Weeds could be hosts for aphanomyces and fusarium

May 22, 2026 | 11:00 AM

A master’s student at the University of Alberta is trying to determine whether weeds are acting as alternative hosts for Aphanomyces and Fusarium.

Logan Snow is working on the project. He is being advised by weed research scientist Breanne Tidemann with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

“We are trying to determine whether weeds are acting as alternative hosts, in particular black medic, which is showing up more commonly in lentil fields, especially in Saskatchewan. We want to see if it’s acting as an alternative host for Aphanomyces and possibly making that long-term rotation out of pulses more difficult to achieve,” Tidemann said. “But we’re also looking at whether it’s acting as an alternative host for Fusarium and at common weeds for Fusarium root rot.”

Tidemann explained that Snow will be doing a greenhouse study in which he is inoculating weeds with Fusarium avenaceum, and they are looking at whether the pathogen can use common weeds as a host.

“Is it essentially undermining our management efforts for Fusarium root rots in pulse crops? The weeds we’re testing include wild oat, redroot pigweed, wild mustard, cleavers, volunteer canola, kochia, black medic, lamb’s-quarters and green foxtail. We’re using peas as a positive control that we know can be infected,” she said.

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Black medic is of particular interest. Tidemann and Snow are looking for producer co-operation to assist with the research, as they need to collect roots from producers’ fields this summer.

“If you have black medic and you hate black medic and you wouldn’t mind Logan coming and taking some of it, please reach out. We come in, we do a transect across your field and collect roots from five spots. Those roots go back to the lab for molecular work so that we can get a better understanding of how black medic might be interacting with these root rot complexes.”

Tidemann spoke about the research during a webinar hosted by Saskatchewan Pulse Growers.

If you’re interested in participating in the research project, email breanne.tidemann@agr.gc.ca.

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alice.mcfarlane@pattisonmedia.com

by Alice McFarlane

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Weeds could be hosts for aphanomyces and fusarium

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