Wheat Disease Management in Ohio

Bulletin 785

Comprehensive Wheat Disease Management Program for Ohio

1. Select high-yielding varieties with good straw strength, winter hardiness, and resistance to the important diseases in your area. Most important in Ohio is resistance to powdery mildew, Stagonospora leaf blotch, and head scab.
2. Plant well-cleaned, disease-free seed, treated with a fungicide that controls Fusarium seedling blight, bunt, and loose smut.
3. Plant in a well-prepared seed bed, after the Hessian fly-safe date for your county. Waiting five to 10 days after the fly-safe date will ensure escape from fall infections of barley yellow dwarf virus and lessen the potential of root and foliar diseases.
4. Use crop rotation; never plant wheat after wheat or spelt. A two- to three-year rotation away from wheat will prevent most pathogens from surviving in fields.
5. Plow down residues from heavily diseased fields, especially those affected by Cephalosporium stripe or take-all. Plowing will enhance decomposition of residues and death of the disease-causing fungi.
6. Use a well-balanced fertility program based on a soil test. Apply sufficient amounts of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus in the fall for vigorous root and seedling growth before winter. Spring top dressing of nitrogen should be applied as required to achieve the yield potential desired. However, excessive nitrogen will increase the severity of powdery mildew and increase lodging.
7. Control weed grasses. Destroying volunteer wheat, quackgrass, and other weed grasses will reduce the amount of inoculum of various pathogens in and around wheat fields.
8. Apply fungicides only if warranted. Scout fields from flag-leaf emergence through flowering. Diseases that can be controlled by foliar fungicides are powdery mildew, leaf rust, Stagonospora leaf blotch, and tan spot. Know symptoms, severity ratings, and disease thresholds when scouting fields.