Australia
June 7, 2013

Western Australian growers are being encouraged to understand foliar fungal diseases of cereals and how to manage them.

The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) has released a western region-specific version of the Cereal Fungicides Fact Sheet, aimed at assisting growers in managing cereal fungicide use.

According to GRDC plant health technologies program manager Ken Young, fungicides are just one component of an effective management strategy and do not increase yield; they protect yield potential and cannot retrieve lost yield if applied after infection is established.

He said fungicide resistance was a major emerging issue and a GRDC-funded project in WA had confirmed triazole resistance in powdery mildew in barley.

“The findings mean that barley growers should not use tebuconazole alone, flutriafol, triadimefon or triadimenol if there is any chance at all of powdery mildew occurring in that season,” Dr Young said.

Some other key points included in the fact sheet include:

• Cultivar resistance is the best protection against fungal disease; ideally, when agronomically suitable varieties are available, opt for moderately resistant (MR) to resistant (R) varieties in disease-prone environments;
• Disease control using fungicides is an economic decision;
• Understand the role of the season and have a plan in place, and if growing susceptible varieties have the right chemicals on hand;
• Spray if disease threatens key plant parts (flag to flag-2) of varieties that are moderately susceptible (MS) or susceptible (S).

The GRDC Cereal Fungicides fact sheet is available at www.grdc.com.au/GRDC-FS-CerealFungicides and was included in the May-June edition of the GRDC magazine Ground Cover.
 

Website: http://www.grdc.com.au

Published: June 7, 2013