Grant sought to study wheat after bluegrass

Farm and Ranch February 26, 2009 When some northwest scientists checked fields of wheat last year that were planted following bluegrass they thought the problem farmers were seeing in those fields was rhizoctonia. But Tim Paulitz with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service at Pullman says that is not the problem scientists discovered. Paulitz: “But then when we started looking at the wheat it really wasn‘t rhizoctonia but there were some very interesting symptoms on the root which made us suspect nematodes. So we sent some samples down to western labs and they quantified and identified it. We have a potential nematode problem that hasn‘t been reported here but we are still at the point where we need to prove that that is the cause of the disease. So we have some interesting correlations but we would like to continue that research. In fact we are going to try and write a grant for some bluegrass money from the USDA to look at it this year.� Paulitz says that for years they have heard bluegrass growers talk about the difficulty of establishing a cereal crop after they take their bluegrass out. Paulitz: “And one of the questions is are there pathogens in common that are on the bluegrass, and they are sticking around, because you have so much root biomass on the bluegrass even a few years afterwards. So is it carrying something over to the wheat?� Paulitz says they need to have the grant application in by mid-March and may know the if the grant request has been approved about May. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.