Barrie and diseases

[tom]

We have about 90% of this area's HRS wheat acres seeded to Barrie so it is tough to know how other varieties would have fared this year but we see an abnormally high incidence of white-tips, root rots, ergot and sooty heads. Is it the variety or the growing conditions? It wasn't a perfect year but we have had years in the past that favored disease development without so many problems

[gateland]

ac barrie wheat..black heads our earlier wheat yielded 50 to 60 bu an acre..the later wheat has some sort of 'disease' black... most time..totally empty heads ..crop yield appears to be in th 15 bu/acre area!!!what is it and why???

[mhartman]

ac barrie wheat..black heads Black but intact wheat heads usually is sooty mold which are decomposing fungi. This means the head was dead for some time (whiteheads) before starting to mold. In our area several pests can cause head death: take-all root rot, common root rot, various insects (wheat stem maggot, wheat stem sawfly, Hessian fly). Yank on the head -- if the whole plant pulls easily out of the soil it was probably take-all. Conversely if yanking on the head pulls the stem easlily out of the plant, then it was one of the insects. In contrast if the wheat head is black with dusty spores and missing parts (sometimes just a thin black stem left), then that was caused by smuts or bunts (strong fishy smell). These diseases will show up when there has been no seed treatment.

[tom]

We have about 90% of this area's HRS wheat acres seeded to Barrie so it is tough to know how other varieties would have fared this year but we see an abnormally high incidence of white-tips, root rots, ergot and sooty heads. Is it the variety or the growing conditions? It wasn't a perfect year but we have had years in the past that favored disease development without so many problems.

[kent]

Does any one know anything or have any AC Barrie spring wheat that is diseased, and has 25% of the head shriveled up to nothing. I as well as a lot of people in our area have it and are wondering if others do as well. My CDC Teal does not have this disease and looks much better up close.

[mhartman]

Crop specialists and farmers around the province have noticed tip die-back on wheat this year. We are having an active discussion about the cause. It does not appear to be a disease. We have had explanations from various experts (plant breeders, etc.) that point to a physical cause (frost or just very cold). AC Barrie seems to be hit harder than other varieties. This may be a trait of the variety that it responds more negatively to stress at heading. Also, earlier seeded wheat seems to be more affected probably because it was headed out more when the cold hit in mid-July.

[kent]

I don't think that in our area cold weather affected the wheat because we really never had any. The CDC Teal I planted was a few days earlier and it does not seem to be effected. Let me know if you find out more about what it is. One other problem we are seeing is I think called criple joint, where the joints in the wheat are poor and the crop grew sideways for a while but it does not seem to have effected our yield in Durum or HRS.

[kent]

We have also been having an active discussion on this subject -- Concensus among my counterparts in many parts of W. Canada in consultation with research people suggest it is physiological -- meaning it is related to growing conditions esp. at the time of flowering -- a cool night may be enough to trigger it -- It does appear to be more common with AC Barrie -- The plant breeder who developed AC Barrie says these whitecaps (or white toques)do not represent significant losses - it's probably more like the difference between an exceptional vs very good crop. Hope this helps.