07/25/05 Stripe rust now, what about the future?

Idaho farmers north and south have reported stripe rust in their wheat fields this year. University of Idaho plant pathologist Juliette Windes says the soaking rains in May and June created conditions that were perfect for the stripe rust to take hold, especially with new races of the fungal disease continually forming. WINDES And the varieties that we thought would hold up under that high disease pressure did not so we had susceptibility where we thought and where we expected to find resistance. So it's been an unusual season." If weather conditions next spring are near normal that will lessen the chance of a return of stripe rust. Windes says the concern now is that farmers may carry the disease from spring to winter planting. WINDES "We try to emphasis at least a two week break between crops, not only for stripe rust but for other types of pathogens that could be carried from the spring into the winter and some of the virus problems and insect problems can be carried on that green break. So we like to see at least a two week break if at all possible." Obviously that's something that Windes and other researchers will be watching in the coming months. Growers, wheat breeders, others in the industry all admit that they're learning new things about a disease that had not been a problem for Idaho until now. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott