The Farmers Mart Apr-May 2018 - Issue 56 | Page 29

ARABLE 29
• APR/MAY 2018
RAMULARIA CONTROL
IN BARLEY
WITH ramularia displaying in-
creased insensitivity to azole and
SDHI chemistries, plus confirmed
resistance to strobilurins, UK
growers must incorporate a mul-
ti-site fungicide into their T2 crop
protection protocols to ensure
adequate disease protection.
That is the advice from Andy
Bailey, Fungicide Technical Spe-
cialist for Adama, who advises that
ramularia mutations have result-
ed in multi-sites being the only
products to offer robust efficacy
against this key bar ley disease.
Ramularia leaf spot can cause
extensive damage to the upper
leaves of spring and winter barley
once crops have finished flow-
ering, resulting in reduced crop
quality and yield reductions, with
the AHDB citing yield losses of up
to 0.6 tonnes per hectare in spring
barley.
“UK growers need to be aware
that, due to disease mutations, the
effectiveness of SDHIs, azoles and
strobilurins at controlling ramu-
laria is severely impacted,” Andy
Bailey explains.
‘ Using multi-
site products is
therefore vital to
providing effective
protection
’
This leaves multi-site chem-
istries such as chlorothalonil
and folpet as the only remaining
options for the effective control of
the disease.
“UK populations of the disease
have already shown insensitiv-
ity and reduced susceptibility
to prothioconazole and SDHI
chemistries, and we have also
seen confirmed widespread
resistance (G143A mutation) to
strobilurins,” Andy continues.
“This is now impacting on field
performance with reports of
poor control from previously
robust programmes at locations
throughout the UK in 2017.”
Unlike other modes of action,
multi-site fungicides are not
affected by resistance and, as
such, remain effective against
air-borne ramularia. “Using
multi-site products is therefore
vital to providing effective pro-
tection.”
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