In foot rot, red-brown to greyish lesions develop on maturing plants at the stem base and roots are decayed. The lesions may show concentric markings. In brown girdling root rot, initially light brown lesions develop on the tap root. Lesions darken, become sunken and eventually may girdle the tap root. Plants with girdled tap roots break easily or dry up and become shriveled.
Foot rot may hasten ripening and, hence, be conspicuous in fields, but seldom causes major economic loss. Brown girdling root rot causes major yield losses through lodging and seed shrinkage. Once a problem confined to the Peace River region, it has recently been found in areas of central Alberta.
