Our e-mail address format will be changing as of August 4th. Please click here for updated addresses. Contact our webmaster . A research scientist with Agriculture Canada warned last week that pythium could become another big headache for Manitoba grain producers. Unless it stops raining, we're going to see it as a major problem.
Pythium is a fungus spread by spores.
It thrives in saturated soils and interferes with a plant's ability to take in nutrients through its roots. Two years ago, farmers in western Manitoba struggled to plant crops into waterlogged fields. Last year, farmers on the east side of the province suffered crop losses because of excess moisture. Those conditions are conducive to pythium. The areas most prone to the disease are in the Red River Valley and areas with hummocky soils.