Effect of Fungicidal Seed Treatments on Common Root Rot of Spring Wheat and Barley

Common root rot of hard red spring wheat, durum and barley concurs throughout the Spring regions of the Great Plains in the USA and Canada. Cochliobiolus Sativas is fungus that primarily produces root rot. Crop losses were determined to be 10% in barley and 5% in spring wheat with losses up to 30% in some fields in some years. Crop rotation and plantings of resistant cultivars up to this point were the major disease management tools. Farmers found growing non-cereal crops to be unprofitable. Also, due to many agronomic and quality factors, many farmers continued to plant susceptible crops.Protectant fungicide formulations have ben long applied to cereal seed to prevent seed decay, damping-off and seedling blight and some seed-bore diseases such as 'smuts'. Cochliobolus Salivas may cause a seed-borne infection known as 'black point'. Older treatments hadn't been successful in reducing the soil-borne phase of common root rot in adult crops. When controlled, crop yields did not increase. This article discusses a systematic treatment of fungicides on root rot control' of spring wheat and barley in North Dakota. The Triadimenol and Difenconazole treatments produced the most promising returns on reducing CRR and increasing crop yields