Although it’s still too early to render a verdict, Folicur fungicide looks like a promising way to control fusarium head blight in prairie fields.
Manitoba Agriculture tested Folicur and three other fungicides last year to gauge how well they control fusarium and leaf diseases in wheat.
Field-scale trials at Carman, Man., looked at the effect of the fungicides on yields.
Plots with Folicur showed an average yield improvement of nine bushels per acre, the highest among the fungicides tested.
That translated into a $30 return for a $17 investment to buy and apply the chemical, said provincial plant pathologist Gary Platford.
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“We were seeing about a 50 percent reduction in the level of fusarium and DON,” he said, describing the effects of Folicur.
Fusarium can release a toxin called deoxynivalenol, commonly known as DON.
Among fungicides used, it was found that Folicur and Bravo were the two that helped reduce kernel damage, and which had the greatest effect on DON. Tilt and Dithane were also included in the study.
Application method
Bravo, Dithane and Folicur were applied at early flowering. Tilt was applied at the flag leaf stage.
Platford cautioned against reading too much into the 1999 results.
Last year was the first time emergency use registration was granted for the use of Folicur in Manitoba. More work is needed, he said, to learn if the benefits of Folicur are consistent.
He also noted the other fungicides have a place in helping control plant diseases.
Dithane, for example, was not as effective against fusarium but performed well against leaf diseases.
Bayer, the manufacturer of Folicur, is pressing for full registration this year only for wheat crops.
“There’s a lot of interest (from growers),” said Darrell Enns, a territory manager for Bayer.
“There’s been as much interest in Folicur as anything else.”
A decision about granting emergency or full registration of Folicur has not been made for the 2000 crop in Manitoba.
Meanwhile, Platford said there also are other measures available to farmers concerned about fusarium.
He advised them to look for wheat varieties that are more resistant to the disease, such as AC Cora and AC Barrie.
Crop rotations remain important. Growers battling with fusarium should avoid planting wheat on wheat or wheat on barley.
“One year is good, two is better,” Platford said about the amount of time growers should allow between planting wheat or barley on the same field.
He also advised staggering plantings of those crops so they are not all vulnerable to fusarium at the same time.
Fusarium costs Manitoba growers about $45 million a year in lost yields and damaged cereal grains.
Major problem
Agriculture Canada found fusarium in 95 percent of wheat fields surveyed last year. All of the barley fields surveyed were infected, said Brent McCallum, a cereal pathologist for the department’s cereal research centre in Winnipeg.
Among the wheat fields most severely affected were those in western Manitoba, where wet, humid conditions favored the disease.
On average, fusarium was less prevalent in Manitoba than it had been the previous year. The decline was more evident in wheat than in barley.
