Wheat Grower Update

Plantation Seed Wheat Grower Update

3-20-2019

FHB is the problem that has cut our yields in half and ruined the quality of our wheat for the last three years. Rainfall or irrigation will increase infection if it occurs during the 5-6 days of Flowering.  Wheat growers MUST change their fungicides to control FHB.

Please look at labeled fungicides and CHOOSE WISELY for FHB control. Below you will find what we have been doing wrong in the past years to control FHB.

Strobilurins can actually increase vomitoxin (DON) relative to an unsprayed check.  This  effect of increasing DON gets worse the closer you get to flowering.  So it’s best not to apply a strobilurin-containing fungicide after flag leaf. That goes for pure strobilurins and also strobilurin-triazole mixes. Some triazoles are more effective than others at reducing FHB kernel damage and vomitoxin.  The best ones are Caramba, Proline, and Prosaro. Tilt and Folicur do some good, but not enough in a bad scab year.

Bottom line: use Propiconazole or Tebuconazole to correct any early problems.  When your wheat normally flowers Feekes 10.5 (see photo) and  up to 5 days after flowering put out Caramba, Proline, or Prosaro. This approach should decrease your exposure to FHB while keeping the other diseases in check.

Foliar insecticide treatments for aphid control: A well-timed insecticide application of a persistent pyrethroid insecticide such as lambda cyhalothrin (Warrior, Karate, Lambda, Silencer, others) will kill aphids and reduce the incidence of BYD and increase yields. 

A spray at Wheat Flowering will be one of the most important tools a wheat grower can use in 2019.  Wheat gets FHB or SCAB during this flowering time.