Wheat in the Eastern Shore of Maryland is beginning to flower or will do so
in a couple of days. With yesterday’s rains, and more showers coming our
way, the risk of Fusarium Head has increased significantly in this part of
the state. Growers with wheat flowering (50% of the main tillers showing
yellow anthers) are advised to spray head scab fungicides (Prosaro/ Caramba/
Miravis-Ace) at early flowering or within 4-5 days of this stage. These
fungicides do not need to be tank mixed with another product for spraying.
The fungicide products should be applied at the full rate recommended by the
manufacturers. Strobilurin containing fungicides should not be sprayed at
this stage. Aerial application at a rate of 5 gallons per acre or ground
application at 15 gallons per acre with 300-350 um droplet size is
recommended. Spray nozzles should be angled at 30°-45° down from
horizontal, toward the grain heads, using forward- and backward mounted
nozzles or nozzles with a two directional spray, such as Twinjet nozzles. Up
in the North wheat is booting, and still roughly around 2 weeks away from
flowering.
–Nidhi Rawat, Small grains Pathologist, University of Maryland
For more details, go to the FHB Risk assessment tool at
http://www.wheatscab.psu.edu
For the latest news and updates from the U.S. Wheat & Barley Scab
Initiative, go to https://www.scabusa.org
