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Heat Canker
Heat canker often greatly reduces stands of flax, especially in semiarid regions. Heat canker is not a disease but a stem tissue damage caused by high temperatures at the soil surface. Thin stands, dark colored soils, and formation of a surface-soil crust are conducive to heat canker. If the plants are injured when small, stems become sharply constricted at the ground line, tissues collapse, and the plants fall over and die. When the plants are larger, outer tissues are injured and plants respond by producing additional cork tissue as an overgrowth to the injury. This wound is brittle, and the plant may break off at the soil line later on if exposed to strong winds. Early sowing of sufficient seed and use of a surface mulch to reduce soil surface temperatures are the most effective control measures for heat canker.
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