Nathan Kleczewski, Extension Specialist – Plant Pathology; nkleczew@udel.edu
Growers are currently selecting wheat varieties for the 2016/17 season. There are many new wheat releases that yield very well and are not magnets for Fusarium head blight (FHB). This differs from years past, where varieties with moderate resistance to FHB were not the best yielders. Thus, growers using these varieties should be in a better position from a quality and yield perspective in a year favorable for FHB and not suffer yield penalties in seasons where FHB is not a concern.
According to our misted nursery data from this last season, the following varieties provided the best resistance to FHB and DON (listed according to DON levels in grain):
MBX 15-E-229 (a new release from Jose Costa’s breeding program at UMD that should be available this season)
FS 860
USG3197
FSX 871
SS 8530
The full dataset from the misted nursery can be found at the SCABSMART website: http://scabsmart.org/soft_red_winter_wheat_southern_region
Information on yield for these varieties can be found in the UD and UMD small grains variety trials: http://extension.udel.edu/ag/field-crop-resources/variety-trials-corn-hybrids-small-grains-soybeans/ and http://www.psla.umd.edu/extension/extension-project-pages/small-grains-maryland. You will notice that many of these varieties were near the top in yield for both states in 2015/16. Growers are encouraged to try some of these varieties out and see how they fit in their production systems.
We also are collecting baseline data on the FHB misted nursery this season. Please follow the link to take a brief survey on the nursery and how we can make it work better for you: https://ume.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_a3kV9o79EfgXp5j