Determination of Suitable Growth Stage for Application of Fungicide against Stripe Rust in Wheat

Abstract

Wheat is the third most important cereal grain in the world. Stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) of wheat is severely detrimental disease. Improvement of crop through incorporation of resistance is practiced enormously. However, a wheat variety that has been recommended for cultivation may not remain resistant for long because of fluctuating nature of pathogen. Therefore, an alternative management strategy to control diseases is application of suitable fungicide at appropriate growth stage. For this, an experiment was conducted to investigate proper growth stage for application of fungicide to control stripe rust in wheat. Sowings at various dates was done to attain various growth stages at once. Two genotypes 16C038 and cv. Ihsan 2016 were selected for study. Difenoconazole 25% was treated @ 0.3 ml/L of water using Knapsack sprayer. Data regarding yield and yield parameters were recorded and analyzed. Significant difference was observed between treated and untreated plots at various growth stages when treated in susceptible genotype (Ihsan, 2016) and contrary in case of resistant genotype (16C038). As a result, 16C038 showed resistant response whereas Ihsan2016 highly susceptible response. It was revealed that application of fungicide is rational in situation when cultivated crop is prone to disease and is uneconomical otherwise. However, fungicidal spray at heading stage did not boost yield significantly and ineffective from economic point of view