| Arable
Sclerotinia Outlook helps manage disease
Dr. Caroline Young
Adding another years dataset to
make it even more accurate, the
popular BASF/ADAS Sclerotinia
Monitoring Service starts soon and
the Sclerotinia Outlook section offers
more detailed information to help
advisors and farmers see disease risk
in their local area.
s a reminder the Sclerotinia
monitoring information is
generated from seven sites Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire,
Herefordshire, Lincolnshire,
Kent, Devon and Scotland. The
data is gathered from past years and can be
used to generate a local risk assessment,"
ADAS plant pathologist Dr. Caroline Young
says.
She explains that germination assessments
are made each week for a 12 week period,
running into June, with results updated every
Friday or Monday on the BASF rape website
www.totaloilseedcare.co.uk. “Last year we
made the weekly reports more precise, so that
farmers and advisors could quickly understand
of their local risk. Each monitoring site is further
supported by petal tests at first flower, early
flower and mid-flower, which will help establish
disease pressure from air-borne spores,” she
says.
Caroline advises growers to check their
Sclerotinia risk for their individual postcodes by
using the Sclerotinia Outlook service on the
www.totaloilseedcare.co.uk website and use
this information to make decisions on
treatments on forward crops with good plant
stands. Sclerotinia Outlook will indicate disease
risk at postcode level, using a colour-coded
map of the UK, with green being low risk and
red being high risk. Publication of the latest
bulletin is also posted on Twitter;
@totaloilseeds.
Dr. Caroline Young reminds growers that a
soil temperature of 8-10°C is needed for its over
wintering bodies sclerotia to germinate and
release airborne spores. “Right now soil
temperatures are relatively cool below 9 to 10
°C so germination has not started in most
places. But it has already started in one
location in Devon. As soon as soil temperatures
warm up, germination and spore release is
bound to occur where soils are damp. The
crops aren’t in flower yet but some in the south
A
are not far off. So germination could coincide
with early flower for many crops this year, which
would result in a high infection risk, if there are
a couple of warm days and nights at that time.
Rape crops are at highest risk from Sclerotinia
when sclerotial germination synchronises with
early flowering. Spores infect the plant when
minimum temperatures are above 7°C and
there are long periods of high humidity.
Fungicide treatments need to be applied before
infection and this is where the Outlook service
is most useful. By using the Outlook service, it
can help to prioritise spraying demands.”
Sclerotinia is an important disease of oilseed
rape, causing yield losses of 30 to 50% in
severely affected crops, warns BASF Business
Development Manager Clare Tucker. “Effective
fungicide treatments such as Pictor (boscalid
and dimoxystrobin) will give excellent
Sclerotinia control, around 85% in trials, which
then will result in high yield responses.”
“Crops at risk need protection and with most
fungicides being mainly protectant, it is
important to know when disease is likely to
come into the crop. Knowing this information
puts you in a better place to time fungicide
applications effectively, in advance of disease
and before any significant petal fall. BASF
advise growers to apply Pictor early to midflower fungicide before petal fall. Filan
(boscalid) will also give outstanding results but
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