Take-all hits crops hard
Take-all hits crops hard
TAKE-ALL has taken an unheard of toll on second wheat and barley this year, says ARCs Mike Carver.
In one Warks trial yield crashed from 11.7t/ha for first wheat, averaged across 29 varieties, to 4.83t/ha for second wheat. "Thats a 59% drop, and it was virtually all attributable to take-all," says Dr Carver.
While that result is an extreme, it highlights how hard the disease hit cereal yields in some parts of the country this year, he stresses.
Take-all targeted seed treatments performed well under such pressure and growers should consider deploying Latitude (silthiofam) on barley as well as wheat in take-all risk situations this autumn, he suggests.
"You are growing barley in exactly the slot where you dont want to grow wheat because of the take-all risk, so it is only logical to protect the barley." *