Plantation Seed Wheat Grower update 02-24-2020

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 GOOD ones are Caramba, Proline, Prosaro AND THE BEST MIRVAIS ACE . 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, Prosaro, and the best MIRVAIS ACE. 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.

Good Growing,
Blake and Jimmy

Information from: Christina Cowger, Small Grains Pathologist USDA-ARS North Carolina State University and Intensive Wheat Management in Georgia