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Chesley, Ontario | The old saying in our neck of the woods is "wheat after wheat...no bread to eat". The disease issue we have is take-all, which builds up under wheat. The stand will look fantastic until the crop heads out next summer, then some of the plants will simply die. The entire plant bleaches out, and the heads are empty - the disease has literally taken all of the yield from these plants. The culprit is a fungus disease that builds up in the soil and infects the roots, so no-till or tilled makes no difference. As long as the plant is growing vegetatively, it will keep growing new roots. As soon as it shoots a head, the root growth stops and the fungus rots off the entire root system. You will also see a black discolouration at the base of the stem with take-all, but you have to strip back the old leaf sheaths. Yield loss is directly proportional to the number of plants affected, which can range from 2%-50%. The diseased plants are very evident as the wheat starts to ripen, as the full heads bend over and the take-all heads keep standing up straight and tall, since there are no kernels to pull them down. | |
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Wheat after wheat or oats?
