Late blight near Tri-Cities; stripe rust in commercial spring wheat

Washington Ag Today July 3, 2009 The Washington Late Blight Information Line reports that late blight was recently found in a field of Ranger potatoes southeast of Kennewick. Dennis Johnson with Washington State University says potato fields near the Tri-Cities should be monitored several times a week for late blight. Also;

Johnson: “Fields with late blight and fields adjacent to fields with late blight, should be on a seven-day fungicide application schedule.”

Johnson says the weather is expected to be dry in the near future and they are not recommending late blight fungicides outside of the Tri-Cities area.

USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist Xianming Chen reported Thursday that stripe rust has been found in commercial fields of spring wheat in the Dayton area and the Palouse region. Chen says although rust incidences were generally low rust pustules were actively producing spores and conditions will be favorable for disease development in the next two weeks.

Farmers who grow susceptible varieties of spring wheat are urged to check their fields and consider a fungicide application if there is a two to five percent incidence or severity of stripe rust. Chen says the rust was seen in fields of Hank or Nick. He says spring wheat cultivars Hank, Nick, WPB 926, Lolo, Tara 2002, Jefferson and Idaho 377s used to be highly resistant but have become susceptible in recent years. In addition Chen says Scarlet, Eden, Macon and Zak are susceptible.

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.