Bob Mulrooney, Extension Plant Pathologist; bobmul@udel.edu
Most foliage diseases are at low levels at this time, except where excessive amounts of fertilizer or manure have produced extremely lush growth that favors powdery mildew.
Scouting for powdery mildew is advised at this time. There have been scattered reports of low disease severity of leaf rust and stripe rust in several states such as LA and GA at this time. Weather has been wetter than normal recently in the South so we will have to wait and see what happens as the season progresses. We had another wheat sample test positive for soilborne wheat mosaic virus this week. As I stated last week, once you have identified it you can implement the only control strategy and that is to plant a resistant wheat variety.