Wheat and malting barley are 10 days ahead of schedule on Jason Scott’s farm in Dorchester County, Md.
In fact, his malting barley has just started flowering, and this is the time when his management — and a little help from Mother Nature — will allow him to get a crop that will make, or break, his growing season.
“The wheat is looking great. It's ahead of schedule,” Scott says.
But it will soon be time for him to be on the lookout for fusarium head blight, the most serious disease of barley and wheat. Timing, wet weather, high humidity and higher temperatures increase the threat of fusarium head blight, or head scab. Severe cases can cause near 50% yield loss, and DON rejection or docking.
Flowering, which happens three to five days after wheat starts heading, is prime time for the fusarium fungus to develop. You also need at least 85% humidity and temperatures between 68 and 75 degrees F.
One of the best ways to assess your location’s risk for head scab is using the head scab risk assessment tool developed by researchers at Kansas State, Ohio State and Penn State. The tool uses weather and crop information to predict head scab risk up to six days out.
Currently, the risk for head scab across much of the region is low, but in areas where wheat and barley will soon be heading and the weather conditions are ideal, that risk will grow higher as the month goes on.
Barley and wheat are off to good starts in Delaware and Maryland. The most recent USDA Crop Progress Report shows more than half of barley acres in both states already heading, with 11% of Maryland winter wheat heading and 33% of Delaware winter wheat heading.
In a crop alert posted on the Fusarium Risk Tool website, Alyssa Collins, plant pathologist with Penn State Extension, said that fungicide applications should be applied when 50% of barley stems in a field are fully headed.
Caramba, Prosaro, Sphaerex and Miravis Ace give good control of most leaf and head diseases, in addition to suppressing scab, Collins said. Spray nozzles should be angled at 30 degrees down from horizontal — toward the grain heads — using forward- and backward-mounted nozzles, or nozzles with a two-directional spray, such as Twinjet nozzles.
Here are some more tips from a Penn State alert last year:
• Foliar fungicides should be applied at 50% heading or shortly thereafter. Once the crop starts heading, there is a five- to six-day window to apply a fungicide. Current labels state that the last stage of application is midflowering, and then there is a 30-day harvest restriction.