Nathan Kleczewski, Extension Specialist – Plant Pathology; nkleczew@udel.edu
Wheat is now past flower and we are in the home stretch. With a few exceptions, this has been a very light disease year. Focus now is on grain heads. There are several disease issues that can impact wheat heads such as Stagonospora glume blotch, viruses, bacterial issues, and Fusarium head blight. We (the NCERA-184 wheat plant pathology group) have produced a new guide for identifying diseases of small grains heads. These are great booklets to keep in trucks, and valuable for growers, scouts, and other professionals. You can obtain a copy at your local county extension office or by contacting myself or your county agricultural agent.
As far as head scab, symptoms of bleaching are most evident 2-3 weeks after flowering. That means you may be able to see symptoms in the next week or so if infection occurred. You should make sure to check your fields at this time and examine them for head bleaching and tombstones. If you come across a significant amount of bleached heads in a field the amount of tombstones, and therefore vomitoxin contamination, can be reduced by turning up the combine fan to help remove these kernels from healthy kernels.