Small Grain Disease Update

Bob Mulrooney, Extension Plant Pathologist; bobmul@udel.edu

After checking the state small grain variety trial at the REC near Georgetown I can report that there were several cultivars that had low levels of stripe rust and several with low levels of leaf rust. The recent wet weather may cause some localized outbreaks of stripe rust but it should be too late to cause much yield loss. All these infected areas were past flowering, mostly milk to soft dough stage, so it is too late for fungicide applications. There were low levels of speckled leaf blotch caused by Septoria tritici and low levels of tan spot as well as Stagnospora leaf and glume blotch. No head infections were seen last Friday. These too may increase with the wet weather early in the week.