Disease Watch Planning for Fusarium in 2018 Plan for the worst, hope for the best. 10 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta IT will be easy for growers to let their guard down this year when it comes to managing for Fusarium head blight (FHB). The bone-dry summer in 2017 meant there was little issue with FHB or any other disease. However, going into the 2018 season, growers need to stay vigilant against the yield- and quality-robbing cereal disease. “There’s little one can do at this point in time to eliminate the risk for Fusarium if the pathogen is present,” says Brian Beres, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge. “We know the inoculum is there, and while you can’t control the amount of pathogen in the soil this year, nor can you predict the weather, you can control your agronomics and give your crop a fighting chance against the disease.” Fusarium graminearum is the most common cause of FHB in Alberta, and is particularly well established in the southern areas of the province. It affects yield and grade as it produces the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), which makes the grain a poor grade for the feed, malting milling and biofuels industries. High humidity and warm weather in late June and July favour spore development on infected residue, and those spores can spread through the wind or through moisture splashed onto the plant. “After what appears to have been a year of low Fusarium head blight damage, we hope it is not out of sight, out of mind,” says Michael Harding, research scientist, plant pathology with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry’s Crop Diversification Centre South in Brooks. “The inoculum overwinters in the soil and on residue, and if we have a wetter season this summer, it could still be a very bad year for FHB.” Going into the growing season, the first thing growers can do to manage for Fusarium is carefully choose their variety based on their local risk. While no cereal varieties are truly resistant to Fusarium, some tolerate the disease better than others. Durum varieties can be the most difficult to choose as they are all susceptible to moderately susceptible to the disease. Once a variety is chosen, Beres says uniformity is the main theme to allow a crop to battle FHB. A uniform crop will flower at the same time with a shortened flowering duration, ideally before Fusarium spores begin invading the crop. To achieve uniformity, growers need to turn up their seeding rate and then seed early. Photo courtesy AAF Fusarium head blight.