The wheat T1 fungicide spray is a critical point at which to keep disease in check and guard against infection that could easily spread to the yield-building flag leaf, but timing can be an issue.

Go in too early and growers risk not fully treating the all-important leaf three of the plant and this can also over-stretch the time between T1 and T2, leaving the crop open to disease infection for longer.

If the spray is applied late, the leaf is exposed to disease, as well as making the gap between T0 and T1 too big and risks leaving the door open to disease getting a strong foothold in the crop.

See also: Video: How to properly set up a crop sprayer

The T1 fungicide should be applied once leaf three is fully emerged, but it’s sometimes tricky to tell if this has happened.

In this video, independent agronomist Luke Wheeler demonstrates how to dissect a wheat plant to tell if leaf three has emerged.