Browsing by Author "Ohralahti, Kalle"

Barley is the most cultivated cereal in acreage in Finland. Barley has many plant diseases that cause yield reductions like net blotch, scald and mildew. The weather conditions and the disease resistance of the cultivar are affecting the appearance of the plant diseases. Plant diseases can be controlled by certified seed, seed treatment, crop rotation, fungicide treatment and by cultivating resistant cultivars. Net blotch causes reduction in green leaf area, thousand grain weight and thereby it reduces yield. The aim of this study was to study what is the yield response of barley to fungicide treatment when cultivars are either susceptible or tolerant to net blotch. The data of this study was based on The profitability of plant protection -trial series. The field trials were conducted at three locations in Finland during 2006–2009. The cultivars in the trials were divided based on their net blotch resistance to susceptible and tolerant groups. Fungicide treatment was made with Acanto Prima as a single treatment at the flag leaf stage. Tolerant and susceptible groups differed significantly in the amount of the net blotch. Fungicide treatment decreased the appearance of net blotch more in the susceptible group although the amount of net blotch was significantly less in the tolerant group. In the tolerant group the disease level was low even before the fungicide treatment. The conclusions of this study were, that tolerant cultivar group had better yield, but susceptible cultivar group had better yield response to the fungicide treatment. The yield response was in average 400 kg/ha in the susceptible and about 200 kg/ha in the resistant cultivar group. The yield response was due to the higher thousand grain weight. The yield security of disease resistant cultivar is better also in higher disease pressure. Resistant cultivar is one way to reduce the usage of plant protection products in IPM farming. Breeding of resistant cultivars is needed because the plant diseases are altering in their disease infection capability.