Nidhi Rawat, Small Grains Pathologist
University of Maryland, College Park
Wheat is mostly ending flowering across Maryland now, except for some late-planted fields. The FHB prediction map shows enhanced FHB risk. If your wheat flowered within the past 4-7 days, you are still in the window for FHB fungicide application. This season, we are also observing several foliar diseases such as stripe rust, powdery mildew, BYDV, and tan-spot in our variety trial plots. Some farmers are also reporting these issues from their fields. If you are considering the application of fungicides at this stage, use FHB fungicides: Miravis-Ace, Prosaro, Prosaro-Pro, or Sphaerex. These will control other fungal diseases, in addition to FHB, but not BYDV. For BYDV none of the fungicides can provide control, as it is a viral disease, and genetic resistance is the only real solution for it. Strobilurin-containing fungicides are not recommended for application at this stage.
