Cool, Wet Weather in Pacific Northwest Ideal for Stripe Rust

With some rain in the last week throughout the Pacific Northwest and more forecasted this week, wheat growers need to be monitoring their fields regularly looking for stripe rust.

Don Drader Syngenta agronomy service representative says that this cool, wet weather is ideal for stripe rust.

Drader: “So growers need to be aware and out there and protecting their crops as quickly as possible.”

Drader says that most of the reports he has heard about are centering on Southeastern corner of Washington, Northeastern Oregon and Idaho’s Camas Prairie.

Drader: “So we know that we have pockets scattered throughout those areas. With the prevailing winds coming up through the Columbia River Gorge it’s pushing the spores that are available or out there up through our wheat growing areas. We are concerned that growers are aware that the spores are out there. Universities have identified rust in the fields, so we need to be proactive and make sure that we have our fungicide prevention applications on.”

He says that most growers do an early season application just as protection from any disease and then if stripe rust is present in fields than apply a second application around flag leaf emergence.

Drader: “That flag leaf emergence is really going to give them the opportunity to maximize yields out there by protecting that flag leaf. We can’t make more than two applications due to resistance concerns so we want to make sure that we time our applications as close to the time that the rust could be coming into the field.”