06/22/06 Time to check for stripe rust

Farm and Ranch June 22, 2006 Just last week at the Lind Field Day Washington State University spring wheat breeder Kim Kidwell said she hadn't seen much stripe rust yet in spring wheat. Kidwell: "We anticipate that it is really going to rock along the border. We just haven't seen much of it yet. So I expect to see some pretty hot pockets of stripe rust in the Pullman area, but to date we haven't seen much activity." But that was last week and now in a stripe rust alert update issued this Tuesday, Xianming Chen with USDA's Agricultural Research Service at Pullman, said it is time for growers to check their wheat fields for stripe rust. He says the disease is present in nurseries from Pendleton to Pullman in both winter and spring wheat and in commercial fields of both winter and spring wheat from Walla Walla to Colfax and in commercial spring wheat in the Palouse area. The ARS scientist says based on recent weather and future forecasts, he expects to see more rust development in the next two weeks. Chen says the forecasted temperatures from now on will allow the high-temperature adult-plant (HTAP) resistance to kick in. As the winter wheat crop ranges from heading to soft dough stages, he says the winter wheat crop should be ok without a fungicide spray, unless highly susceptible cultivars are grown. Chen says fields of spring wheat cultivars like Alpowa with adult resistance may not need fungicide spray this year, while fields of susceptible spring wheat cultivars should be checked for stripe rust and a fungicide application considered when stripe rust incidence or severity reach 5 to 10% to obtain the maximum protection with only one application. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.