How many days to grow a canola crop in your climate?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I see posts of people already swathing and combining canola, and moisture in the 8's or 6's. I know I live in a cold wet place with the least heat units of the prairies, but it is still hard to believe the difference. Starting seeding canola on May 9, and it is still completely green to look at, leaves are still green, even bottom pods don't show any seed colour change. And this is supposedly short season varieties. Was out of the ground in under a week, never looked back. mostly quit flowering by early Aug. I don't expect to be doing anything with it until October, 150 ish days, last year was more like 180 days or more. I'm tickled pink to ever get moisture as low as 10%( and paranoid about storage at that) 6% would be a dream. So how many days to maturity where you live, and what season length variety?

My CPS wheat seeded before the Canola is still visibly green also. But this summer has been exceptionally cool, after an exceptionally early warm dry start to spring, I've been wearing long johns off and on since early July. I don't think our daytime highs are significantly lower than other points at this latitude, but the lows are much cooler.

[seabass]

We seeded the same as u and that canola has been swathed a week now. Hopefully can harvest it next week. How much N and P do u put on your canola?

[seabass]

Sorry forgot to say we are on the Sk/Mb border.

[ajl]

Things are very slow to change in this cool cloudy weather. East of Edmonton the canola is just starting to hit the ground, peas are not harvested yet and lots of late seeded barley needs at least 3 weeks. Some frost around the area particularly to the northeast this morning.

[SASKFARMER3]

Seeded may 16 th.

East sask.

All our cereals get sprayed or they would stay green till freeze up.

[Hamloc]

Not far from you east of red deer. Canola swatting started here in last week. I started yesterday maybe a day or two late Liberty L-241 C. Peas started combining over a week ago for one day hasn't stopped raining long enough to go back at it. Malt barley is ready to swath but ground is to wet, I imagine it is all chatted now. Started desicating CPS wheat Saturday only green is in the hollows. Finished seeding about May 14 this year. Canola would have been done by about the 9th, probably 7-10 days earlier than usual.

[Hamloc]

Bad spelling day lol. That is swathing and chitted fricking autocorrect lol.

[fjlip]

Seeded 7545, May 21 swathed at correct time Aug 17th. About a week earlier than 2015. Warmer nights seemed to help. Some years start in Sept. When we visited in AB in early July your crops were behind ours.

[freewheat]

Albertafarmer5. I hear you. I am in an area much like yours. I am in a sort of micro climate of goofiness, within an already cool damp area.

If a crop says it will take 110 days to mature, count on 150. If a crop is supposed to take 90 days, count on 110.

I am only 25 ish miles in a straight line from fjlip, yet they are always WAY ahead. Same as Wadena. Humboldt, an hour west of us, is like the tropics. Swift Current is like Kuwait compared to here! lol

It is hard to fathom how it can even be true. The only times I have ever combined in August in 25 years, was when I got barley seeded May 7th, when I had fall rye, and one time I did wheat in august of 2003, my best year ever. (nice and dry).

It is hard to take sometimes! I did peas in October a few years ago, seeded May 10th.

[grassfarmer]

AF5 and Freewheat, sounds like where I was in AB. Canola was almost never combined until October. I checked our old weather station data there and see they are at 1533 corn heat units a whole 100 ahead of where they usually are this time of year. We are at 2100 here which is about normal and that's quite a difference. I think it's the overnight lows that slow things - just takes the plants that much longer to get growing in the morning. Better climate for growing grass though with maturity and lignification delayed by a month compared to here.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

AF5 and Freewheat, sounds like where I was in AB. Canola was almost never combined until October. I checked our old weather station data there and see they are at 1533 corn heat units a whole 100 ahead of where they usually are this time of year. We are at 2100 here which is about normal and that's quite a difference. I think it's the overnight lows that slow things - just takes the plants that much longer to get growing in the morning. Better climate for growing grass though with maturity and lignification delayed by a month compared to here.

Very true about the grass. We are always a little slower getting growing in the spring. But our season stretches for months longer are areas east or south of here. Grass stays green and keeps growing all fall, whereas my warmer neighbors are brown by the end of June. But they also tell me that our grass is "soft" and doesn't have the food value of their "hard" brown ripe grass, not sure on that one. My cows seem to like it, but they don't have many options to choose from.
Our trees also stay green far longer than warmer areas, or lighter soil areas.

Has been a very strange year for grass, hay and pastures were headed out/flowered and mature in June due to no rain, and early start, and hot weather. Now the first cut hay which I finished cutting yesterday was young, and green and lush like it should have been in June. That doesn't usually happen, usually once it is mature, it quits for the year.

[WiltonRanch]

Does being closer to the mountains and the shading of the late day sun kill heat units?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

While I can see the mountains, I'm not near close enough to have much effect geometrically. Our proximity to the mountains does cause the cool weather, but I'm not certain of the mechanism. Partly it is our altitude. At 3300 feet, it makes a big difference.

[sumdumguy]

I never knew that crops took longer than 100 days in some regions. Learn something every day.

[MurrayH]

I have been involved with analyzing canola variety trials for many years, and in Alberta the maturity for B. napus canola has ranged from 82 days to almost 140 days. The fewest days to maturity are usually in southern Alberta (similar to long season zone in Manitoba), and the highest are in west central Alberta (Olds, Carstairs, Innisfail). The days to maturity is related to day and night temperatures during the growing season (heat units). Since the night temperatures are much lower closer to the mountains, the days to maturity goes up. The central area west of highway 2, and the southwest portion of the Peace region tend to have the longest days to maturity (115 day average approximately).