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved Clonostachys rosea CR-7 (CR-7) for use as a fungicide on commercial crops.

Canada must embrace a skills agenda and boost innovation to capitalize on the rising demand for agricultural products around the world according to a new report from the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

The Government of Canada recently committed new funds for tender fruit research that will be aimed at extending the growing season, storability and the development of new varieties. 

The Nova Scotia apple industry recently received a financial boost from the federal government to support research initiatives aimed at improving production and storage.

Minister of Government and Consumer Services, Lisa Thompson, was joined by representatives from the Ontario wine industry to announce changes reducing regulatory burden to support growth in the industry.