Nidhi Rawat, Small Grains Pathologist
University of Maryland, College Park
Wheat is at the dough stage in the lower eastern and lower western shore of the state. Although, the map shows FHB risk to be high in this region, wheat is well past the stage of FHB infection and spray here. Several other fungal foliar diseases such as Septoria tritici blotch, Stagonospora nodorum blotch, glume blotch, and tan spot have been observed here because of the rains or overcast skies and low temperatures. In our experimental plots at Wye, we have even observed some specks of leaf rust and stripe rust diseases. However, the damage due to these diseases is not going to be substantial now, and growers in this region do not need to spray fungicides for controlling these diseases. In a normal year, now would be the time to start looking for bleached spikelets to assess FHB severity. However, due to the cold spring that we had this year, symptoms may develop late/may not be visible, and the DON content of the grains should be analyzed and considered as the sole basis of FHB losses. Up in the North, wheat has finished/is finishing up flowering. FHB risk for today appears to be low here, especially for a moderately resistant variety. Check the FHB risk map http://www.wheatscab.psu.edu/ to monitor the daily risk here. If you are worried about foliar diseases mentioned above, the triazole fungicides do an excellent job of controlling these diseases as well. Strobilurin containing fungicides should be avoided at this stage.
