After looking at some wheat fields this morning I believe most of Virginia’s wheat is between head emergence (Feekes 10.3) and flowering (10.5.1). Wheat disease pressure has been low but with rain chances increasing by the middle of next week that could change. I have seen some physiological damage caused by weather or hypersensitive responses (resistant responses) to disease but no real disease outbreaks. With the flowering stage here we typically begin spraying for wheat scab or Fusarium head blight (FHB). Right now risk of FHB is low. The risk of FHB can be monitored by the FHB Risk Assessment Tool provided by Penn State (http://www.wheatscab.psu.edu/). Fungicides such as Caramba, Prosaro, and Miravis Ace are recommended for FHB and DON control. Caramba and Prosaro will provide better control when applied at flowering while Miravis Ace has a wider window of activity from heading to 6 days after flowering. Remember to avoid using strobilurin (FRAC Group 11) fungicides after flag leaf as these fungicides can increase DON levels in grain. Fungicides applied for FHB will control the other major foliar wheat diseases. The 2019 Fungicide Efficacy for Wheat Diseases can be found at the following link. NCERA 184 Wheat fungicide table 2019_Final

If you have questions about wheat diseases you can reach me, David Langston, via e-mail or phone.

e-mail dblangston@vt.edu
office phone (757) 807-6536
cell phone (757) 870-8498