Producers should be watching for true loose smut in their barley.
Seed testing laboratories in Alberta say they’re detecting increased levels of the fungus in certified and common barley seed in 2008-09.
Sarah Foster, president of 20/20 Seed Labs Inc. in Nisku, Alta., said the potentially damaging disease is cause for concern.
“It’s much more widespread this year because we had the conditions (in the 2008 crop) that are conducive to developing and spreading it.”
Those conditions include cool wet weather in July, which prolongs the flowering period and allows more time for infection. Wet or windy weather then helps spread the spores.
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“We’re doing more testing than usual and the levels are significantly higher,” Foster said.
Twenty-five percent of the 2008-09 barley samples were infected at levels between trace and one percent. By comparison, in the previous year just 8.4 percent of samples were infected at the same levels.
True loose smut overwinters within the embryo of the seed. The fungus grows within the plant and produces loose, black-smutted heads.
Wind-borne, dust-like spores then infect healthy cereal flowers, where they penetrate the developing seed and infect the germ or embryo.
Foster described true loose smut as “a disease of economic consequence” for barley.
“It can take over and affect all the plants in a field very quickly,” she said.
Wind and rain can also spread it to neighbouring fields.
Losses average less than one percent but have been reported as high as 40 percent.
Kelly Turkington, a plant pathologist with Agriculture Canada, said yield loss is directly related to rate of infection.
The rule of thumb is that if one percent of the heads are infected, yield will be reduced by one percent.
He said the variety of barley grown is also key to infection rates.
“We’re seeing more and more varieties with good or very good resistance,” he said, adding growers should check the level of loose smut resistance when selecting varieties.
The Canada Seed Act grade table sets out allowable levels of true loose smut:
- For Canada Foundation, No. 1 is two percent and No. 2 is four percent.
- For Canada Registered, No. 1 is two percent and No. 2 is four percent.
- For Canada Certified, No. 1 is two percent and No. 2 is four percent.
- For Common, No. 1 is four percent and No. 2 is six percent.
Producers using common seed held from last year should be aware of the increased risk of true loose smut and consider seed tests and treatment.
