Effects of fungicides on eyespot, caused predominantly by Oculimacula acuformis, and yield of early-drilled winter wheat

Abstract

The effectiveness against eyespot of nine fungicide treatments, applied at GS 31, was evaluated in early-drilled winter wheat crops. Visual assessments of stem-base diseases were made before fungicide application and at GS 39/55 and 69/70 of cultivars Consort, Savannah and Claire. Competitive PCR was used to quantify Oculimacula acuformis, O. yallundae, Microdochium nivale, Fusarium spp. and Rhizoctonia cerealis. PCR results indicated that O. acuformis was the predominant pathogen causing eyespot in all three crops. Treatments containing cyprodinil were most successful in reducing disease index and DNA of O. acuformis across cultivars. Treatments containing prochloraz were less consistent in eyespot control, significantly reducing the DNA of O. acuformis only in one instance at GS 70 of cultivar Claire. None of the fungicide treatments had any significant effect on brown foot rot or sharp eyespot, or DNA of M. nivale or R. cerealis. The potential for O. acuformis to cause yield loss was indicated by significant negative relationships between yield and eyespot incidence or DNA of O. acuformis at GS 69/70 for each wheat crop. Relationships between DNA of O. acuformis and eyespot incidence or severity at each growth stage were weak but generally improved at the later growth stages of the crops when disease symptoms were easily distinguished. Both molecular methods and visual assessment failed to predict eyespot incidence or pathogen DNA late in season using incidence or DNA of O. acuformis at GS 31. PCR assays, however, accurately identified the stem base pathogens at early growth stages of the crops when the symptoms of their respective diseases were not readily diagnosed.