Christmas tree growers in Maritimes worried about mould causing root rot

Christmas tree growers in the Maritimes are raising the alarm about a form of mould that’s causing root rot.

Trees take eight to 10 years to grow to full size, which means losing any to disease can set farmers back by years.

Maritime growers have noticed some instances of trees infected with a pathogen called phytophthora abietivora.

The pathogen has previously been present in parts of the United States, as well as in Quebec and Ontario, but this is the first time it’s this type of phytophthora has been spotted in the Maritimes.

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“In Eastern Canada and northern New England in particular, we’re really seeing an outbreak of a particular phytophthora that was actually just discovered and first identified in 2017,” said Matthew Wright with Christmas Trees Atlantic Association.

He says the region’s cold temperatures previously protected the trees from the infection, but that’s changing.

“We’ve been over a century growing Christmas trees in Atlantic Canada and have never had a phytophthora infection before. You get a frost deep enough, it can kill a lot of the life forms of phytophthora,” he said.

“With climate change or weather change patterns, we aren’t getting consistently cold enough weather that may have protected Canada from this.”

He says growers need to be careful when importing stock from outside Atlantic Canada to avoid jeopardizing their tree lot.

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