“No individual disease predominates and defines the disease control programme on barley like Septoria does in wheat.” That’s according to Tom Gartland, area manager for Syngenta Ireland.
“Variety, location, whether winter or spring sown, hybrid or conventional as well as environmental conditions all play a part in the disease control challenge on barley,” he said.
“Last year, for example, we saw early mildew infections on some of our winter barley trial sites and the spot form of net blotch predominated in our trial in Oak Park.
“We also had high rhynchosporium pressure in a spring barley trial in Cork and we had a mix of infections on other sites. The one constant across all the trials was ramularia, which occurred everywhere.”
Ramularia control challenge
The ramularia control challenge is uppermost in many growers’ minds as we work through the final season of chlorothalonil (BRAVO) use.
“BRAVO can be used on crops until May 20,” Tom said. “This is OK to hit the optimum ear emergence timing on winter barley.
“On most crops of spring barley, the T1 fungicide timing will be approximately the middle of May and while application of BRAVO at this time is earlier than usual, we have data that shows benefits of BRAVO at T1.”
Fungicides play a critical role in minimising brackling
Apart from ramularia, the choice of fungicide must cover the standard diseases rhynchorium, net blotch, mildew and indeed brown rust which is evident in some six-row barley varieties.
Brackling reduction is also a target, while not a disease as such, fungicides do play a critical role in minimising brackling.
On brackling, Tom said: “We have field experience and trials over a number of years that shows really strong brackling reduction with ELATUS™ ERA – as good as any fungicide in the market.”
It is early to predict what will happen on spring barley but the April-sown crops will likely have relatively big canopies and bigger canopies are generally more susceptible to disease. The current wisdom is that both traditional fungicide timings on spring barley are equally important.
The first at around GS30 is vital for tiller survival and eventual ear numbers. The second, as the ears are emerging, needs to support the crop through all the disease and brackling challenges to harvest.
ELATUS™ ERA fits the bill
“ELATUS™ ERA fits the bill at either the first or second timing on spring barley. It contains SOLATENOL™, a really strong barley SDHI as well as prothioconazole. This combination delivers a broad-spectrum disease control and the brackling reduction I mentioned,” explained Tom.
“ELATUS™ ERA plus BRAVO is a great choice for the final winter barley fungicide,” said Tom. “Not only is it proven on the traditional wet weather diseases, but it is also excellent on brown rust.” All of this contributes to the high yields seen with ELATUS™ ERA.
Finally, Tom says that “product choice is very important in any disease control programme, but the game is often won or lost in the way the fungicides are applied”.
“Our spray application trials show that fungicides including ELATUS™ ERA perform very well with air induction nozzles and that is our preference because they allow for more accurate application and increased spraying opportunities.”
For more information, please visit Syngenta Ireland by simply clicking here
