‘Poor year’ for crops at Emo research station

With much of the field trials already harvested at the Emo research station in Northwestern Ontario, manager Kim Jo Bliss isn’t expecting bumper yields.
Cold, wet conditions throughout most of the summer made it a poor year for crops, Bliss said, noting the area is some 200 heating degree days behind where it should be.
“[The sorghum test] is behind because of poor germination and moisture and lack of heat,” she noted. “The hemp is doing okay but it doesn’t like the moisture.”
On the plus side, the barley trials were able to be harvested a week earlier than expected. But Bliss said there seems to be a widespread weed problem in many of the trials.
“There’s very big grass weed pressure because of the damp growing condition,” she explained. “The cool, damp conditions are ideal for grass weeds.
“The soy beans have a fairly good crop of weeds,” she laughed.
A big problem with grass weeds, Bliss said, is that they belong to the same family of plants as cereal crops, making it nearly impossible to treat with a herbicide without destroying your crops, too.
Meanwhile, harvesting likely will be on hold now until after the Emo fair this week. Still to be collected this month are the buckwheat, chick peas, filed peas, and bean trials.
Bliss figured the soy beans should be ready for harvesting by mid-September, then the research station will move on to the hemp.
“With hemp, the longer it dries down, the easier it is to handle,” she said.
In the meantime, Bliss and her staff will be busy indoors sorting and labelling the crops that already have been collected.
While weather conditions haven’t been ideal, Bliss still hopes to get some good yield results from this year’s trials.
“Really and truly, it’s management,” she remarked. “How much you put into it is how much you get out of it.”