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Yorkshire yellow rust may warrant wheat pre-T0 fungicide

Oliver Hill 07 March 2017
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Yellow rust seen in Reflection winter wheat in south Yorkshire © Andrew HartleyYellow rust seen in Reflection winter wheat in south Yorkshire © Andrew Hartley

An early fungicide spray to keep yellow rust in check may be needed within days as cool, damp conditions aid the spread of the disease in wheat crops.

A range of winter wheat varieties is showing signs of yellow rust at the trials site of agronomy group Frontier in Haywood, south Yorkshire.

The group’s national trials manager Andrew Hartley tells Farmers Weekly growers should consider deploying a pre-T0 to stay on top of the disease.

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

“We saw a bit of yellow rust in crops before Christmas, but the weather has changed now and temperatures are rising which is helping the spread of yellow rust.

“It likes the damp, cooler mornings we’ve been getting so we need to monitor it closely,” he says.

Mr Hartley adds the disease has been spotted in wheat varieties such as Reflection, Coridale and Santiago, which have yellow rust resistance scores of 3, 4 and 6 respectively, on a 1-9 scale where 9 is good resistance and 1 is very poor.

“At the trials site, I will probably be holding off until T0 if possible and then taking appropriate action.

“But in my view, growers might be pushed into using the pre-T0 if they are going in with a herbicide.”

He estimates the T0 fungicide spray timing is still roughly four weeks away in Yorkshire, and leaving the disease unchecked for this length of time risks letting the disease threat grow to levels that may prove harder to control.

Yellow rust across the UK

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